Hello again everyone, and a happy summer to you all! Hopefully this recent warm spell is a sign of things to come.
This month I have decided not to issue any police-related advice as I usually do, not because I don’t care, but for two reasons. Firstly I want to tell you about my recent trip to Toronto, and secondly because I have just returned from that trip and I am a little unprepared in terms of any police content! For those of you that attended the ARGRA rodeo, I send my apologies for missing you as the conference dates coincided with the rodeo dates. I trust that you all had fun.
I was fortunate enough to attend the 2014 LGBT Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice Conference, put on by the Toronto Police Service, along with my friend and colleague Constable Tad Milmine. There were so many fabulous workshops that it was nearly impossible to decide which to attend, but in keeping with my internal work in setting up safe spaces for LGBT staff, I concentrated on topics that were relevant to that. I met some incredible people, like Greg Miraglia who is the author of "Coming Out From Behind The Badge", and Jovan Kojicic, who is the human rights advisor to the Prime Minister of Montenegro. I also had the pleasure of meeting my counterpart in Toronto, Constable Danielle Bottineau, and some of her colleagues who were responsible for setting up their Internal Support Network for LGBT staff back in 2008. It was very eye-opening and made me realize that although we are doing some fantastic things here in Calgary we still have lots of work ahead of us.
At the end of the conference there was a panel discussion involving executive officers including Laurie Hayman, the Chief of Police at Strathroy-Caradoc, a municipality in Ontario. It was such an emotional event, listening to high-ranking officers speaking about their sexuality and their police careers. I can assure you that there are so many incredible people that are working so hard in law enforcement for members of the LGBT community; it was very gratifying to be a part of it all.
The weekend ended with our participation in the World Pride Parade. WOW, what an amazing event, an opportunity to network with some celebrities, and the chance to show the Calgary Police Service colours in the parade. I met with Justin Trudeau and Rick Mercer, along with Brian Burke, Mark Giordano and Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames, as well as other sporting celebrities from Toronto-based sports teams. Being part of the "You Can Play" entry, it was very encouraging to see so many allies to the community, and the experience just reinforced my plan to make the parade this year in Calgary the best attended by Calgary Police Service members.
For those of you that participated in Stampede, I hope you were all sensible and to looked after each other, but still enjoyed yourselves!
As always, take care of each other and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns, and I look forward to connecting with you again next month.
