Jane Boissonneault

I was just 10 years old when I decided I wanted to be a Mountie. I knew my career could take me far from my home in Montréal, QC. I just didn’t realize how far from home! 

I heard lots of stories about what to expect on a peacekeeping mission. Luckily, I had a friend who had participated in a couple of UN missions, and he helped convince me to take the plunge and deploy to East Timor. Sure, I probably wouldn’t change the world, but I might improve the lives of a few individuals. In my mind, that would be well worth it. 

So, when I arrived in Southeast Asia, it was my goal to make a positive impact at the personal level. It was an amazing experience working within a culture so different from my own, alongside police officers from all over the world! Our goal as police trainers in East Timor was not much different from that of police trainers in our own home countries. We were there to mentor new members of the East Timor Police Services (ETPS) as they learned the basics of policing in their communities.

During my deployment, I patrolled numerous mountain villages. It was on these patrols that I got to know Maria, a recent graduate of the ETPS. She was just four foot nine, but what she lacked in height, she made up in heart and determination. Maria wanted to change the way the local communities felt about police, and women police officers in particular. I was honoured to mentor her. 

I was transferred to the Investigations Unit to set up a Missing Persons Unit and Vulnerable Persons Unit. Maria was assigned to the unit as well. Together, we investigated sexual assaults, domestic assaults and even an attempted murder. Maria was always very good at interviewing victims, especially women and children. She had a natural skill and never appeared intimidated when dealing with suspects. I was transferred again, and Maria continued to work in the Investigations Unit. I was able to see her one more time in East Timor, on my last day. She was starting a course on Vulnerable Persons Investigations. I knew I would never see her again. But during the years that followed my mission, I often thought of her. I knew she was there making a difference in her community.

Five years later, I attended a UN-sponsored conference in Italy about gender-sensitive police reform in post conflict societies. I represented Canada. Guess who the delegate from East Timor was? None other than Maria! She had been promoted several times and was now a Sub-Inspector (a rank between a staff sergeant and inspector in the RCMP). She outranked me! Maria thanked me. She told me I had shown her what a woman police officer can be and do. She said my example had helped her get to where she was. I had always felt I had done some good in East Timor. But there it was: affirmation at the personal level that I had indeed made a difference. 

I carried this affirmation with me as I embarked on my second UN mission in 2011, this time to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I monitored the building of police stations, and personnel deployment. One day, I attended the official inauguration of a newly constructed station. I saw the hope on the faces of both the local villagers and police officers sworn to serve them. It was overwhelming. Would one of these be the next Maria, tirelessly working to build up their community from within?

The RCMP has given me the opportunity to work all over Canada and around the world. What have I learned? We all want the same things: We want our families to be safe and healthy; we want to be able to provide the basic necessities of life; we want our communities to live in peace and security; we want to raise our children in a world that has a future. Protecting these values is what made me become a police officer in the first place. The opportunity to mentor others as they pursue these goals within their own communities is what made my time serving in UN missions so fulfilling.