Riverdale gets a taste of justice

Two police officers, an RCMP officer, a lawyer, a notary and a bailiff all stormed into a Grade 9 classroom at Riverdale High School in Pierrefonds/Roxboro last Thursday afternoon, offering students a perspective on their careers during a teleconference linked to other schools across Quebec.

"(My class was) interested, the questions were appropriate, they were well-behaved," said Grade 9 teacher Brent Callahan, adding he was delighted the presentations went over smoothly.

The interest among children could clearly be seen as each of the speakers was bombarded with questions after their small speeches. "When the RCMP was started in 1873, we rode horses back then," explained officer Caroline Letang, when asked why the word mounted was part of the federal police agency's acronym.

She went on at length about the different career options available to RCMP officers. "We don't start off by being in the CSI," she said.

Questions of racial tension were raised when two local police officers from Station 3, Dan Maheu and Khobee Gibson, began speaking to students. A Black man himself, Gibson said the perception that Montreal police have problems with ethnic minorities is a misguided one. "My father, 30 years ago, wanted to work for the SQ," said Gibson, adding it was not possible at the time. However, he did not let that get him down when it came to his own career choice. "I didn't feel like a victim, and I wanted to change things," he said.

"Want to make a change? Work for it. Work for it and make the change yourself," he added.

The students were also exposed to four different career possibilities for law school graduates: legal assistants, crown prosecutors, notaries and family lawyers.

Prosecutor Caroline Dulong explained to the students that judges will sometimes determine what a guilty party's sentence should be based on a compromise between the defence attorney and the prosecutor's suggestions. Prosecutors will sometimes talk to defence attorneys to negotiate what the sentence of someone found guilty should be, she added. "The judges don't have to follow that common suggestion," she added.

The presentation was sponsored by Éducaloi, a federally and provincially funded non-profit organization that seeks to promote law and justice-oriented careers to youths.

"This is the first time that they're doing with an English school board," said Nancy Battet, community and partnership liaison to the Lester B. Pearson school board. She added the students who participated to the conference were in the Personal Orientation Program, a new, career-oriented elective class which is only in its second academic year.

Callahan said he would be organizing a career day on March 27.