Winners >Constable Willie Ducharme and Constable Rick Kosowan

The Winners

Constables Willie Ducharme and Rick Kosowan
Winnipeg Police Service

The first recipients of a national award from the federal Minister of Justice are two veteran members of the Winnipeg Police Service, who received the Award for their innovative and dedicated work with youth. The first ever Minister of Justice National Youth Justice Policing Award was presented to Constables Ducharme and Kosowan at the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in St John, New Brunswick, on August 27, 2000.

The Indian and Metis Friendship Centre of Winnipeg nominated Constables Willie Ducharme and Rick Kosowan for the Award. The nomination was also supported by other community leaders in Winnipeg's North End, an area with a high population of Aboriginal people, which faces issues such as low incomes, many single parent families and a high incidence of alcohol and drug abuse. The area is also known for its gangs and prostitution. According to one supporter, the North End has a Reputation of having "the roughest and toughest streets in Winnipeg."

As part of the Winnipeg Police Service's commitment to community-based policing, the two officers were posted to this challenging area in 1996. Although they had both joined the department twenty years earlier and had taken recruitment training together, this was the first time they had served together. It turned out they made a great team.

Willie was born and raised in rural Manitoba and is of Metis ancestry. Rick's ancestry is Ukrainian; he was born and raised in the same North End he was now policing. Both had moved away from their roots but both came to the job with an interest in traditional Aboriginal culture and in working to earn the trust of the young people as well as elders and other community leaders.

One of the first people they came into contact with was an Ojibway elder named Art Shofley. Elder Shofley taught them about the role of the peacekeeper/warrior in traditional Aboriginal society, a role similar to their own. He encouraged them to re-create the tradition of the Spring Feast as a way of showing respect for traditional culture and to earn the trust of the local community. He estimated they could attract up to 600 people and he offered to help by organizing the ceremonial aspects of the event.

Willie and Rick decided to do it, but they didn't have a budget and they would have to use their own creativity to make it happen. They contacted the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre (the organization that eventually nominated them for the Minister's Award) where they secured an offer of a place to hold the feast. They then turned to the private sector and sought donations of food and drink. Their persuasive skills worked and they came up with donated supplies for 600 people. The big day eventually came with Willie and Rick as hosts, cooks and cleaner uppers. The event was an unqualified success. It provided them with an innovative introduction to the community and it has become an annual event with the two officers still at its centre.

Rick and Willie also began to visit schools in the area. Their first visits were low-key—just "walk-throughs" to create a physical presence. In time students and teachers began to make contact and to discuss issues and problems, such as bullying, fights, thefts and so on. Word of their interest in young people and their desire to help began to spread. More and more, the two became involved in problems outside the school as well as in. Sometimes parents would make contact and invite their help with a particular problem. On duty or not, they would respond.

A school principal in the area praised their help in crime prevention, noting they were "visible, approachable, and available to students who needed advice on how to deal with an issue."

The more they became involved in the lives of young people in the community, the more the recognized the value of Restorative Justice and the need to find solutions to youth behavioural problems by working along with, but outside, the court system.

Rick and Willie took the training and became Community Justice Forum facilitators. They looked for opportunities to use the justice forum approach to deal with young people who had committed some minor offence, but for whom criminal charges and court didn't appear to be the best solution. They teamed up with the Ganootamage Aboriginal Justice System, whose objective of community-based justice for young people, they shared.

In the last few years, a number of young people in trouble with the law have participated in Community Justice Forums run by these two officers. So far the experience has been positive. Offences have been dealt with through meaningful consequences and the young people have been rehabilitated and reintegrated back into the community. Rick and Willie are now training others to be facilitators and have been invited as speakers for conferences on the topic.

Willie and Rick have been involved in many other activities as well—an Aboriginal employment program, work with gang members and other youth at the Winnipeg Native Alliance, travel to northern communities to prepare youth for the transition to urban life, a police summer student/recruitment program, and Aboriginal teachings and ceremonies for recruits and members of the Winnipeg Police Service.

They have been honoured by the Aboriginal Community with Aboriginal Spirit names and with Honour Dances for their efforts.

The success of their efforts clearly underlines the value of the objectives set out in the federal government's Youth Justice Renewal Initiative. It is an approach based on innovation, prevention, meaningful consequences, rehabilitation and reintegration. It builds a sense of trust and partnership within the community and it seeks community-based solutions to the problems of youth crime.

As the winners of the first ever Minister of Justice National Youth Justice Policing Award Cst. Willie Ducharme and Cst. Rick Kosowin have set a high standard for future nominees. They are part of a new tradition in policing—one that we can all be proud of.

Contact persons: Rick Kosowan
204-932-4999

Willard Ducharme
204-931-8988

Betty Mousseau and John Morrisseau
Indian and Metis Friendship Centre of Winnipeg
204-586-8441