PAPS Chaplain and co-chair for the Women’s Commission Nora Vedress (left) alongside Chief of Police Jonathan Bergen. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

By Logan Lehmann

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

Women’s Commission and PAPS continue working hand-and-hand to support Truth and Reconciliation

Feb 3, 2023 | 3:00 PM

The Prince Albert Police Service along with the Women’s Commission held a media conference at their station on Friday morning to discuss their support of Truth and Reconciliation.

Chief of Police Jonathan Bergen alongside PAPS Chaplain and co-chair for the Women’s Commission Nora Vedress were on hand to lead the discussion. Vedress talked about the Calls for Action on Truth and Reconciliation in the Women’s Commission.

“The Truth and Reconciliation and Calls for Action are all we talked about,” she said. “The first meeting was about our mission like what are we wanting to do, what’s our goal, and our next two meetings were deeply seeped in Truth and Reconciliation and with those calls to action.”

Vedress continued by telling paNOW about what exactly they discussed in the meetings and about the Calls for Justice in Truth and Reconciliation.

“Our main goal is to advise the Chief and so we really did focus on the Calls to Justice within the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” she said. “We looked at the acknowledgment and visibility regarding the relationship between the police and Indigenous women and girls, and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community so it was a lot of work around that. We spoke a lot about victim services and the support they require for addressing crime and really challenging experiences that victims go through and we can support them.”

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In a release that was sent out prior to the conference, some of the initiatives of the Women’s Commission that were listed included ensuring that members of PAPS are properly educated on Indigenous cultures.

When asked if this has been an issue in the past, Police Chief Bergen said it’s still a work in progress.

“The education is absolutely ongoing and how we do that is in a number of different ways,” he said. “Education is incredibly important and we are committed to cultural awareness (and) cultural training, something that’s provided and offered through the police college where we know that we can always do more.”

The Women’s Commission is made up of 12 people and they held their first meeting as a group back in June 2022.

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann