RCMP detachment called 'training center'

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The RCMP detachment in Cardston was dismissed as a training center for recruits in 1980 shortly after a Blood blockade of its businesses, an RCMP officer told a public inquiry this week.

Commanding officer Peter Wright said the decision followed a meeting in which Blood representatives and RCMP K-Division officials agreed constables stationed in Cardston were too inexperienced. Rookie constables were often sent there for six-months training.

The Blood blockade drew attention to their land claim. The band blocked access to Cardston, 255km south of Calgary, and to some businesses on highway 5, south of the blood reserve boundary.

Wright also testified a detachment on the reserve was a bad idea. The Blood's six-man police force caused allot of problems for the RCMP detachment in 1978. The tribal police force often dropped off intoxicated people at the RCMP holding cells without proper authority.

If the RCMP are to be replaced on reservations by Native police, those officers must be disciplined and well-trained if they are to do a proper job, Wright said.

The officer also blamed poor relations between the Blood and the RCMP on the Reserve's former director of protective services, Wilton Good Striker.

Good Striker told the Cardston detachment in 1976 that RCMP visits to the community weren't welcome, said Wright, who testified at an inquiry in Lethbridge examining strained relations between the Blood and RCMP. The inquiry resumed January 8th after a month-long Christmas break.