‘It’s about helping where you can’: Retired Sault cop still has plenty of active duties

The Sault’s Jane Martynuck continues to successfully combine serious work with a friendly, humorous disposition.

Martynuck, after a 33-year career as a Sault Ste. Marie Police Service officer — retiring from the service with the rank of Staff Sergeant in 2019 — now plays a senior role with ISN Maskwa, an Indigenous company that is majority-owned by Missanabie Cree First Nation and headquartered at 551 Queen St. E. in Sault Ste. Marie. 

ISN Maskwa is an Indigenous-led community support team that performs investigations, operates Canada’s first Indigenous Emergency Operations Centre and promotes Indigenous community safety and well-being.

“It’s just incredibly rewarding work because it’s First Nations supporting First Nations in times of crisis,” Martynuck told SooToday.

Martynuck joined the ISN Maskwa team In February of 2022.

“I’m one of the trainers and the media coordinator as well," she said. "In times of fires or floods we have supported some First Nations when it comes to evacuations. We are training First Nations members to support First Nations members when they’re evacuated. They receive CPR and First Aid, search and rescue, mental health awareness from an Indigenous view and security guard training. The security guard component is what I do and that training is done by retired Indigenous police officers and myself. I’ve done training in Thunder Bay, Sarnia, Brantford, Atikokan and we’re looking at one community in the Winnipeg area.”

The job involves a combination of working remotely from the Sault and some travel to First Nations communities.

Born and raised in the Sault, Martynuck — born Jane Rushworth — graduated from White Pines Collegiate before attending Lake Superior State University’s Law and Security program, joining the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service in September of 1985.

“I came from a nursing family and I was originally looking at getting into being a medical lab technician, but I was living in Edmonton for a few months after high school with my brother. My sister-in-law lived in Calgary and was involved with the Calgary Police Association, a social club. Occasionally I spent some weekends in Calgary and spent some time talking to the officers there and it intrigued me,” Martynuck said.

“I was intending to go to school out west but I came back to Ontario with the idea that a career in law enforcement would be something to look at, so I went to Lake State and dropped my resume off at the Sault police station. They called me shortly after, I went through some interviews and some fitness testing and I was hired.”

She attended Ontario Police College in Aylmer, Ontario as part of the hiring and training process.

“It was intensive but it was really good. I made some very good friendships and learned a lot. It was a lot of hard work but it was enjoyable and rewarding. The Police College does certainly prepare you and gives you some good, solid basic skills to work with and throughout my career I went back to OPC for some specialty courses that were required for some of the units I worked in.”

Part of Martynuck’s Sault Police career involved detective work.

“I was very fortunate. I was given the opportunity to work in the detective office very early in my career on a one-year enhancement program, in my fourth year. I spent a year in the detective office and that’s when I realized that was work I wanted to do, taking that extra time to put the pieces of a case together. Being on patrol was good, it was quick and fast but you didn't get a chance to sit and do some of the in-depth work and I liked the analytical aspect of detective work.”

Martynuck returned to patrol for 10 years before working with Crime Stoppers and later as a Sault Police media relations officer.

“I enjoyed media relations. It was a change from the other aspects and I enjoyed my relationships with the media,” Martynuck said.

After media relations she returned to patrol with the rank of Staff Sergeant and supervised a platoon for several years.

She also worked in the service’s internal affairs department and helped establish the domestic violence unit.

“I think one of the most rewarding things in police work is the conversations you have, how you talk to somebody when they're having a really bad day,” Martynuck said.

“I had an individual, about 15 years after I helped to support her through a domestic matter, recognize me and tell me just how much taking that time to listen to her and support meant to her. That time you take to speak to someone and listen to them can really be a pivotal moment for them. Those are the moments where I made a difference and that’s what policing is to me. You want to help people that are in difficult situations. You want to make a difference.”

Martynuck retired from the Sault Police Service in January 2019 with the rank of Staff Sergeant.

“I had a great career with a lot of incredible opportunities within the organization,” she said.

After retiring from the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service as an officer she soon returned to the organization and worked as a civilian in recruiting, conducting interviews and background checks on all new hires.

In that role, working closely with civilians in Human Resources and other departments, she learned more of the role civilian employees play in a police service.

“The role our civilian members play is huge. They’re really the backbone of a police service because without the civilian staff supporting the officers, the officers wouldn’t be able to do their day to day work.”

Martynuck began a new chapter in her career in September 2019 working as senior background investigator and business development consultant with Investigative Solutions Network Inc. — known as ISN — a Pickering, Ontario-based private investigations company.

“The owner is a former homicide investigator from the Greater Toronto Police Service. What I love about the company is that almost all the investigators are retired police officers hired for their specific skills,” Martynuck said.

“We have retired police chiefs, retired deputy chiefs, retired inspectors, retired members with special skills such as polygraph technicians, traffic specialists, we have people with human resources backgrounds, domestic violence backgrounds, criminal investigations backgrounds, so there’s an incredible amount of horsepower.”

“When I started with them I was doing some basic investigations and background checks for some police services because times are changing and staffing is an issue for some police services. Some police services are going through private companies such as ours to do background checks on new hires,” Martynuck said. 

Describing her new career with ISN Maskwa, Martynuck said “I like being able to make a difference, especially in First Nations communities, making things better, working together. That’s huge.”

Clearly passionate about her work, Martynuck enjoys photography in her spare time.

“Photography is my yoga,” she chuckled.

“I dabbled in it years ago before my son was born. I bought a camera with a zoom lens and a roll of film. I got away from it but I always said ‘I’ve got to get back into photography.’ When I retired my brother gifted me with a Nikon and I’ve bought a few lenses. When I travel, my team knows me well enough that they allow me some time for photography along the way. They say ‘she’s going to make us pull over by the side of the road and take a picture!'"

Whitefish Island is one of Martynuck’s favourite Sault and area locations for photography.

She enjoys taking photos of landscapes and, more recently, bird photography has become one of her favourite subject matters.

“Different birds have different personalities. It becomes a challenge. You say ‘I want to get that type of bird next,’ or ‘I want to get that bird in motion.’”

Love for her career and hobbies aside, Martynuck’s biggest priorities are family: son Ben, now 26 and known for his smile and enthusiasm as he lives with cerebral palsy, and husband Stan Martynuck, a retired Sault Fire Services platoon chief.

“Life to me is about family, friends, being healthy, being a kind person. It’s about helping where you can help out,” Martynuck said.

“There were good days and bad days in policing,” she said, reflecting on her days as a Sault Police officer.

“To be able to help individuals in a time of crisis, to be that voice when somebody is struggling, to say ‘I’m here, what can I do to help?’ is rewarding. Policing is an incredible career. If you want to make a difference in somebody’s life, if you want to make a difference, it’s an incredible career to go into.”