Champions of Aboriginal Employment awards salute Ewatski, ACC for officer program
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/04/2018 (2759 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Retirement didn’t stick for Jack Ewatski, with the longtime police officer and past Winnipeg Police Service chief unwilling to rest on his laurels.
After initially retiring in 2007, he took a two-year job serving as deputy police commissioner of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service from 2010 to 2012.
The following year, he joined forces with Assiniboine Community College in Brandon to develop educational programming that was tailored to meet the needs of Indigenous students.
Most recently, these efforts led to the three-week First Nations Safety Officer program’s development, which has seen 219 students graduate as of Feb. 9, of whom 208 returned to their First Nations communities to serve as First Nations Safety Officers.
Ewatski joined Assiniboine in receiving Champions of Aboriginal Employment awards during a luncheon hosted by the Westman chapter of the Interprovincial Association on Native Employment at the Victoria Inn Hotel and Convention Centre on Wednesday.
Following the awards ceremony, Ewatski said that his greatest sense of pride comes not from the award, but from seeing students of the program find success in their professional lives.
He said that during a recent trip to Norway House to celebrate the opening of a checkpoint to block drugs and liquor from entering the community, he met up with 17 people involved in the effort, all of him graduates of the program he played a central role in developing.
Ewatski said his decades-long career in policing informed him of gaps in service for Indigenous people, not only in effective policing services, but also opportunities for them to become actively involved in public safety matters.
He said his linking up with Assiniboine was a “perfect fit” post-retirement — or as it has more accurately proven, semi-retirement.
“I think you get to a point in your life where it’s time to give back,” he said.
The college’s director of human resources, Julie Muller, said the First Nations Safety Officer program has joined other efforts in meeting calls to action outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
“I think we’ll be seeing a lot more in the future as we develop stronger relationships and contracts with these communities,” she said, adding that it’s all in keeping with the college’s Indigenization Strategy.
In addition to celebrating Ewatski and Assiniboine’s accomplishments, the awards ceremony on Wednesday also thanked local business leaders for their contributions toward employing Indigenous people.
The future of the Indigenous employment pool was also celebrated through the awarding of $750 bursaries to students Lauren Jansen Van Rensberg and Melinda Patterson.
Both are seeking careers with the intention of helping others, with Rensberg pursuing criminal justice and Patterson studying psychiatric nursing.
“I just feel that it’s my calling, and where I have to go,” Rensberg said, adding that she wants to contribute toward a greater representation of Indigenous women in the criminal justice field.
Patterson said psychiatric nursing is her means of giving back, as she benefited from a positive home environment that gave her a leg up that not everyone receives.
» tclarke@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB
Award recipients
The following people and organizations were recognized during the Champions of Aboriginal Employment awards, which were held Wednesday at the Victoria Inn Hotel and Convention Centre and hosted by the Westman chapter of the Interprovincial Association on Native Employment:
• Melinda Patterson and Lauren Jansen Van Rensberg both received $750 bursaries to further their educations.
• Jack Ewatski and Assiniboine Community College shared in receiving this year’s Champions of Aboriginal Employment award, for their shared efforts to develop policing-based Indigenous educational programming at the college.
• Morguard/Shoppers Mall and Progressive Sanitation received awards for their roles in supporting Indigenous people in the workforce.
• Christopher Light with Turtle Mountain Resort received entrepreneurial award.
» The Brandon Sun