Maskwacis’ top Mountie has long history with First Nations
A Métis man who has been a police officer in Indigenous communities from Alberta to the Arctic is the new leader at the Maskwacis RCMP detachment. Staff Sgt. James McLaren took over as officer in charge of the 42-member detachment on Monday.
McLaren has worked in Indigenous communities across Western Canada, including the Siksika Nation in southern Alberta and Inuit communities in Nunavut. He said he hopes to build on relationships between police and the four nations in Maskwacis.
“The RCMP is not an entity unto itself,” said McLaren, who will soon be promoted to inspector. “We have to be part of the community. We need to be seen as part of the community by the community — as their police, as their RCMP, not the RCMP.”
Montana First Nation, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Samson Cree Nation and Louis Bull First Nation leaders were consulted during the selection process, RCMP said in a news release. The previous officer in charge of the Maskwacis detachment, Insp. Earl Nini, had been in command since 2015.
Around 15,000 people live in the community formerly known as Hobbema, located 80 km south of Edmonton. The area has struggled with gangs and drive-by shootings. In 2013, RCMP estimated there were five major gangs with between 150 and 180 active members.
McLaren, who is Métis, grew up in Edmonton and remembers summers with his grandmother at the Lac St. Anne Pilgrimage, an Indigenous spiritual gathering held west of the city.
After training, he served at the Enoch detachment, where he worked with the local Cree nation and attended the same event, this time in uniform. He has since moved in his job 10 times in 24 years. Most recently, he served as detachment commander in Kitimat, B.C., and previously deployed with the United Nations mission to Kosovo as a civilian police adviser.
When McLaren was based in Nunavut, he was responsible for staffing First Nations policing positions in detachments across Western Canada. His roles in First Nations communities have been “most rewarding of the police work I’ve done in my career ... I just fell in love with the work.”
In the coming weeks, he said he would meet with chiefs and councils from the four communities to identify policing priorities.
The detachment has three community policing positions typically staffed by Indigenous members, but McLaren said it’s important for all officers to be involved in the community and see people who “never call the police ... never got a speeding ticket.”
“(For) one, we’re building our relationship with the community,” he said. “And second, it’s good for the members. I call it refilling the soul. We can’t (only) deal with the negative and the bad, the high-risk, the people in crisis ... that wears on everybody.”
McLaren takes over at a time when some in Maskwacis are calling for a First Nations police force that would work with RCMP. An Alberta Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General spokesman said Minister Kathleen Ganley met with representatives from the community in the summer and that the proposal is being reviewed.