Stand & Deliver

This is what the RCMP looks like today. Meet Deputy Commissioner Brenda Butterworth-Carr, who makes every day count towards inclusiveness, diversity and equality for tomorrow.

- Ingrie Williams

WHILE MOST 13-YEAR-OLDS EXCEL AT THINKING only about themselves, a teenage Brenda ButterworthCarr was already putting others top of mind. The current Deputy Commissioner of the BC Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) recalls a pivotal moment while chatting with a group of cousins in her home community of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in in the Dawson City, Yukon area. The topic: discussing how they could collectively make a difference in their community which faced family challenges, domestic violence and addiction issues.

“What I saw happening internally in the families just wasn’t acceptable, and I recognized that if we were going to change it, we had to be a part of that change,” she says. “Our elders fundamentally believed that equality and justice is really important. What they wanted from all of our people, citizens of the various First Nations 14, is that we did what we could. What they really wanted, was that we were able to work in any kind of organization, and that we work toward effecting positive change. That we would bring awareness to our communities, and globally, of the things that we lived every day.”

As Butterworth-Carr considered various law-related roles, such as becoming a conservation officer or behavioural scientist, she became increasingly fascinated with law and justice. Specifically, how you could bring harmony into a community and into your own family in a positive way, she says. Inspired to follow in the steps of family members, she joined the ranks of the RCMP as a Native Special Constable in 1987. She’s never looked back.

THE BIG PICTURE