Reminiscing with the Mounties on the RCMP's 100th anniversary (3 photos)

As Canada expanded westward in the 19th century, the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) was created by an Act of Parliament in 1873 to protect millions of square kilometres.

On Feb. 1, 1920, the NWMP was merged with the Dominion Police to form the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

As this month marks the 100th anniversary of the RCMP’s creation, SooToday visited the Sault RCMP detachment at 22 Bay Street and spoke with two of the detachment’s officers (Sgt. Michael Fenchak and Cst. Dan Chevalier) who shared some memories of their careers as Mounties.

Fenchak is the Sault RCMP detachment commander, posted to the Sault in January 2010.

A native of Windsor, Ontario, Fenchak moved to the Sault with his family at a young age, his father a bank manager who was transferred to the Sault.

“I learned to ski at Searchmont, enjoyed the summers and the winters...I moved away with my family and after I joined the RCMP I worked in various areas of federal law enforcement, including drugs, commercial crime, federal law enforcement in national parks, then I earned a promotion to be in Sault Ste. Marie. I had a young family, and the timing was right. It’s been a great place for me,” Fenchak said.

“I always wanted to be a police officer, and I also enjoyed taking business at university. I was a district sales manager for Chrysler Canada. I met the owner of one of the dealerships and she was married to an RCMP officer who worked in commercial crime in Hamilton, and he talked me into applying to the RCMP.”

Though he passed the exam, the Mounties weren’t immediately hiring, so Fenchak worked for York Regional Police before the RCMP contacted him and brought him into its ranks.

“I applied to the RCMP because I wanted to be able to police anywhere in Ontario, and possibly all of Canada,” Fenchak said.

“(Being an RCMP officer) is community service on many different levels. I’ve had the opportunity to go and police at the Olympics (in Vancouver-Whistler in 2010) and at Canadian-hosted events such as the G8 and G20 (also in 2010).”

At the summits, Fenchak was part of the security team charged with protecting world leaders.

“It can be exciting.”

“I remember (former Governor General) David Johnston and his wife,” Fenchak said.

“They’re Saultites, and just wonderful people. Very personable. I remember Paul Martin, he was very personable as well. The nice thing about those people is they treat you well. Even though you’re there to provide protection services for them, they treat you very nicely.”  

“I met Bill Clinton. I met him while working security at an AIDS conference. He’s a very charismatic individual. But I think (world leaders) are also very human. They’re ordinary people who have achieved something great in their lives, and some of them are very appreciative of that, and they treat you well,” Fenchak said.

Chevalier, like Fenchak, has worked security at many prestigious events, such as the Olympics, summits and visits by foreign leaders.

“In the 1980s, I remember Brian Mulroney was prime minister, greeting Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterand, Helmut Kohl and thinking ‘wow, these are the leaders of all these countries,’ and I was three or four feet away from each one of them. It was pretty neat.”

Chevalier, a Montreal native, is the son of a Montreal city police officer.

At 18, he joined the Canadian Army as a military police officer (MP), stationed in Wainwright, Alberta.

“While there, I worked very closely with the Mounties because we dealt a lot with soldiers in the downtown community in Wainwright. One of my good friends encouraged me to apply to the RCMP. I’m bilingual and at the time Alberta wasn’t fulfilling its quota of bilingual applicants. I applied and nine months later I was with the RCMP in Regina.”

Posted to Fort Frances, he was transferred to the Sault in 1992.

Chevalier is the Sault RCMP detachment’s media relations officer.

“He’s an icon. It’s hard travelling through the mall with him. He runs into somebody he knows all the time,” Fenchak joked.

“This is what I always wanted to do,” Chevalier said.

“If I go back to my high school yearbook, I wrote I wanted to join the RCMP. So I waited and I eventually got in through my time in the military and with the encouragement of a good friend.”

Is there a particular episode or investigation which stands out in their memories which brings an extra special sense of satisfaction to them, a sense of a job well done?

“If I was to choose one, it would be when I was in commercial crime (while stationed in Newmarket, Ontario),” Fenchak recalled. 

“There was a fraud involving Service Canada. There was a breach of trust and we were able to determine from that investigation the number of fraudulently obtained Social Insurance cards that were issued, and from that, people had created identities using fraudulently obtained drivers licenses and health cards and so forth, so to me that was a great disruption (of crime).”

“That was extremely satisfying for me because they were defrauding the banks for hundreds of thousands of dollars…(we were) protecting the Canadian financial institutions and that filters down to the general public as well in saving them money from higher banking fees,” Fenchak said.

“One of the great things about the Sault RCMP detachment is that we have wonderful local and domestic partners. We’ve got the city police, the OPP, Anishinabek Police, CBSA, as well as across the river you’ve got the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. border patrol, customs border protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the U.S. Coast Guard,” Fenchak said.

“Being on the border, we’re responsible for serious trans-national organized crime. We’ve had some very successful human smuggling and human trafficking investigations with our international partners as well as CBSA.”

“Being a member of a small detachment (in the Sault), I really enjoy the camaraderie of that as well,” Fenchak said.

“For me, I just enjoy all the projects we work on and our partnerships. I enjoy the Shiprider Program. That’s a joint initiative between the Canadian and U.S. governments which involves the RCMP and the United States Coast Guard,” Chevalier said.

“Members who participate in Shiprider go to Charleston, South Carolina for the training and you get a designation. For Canadian police officers (involved in the Shiprider Program), we get to be identified as customs officers in the United States while we’re patrolling with the U.S. Coast Guard on their boat, or on our boat. That allows us to travel back and forth across the border and use our use of force options on either side of the border.”

The RCMP, Fenchak said, is also looking forward to its 150th anniversary in 2023. 

And, by the way, the Mounties are hiring.

“We’re in the process of hiring a lot of officers over the next three years, somewhere in the ballpark of 4,000 officers nationwide. Anybody who’s interested, please call us,” Chevalier said.

Those interested in a career with the RCMP may check out their website for application and recruitment information, or call the Sault RCMP detachment at (705) 941-7267.

Key dates for the Sault RCMP detachment include:

• The establishment of the local detachment in 1920
• Its closure in 1931 ‘due to a decrease in illicit narcotic trafficking between the United States and Canada at Sault Ste. Marie.’ A Sudbury detachment took over, housed at 690 Queen St. E., the current site of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum
• Maintaining of national security and acting as Canada’s police force in Europe during World War II
• The RCMP occupied another detachment in the Sault in 1949, situated at 451 Queen St. E.
• In 1974, women were admitted to RCMP ranks, as well as married men. Prior to this, only single men could be admitted and permitted to marry later in their service
• In 1987, the Sault Ste. Marie Subdivision, running from east of North Bay to the Ontario-Manitoba border, was headquartered at 369 Queen St. E. (the Subdivision was closed in 1997)
• The Sault RCMP detachment office opened at 22 Bay St. in 1997, serving the Sault and Algoma District