Bonnie Reilly Schmidt - Silenced: the untold story of the fight for equality in the RCMP

Copyright 2015 Bonnie Reilly Schmidt

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Text and cover design by Vici Johnstone

EPUB by Kathleen Fraser

Cover photo courtesy Sheldon Boles

Caitlin Press Inc. acknowledges financial support from the Government of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishers Tax Credit.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Reilly Schmidt, Bonnie, 1955-, author

Silenced : the untold story of the fight for equality in the

RCMP / Bonnie Reilly Schmidt.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-927575-89-5 (paperback)

1. PolicewomenCanadaHistory. 2. EqualityCanadaHistory.

3. Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceHistory. I. Title.

HV8023.R44 2015 363.2082 C2015-903565-1

To the women of

Troop 17 (1974/75).

*

And to Candace Smith,

for the courage to come back.

*

I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to many people who believed that the history of women in the RCMP was a story that needed to be told. First and foremost, I am indebted to the women and men who agreed to be interviewed for this research. Not only were they generous with their time but they were extremely helpful in sharing their memories, photographs, letters, histories, books, and news clippings with me. I especially wish to acknowledge the women of the RCMP who consented to be interviewed, many of whom were still working in the police force at the time. All of them took a chance on an unknown historian whom they trusted with their stories and their anonymity. I have the utmost respect for them as women and as police officers. Without them, the personal side of the history of female Mounties would remain untold.

Reliving painful memories with a stranger was sometimes difficult, especially for those women who were struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. Thank you seems an inadequate expression of gratitude, but it is my hope that their stories will contribute to a more open dialogue about mental illness in the RCMP and across the first responder community in Canada.

Many others in the RCMP, serving and retired, deserve a special note of thanks. Commissioner Beverley Busson offered her support during the early stages of this project and graciously granted me permission to interview members of the RCMP across Canada in 2007. I could not have asked for a better cheerleader. In addition, Karen Adams, Sheldon Boles, Jane Hall, Ric Hall, Cheryl Joyce, Don Klancher, Fraser MacRae, Margaret Shorter, Fred Stark, and Bev Zaparozan were instrumental in providing historical information, photographs, studies, and documents, or in connecting me with their colleagues. I would also like to acknowledge the help I received from the Vancouver division of the RCMP Veterans Womens Auxiliary, particularly Dorothy Martinson, who connected me with other Unpaid Mounties. Special thanks are also due to my Special O girlfriendsstill friends after all these years.

A number of people outside of the RCMP made important contributions. I would especially like to thank Doris Toole, not only for her time and photographs, but for filling in the many details that were missing from the history of the first troop of female Mounties to enter the training academy in 1974. Shannon Cunningham at the RCMPs Historical Collections Unit in Regina was extremely helpful. Shannon spent the better part of a workday with me, explaining the significance of the womens uniform and allowing me to photograph a number of items from their collection. Sandy Ramos, the former historian for the RCMP in Ottawa, offered invaluable insights into the importance of the history of the police force at home and abroad. Thanks are also due to the librarians at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa as well as at Simon Fraser University.