The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
On Thursday September 23rd, J.H. Kerr School's grade 7-12 students gathered in the Lawrie Marsh Community Hall for an RCMP Canine Unit presentation. However, before this began, grade 8 teacher Clarence Fisher rose and asked a student from his class from last year, Rianna Randall, to come up to the front of the hall. Once there, he presented her with a first place trophy for best experimental photograph in the middle school category of a national school photography and video contest, based out of New Brunswick. Later, Fisher explained how Rianna's award came about. "The kids were taking digital photos for an assignment in which they had to capture pictures which displayed a certain mood," said Fisher. "They were learning to use the cameras as well as photo editing software." Fisher said that Rianna was working on "sadness" and after sending about five or six of his students' photos (of which Rianna's was included) to the Frontier School Division Juried Art Show, he found out that they couldn't judge them because they didn't have a category for this medium. Anyway, the teacher says that he felt the photos were good, so he ended up sending them to New Brunswick and this resulted in Miss Randall's win. Rianna's winning photo is titled "Sadness 12". If people are interested in viewing it and the rest of the project, it can be located online http://www.jhk.mb.ca/emotions/moodhome.html. "Sadness 12" is located third down on the right hand side of the column. After this special presentation, the Thompson RCMP's Operational Dog Handler, Corporal Brian Moss, rose and introduced himself and co-worker Simon Bigras, who is a dog section man in training. Moss gave the students an explanation of their dog program before bringing his partner "Buddy" in to continue the presentation. Buddy is a five-year-old male German Shepherd from Czechoslovakia and one of five such dogs in the province. Moss explained that the dog is trained to work and is not a pet. He added that dogs such as Buddy cost the RCMP around five thousand dollars to purchase and when fully trained they could be worth between 50 and 75 thousand dollars Canadian. A demonstration of some of the dog's capabilities followed as Moss showed how Buddy could track down illegal narcotics. Before the students had entered the hall, Moss and Bigras hid packets of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana around the room. After placing a collar on the dog that it associates with drug searches, Buddy found each of the stashes easily. The two officers also gave the students a demonstration, with the use of a "bite pad", of how the animal will take down a bad guy (expertly portrayed by Bigras). Before closing out the question and answer session of the presentation, Moss told the students of some of the dog's recent accomplishments. Buddy has tracked and found a sex offender hiding in the bush in Nelson House, tracked a person who left the scene of an accident and found the person at their home, found a ladies' purse which had been stolen from her car, and tracked and found a person suspected of being suicidal. The presentation was very well received and the officers thanked the students for their time. Moss also announced during his talk that they planned to be back to Snow Lake over the winter. "We will use this community as a training center at times during this winter," said the Corporal. "We will bring Buddy up and train with him in the school and in other community buildings."
