Chief Superintendent Scott Kolody, on behalf of Commanding Officer Kevin Brosseau and the RCMP, paid tribute to the wives of RCMP members who helped their husbands provide policing services in small and isolated communities from the 1940s to the 1970s. He honoured their service by presenting them with a Second Man Award.
The women receiving the award faced unique challenges and hardships while supporting police operations by answering phones, searching female prisoners, providing meals, providing accommodations for visitors to the community and caring for small children whose parents were dealing with the police. The support they provided often went unrecognized. When two books were published chronicling the experiences of these women (The Unpaid Second Man by A. Harold Clark of Winnipeg and When the Second Man was a Woman by Ruth Lee-Knight), the Force realized these women and their stories needed to be honoured.
The women receiving this award were nominated because they were an integral part of running a detachment. Among some of the many duties they performed: providing medical assistance, checking faulty vehicle equipment, ensuring hot meals for visitors and prisoners, coordinating emergency response, providing weather reports to incoming planes, cutting hair, arranging funerals, assisting with sea lift grocery orders, shovelling snow and cutting ice from icebergs for water.
“What these women did for the RCMP is beyond a simple thank you,” said Chief Superintendent Kolody, Officer in Charge of Criminal Operations for Manitoba. “They went above and beyond not only to assist their husbands, but to assist the Force. The women being honoured with this award were crucial liaisons between the RCMP and the people in the communities in which they lived. Their contribution is invaluable and so very much appreciated.”
The creation of the Second Man Award was approved by the RCMP in October 2010. Across Canada, 468 women were honoured, and in Manitoba, 24 women received a Second Man Award.
The recipients are:
Rose S. Anderson, Evon Gloria Blais, Madeline Ann Bodie, Karen Carlson, Fran Cass, Florence Clark, Marguerite Davisson, Charlotte Douglas, Gwen Elliott, Vi Forbes, Jean Hawkins, Dyanne M. Kristjanson, Jean Carole Lacoste, Joyce Leblanc, Johanna McLauchlan, Lorraine Oucharek, Elsie M. Palmer, Dorothy I. Phillips, Anne Snihor, Gladys M. Stupich, Vi Sutherland, Elaine Tramley, Jaqueline Walker, and Karin Watson.
