Hundreds protest RCMP plans to reduce patrols on Fogo Island

There's no mistaking the message: Fogo Islanders do notwantchanges to their police force.

About 300 people gathered at the arena in the centre of the island Thursday night for a peaceful demonstration organized by town council.

Speakers, including politicians,emergency service personnel and those with personal stories, stressedthe need to keep police patrol on the island and within its nine communities as is.

"To have the officers here on the island, it means so much," said retiree Gail Lush. "You know, drinking and driving and speeding.The security that I once had by retiring back here is whittling away."

Lush also recounted to the crowd a story of important personal contact she had with an RCMP constable. Shortly after retiring, her husband went on a motorcycle trip off Fogo Island.

There was an accident, and he never came back.

A police officer had to break the news of her husband's death.

"Is all this going to rest on our volunteer fireman to have to knock on someone's door, you know, to give this devastating news?"

Lush says she was impressed andgrateful for the officer's compassion,and the prompt response.

"By the time the RCMP would have gotten here [from Gander], I mean, it would have been all on social media, you know, it would have been rumours in the community. And, you know, is that right? We deserve better. We deserve more."

The RCMP says it has no plans to close the detachment permanently. The police force would not do an interview, but in a statement said it is experiencing pressure with recruitment.

"Wemust adapt to ensure the police officers we do have are placed where they need to be to best respond to crime and calls for service from communities," says the statement."Any potential resource changes are to be considered temporary, as we continue our recruitment efforts to fill vacancies on our front lines, and will be done only with measures in place to ensure public safety."

However, retired RCMP officer and Fogo Island resident Roland Wellssays there's more at play. Since the RCMP is fundedby the provinces, he says, it's incumbent on people to contact their provincial politicians to reverse the decision.

"I do not think that this is an RCMP decision," he said. "This is a provincial government decision. The minister has made this decision. When the RCMP came and said, 'Look, we're struggling with resources; we want to remove this.' So it's not necessarily a policing issue. It's a government issue and a support of this community issue."

WATCH | Hundreds gather on Fogo Island to express concerns about a planned reduction in RCMP patrols:

Fogo Islanders protest police reductions

1 year ago

Duration 1:19

A few hundred residents of Fogo Island held a demonstration Thursday evening to express their concerns about the RCMP's plans to reduce patrols of the community.

Wells, who retired as a chief superintendent in Nova Scotia, says using service calls as a metric for staffallotment is tackling the issue in the wrong way.

"You should be looking at it through your response time, your ability to respond, your ability to prevent crime," he said. "And if you're not going to do that, then you're doing yourselves and us a disservice."

Fogo Island is a safe community, he said, but has all the issues that larger communities do.

"It's got domestic violence. It's got addictions issues, it's got property crime issues, It's got alcohol issues, in terms of impaired driving," he said.

"We need to make this clear. This is a bad decision. This is no good for anybody."

Fogo Island Mayor Andrew Shea has been talking to other communities in the province facing similar police shortages, he says, buthis community is unique given there's no road link.

"It just can't work for us,"he said. "It might work for people that are in a certain distance of driving back and forth, but it can't work for us. And we're not going to tolerate it."

Council plans to meet with the head of the RCMP in the province later this month.

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