| Ricky Blue's Other Life |
 Ricky Blue  Ricky Blue was born in Liverpool, England, but raised in Maine, New Jersey, and Toronto. He has an MA in English from Concordia University. He has been involved in bands and media music in Montreal for over twenty years. In 1981 he won an international 'Clio' award for excellence in advertising. He once appeared on television naked. His life had no real meaning, however, until he began to play with Bowser and Blue. Rick plays guitar, mandolin, and harmonica, and sings in a rather pleasant baritone when George will let him. His columns are archived here |
Posted 12.29.05 Slain Quebec cop part of an impressive bunch of youngsters
Valerie Gignac's photograph was on the front page, her face full of ideals, full of hope, and full of the future. I felt like I knew her.
You see, I teach communications, part-time, for the police technology program at John Abbott College, and she looked so much like one of my students.
Although Valerie Gignac did not attend John Abbott, there are many young women like her there, studying to become police officers. Some are right out of high school. Others are in their mid-20s, as she was. Police forces now welcome them.
They will do three years of CEGEP and then a training course at L'École nationale de police du Québec at Nicolet. They know that once they finish all this, they have a good shot at landing a job. Society always needs security.
But they are well aware that they are applying for a dangerous career. I once asked them why they wanted to become police officers. They answered that it wasn't only because of a guaranteed job, but they wanted to be challenged and physically involved - they wanted adventure. They seemed to have a very similar aesthetic to that of an athlete. And indeed, many of them are involved in sports.
Because I had learned that they needed to be engaged, and because studies show that public speaking is the most feared activity in life, this past semester I made each of my students give a speech. They protested but I encouraged them to be brave.
I only insisted that they organize it into an introduction, a persuasive argument backed up by research or personal experience, and a conclusion. And I insisted that they all do it, no excuses.
As they began I expected hours of excruciating boredom. But that was before I had heard the first one speak.
Because they had been so reluctant, I had suggested that they speak on something that they felt passionate about. I figured that if they did that, the speech would write itself. And they did speak with passion: more passion and humour than I expected. Many of them spoke about things they had experienced in life. And what they had learned from them.
By the end of three sessions of ninety speeches I was overwhelmed. They had impressed me so much. And I came away feeling such compassion for them. They had revealed that they were all good, hard working kids (I have reached the age where anyone under 30 is a kid).
And they gave me such a good feeling about the future of our society I am sure I bored all the veteran teachers I met by going on and on about it. I suppose the veterans already knew that this is the secret "high" that teachers get: that warm feeling of parental affection for your students.
That must be why as now I see her face in the newspaper I feel so terrible. And I think now I understand a little of what police officers feel when they have to deal with a fallen comrade.
And even with these feelings I have, I know I can never feel the grief of her real parents. How awful it must be to lose a daughter like that at such a young age, in the prime of life. And to lose also the future she held within her.
Valerie, I salute you. |
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