MATTERS OF DEGREE at RCMP Depot, Regina, Saskatchewan

Other States of Mind, No. 19

One late summer’s day I arrived at Depot, the RCMP training academy in Regina, the capital city of the province of Saskatchewan. It is an impressive facility and it moulds police cadets who will serve in one of the finest police forces in the world. A cadet begins the day at six in the morning, finishes formal training at half past four, and participates in related duties in the evening. This goes on relentlessly for the first half year.

Graduation of cadets, RCMP Depot, Regina, Saskatchewan

I arrived by car on one of those spell-binding prairie afternoons that stretch away beyond the horizon, having made my way east from Alberta through the Cypress Hills, Swift Current, and Moose Jaw. I didn’t arrive as a cadet. I arrived as the registrar of Alberta’s Athabasca University, to bestow degrees on behalf of the University to serving members of the Force who had fulfilled the requirements of their academic degree programmes.

Cypress Hills (Image courtesy hikebiketravel.com)

A convocation ceremony in Depot, replete with heritage, commitment to country, a lot of red serge, and panoply that took a back seat to none, is not an event one forgets. The backyard celebrations at the officers’ homes later on also had their memorable moments; however, for reasons of irrigation are more difficult to recall as clearly.

I had the pleasure of repeating this convocation ceremony several years in a row.