Pulling Together in West Vancouver

Over the past several years, the West Vancouver Police Department has intentionally deepened its relationship with local Squamish and Tsleil-waututh Nations with the help of a 29-foot canoe named Ch’ich’iyúy. As part of Pulling Together, an annual voyage created to build cultural bridges that lead to more culturally sensitive and responsive policing, police officers and First Nations youth spend ten days every summer paddling Ch’ich’iyúy as a team. The West Vancouver Community Foundation supported the purchase of the canoe and the 2017 voyage. “In order to make West Vancouver safe today and safer tomorrow,” says WVPD Constable Jeff Wood, “we must harness the strength in diversity of our community.”