"Old boys clubbed" was the headline above Citizen managing editor Dave Paulson's editorial on Feb. 11, 2009, cheering the appointment of then 41-year-old Brenda Butterworth-Carr as the new superintendent of the Prince George RCMP detachment.
"Break up the old boys' club," Paulson announced.
In hindsight, his excitement should be forgiven, particularly in light of the fact she was the first woman and the first aboriginal to head the local detachment and she took over from Dahl Chambers, who left under a cloud after inappropriate treatment of a civilian employee at the station.
Sadly, Paulson's pronouncement was premature.
The lawsuits of systemic harassment inside the RCMP against female officers were still to come.
Meanwhile, Butterworth-Carr continued her rapid ascent with the force. After her two-year stint in Prince George, she moved on to national headquarters in Ottawa and then became the officer in charge for all of Saskatchewan. On Tuesday, she met with the news media for the first time in her new role as assistant commissioner and commanding officer in B.C.
Her back story is fascinating.
She was born into the Tr'ondek Hwech'in (Han) First Nation near Dawson City, Yukon.
Pregnant when she was 15 years old, her family rallied around her, helping her raise her young son and allowing her to pursue her dream of becoming a police officer. She joined the force as a special constable when she was just 19.
Butterworth-Carr's stay in Prince George made plenty of news, most of it for the kind neither police nor residents want to hear.
Under her watch:
Prince George rose from the fourth-worst city for crime in Canada to the very worst, according to Maclean's magazine.
Three of Cody Legebokoff's four victims were murdered in Prince George. Jill Stuchenko's body was found in a gravel pit off Otway Road in the fall of 2009, the body of Cynthia Maas was found in L.C. Gunn Park a year later. Natasha Montgomery of Quesnel was last seen in Prince George in August 2010. Her body has not been found.
Darren Munch was gunned down in the middle of the VLA neighbourhood on a Saturday afternoon, also in August 2010.
In April 2011, shortly before her departure from Prince George, an investigation was launched after a Prince George RCMP officer used a Taser on an 11-year-old boy after a stabbing incident at a group home.
Those incidents are a heavy burden to bear but, by most accounts, Butterworth-Carr was an active, hands-on commander.
She urged her officers to step up their efforts during the summer and fall of 2010 in a vain effort to find those three missing women.
After the Munch shooting, she brought in a special investigator to target bike gangs and organized crime, took part in a "gang crime summit" and she formed a downtown police squad.
Also during her tenure, she met with area families connected to the Highway of Tears and she implemented the changes recommended by a coroner's inquest into the death of Cheryl Ann Bouey, who hung herself in a Prince George RCMP jail cell on June 26, 2008.
In other words, Butterworth-Carr cleaned up messes she inherited, got things done and made significant progress, despite some serious challenges and setbacks. Turning Prince George's crime problem around started under her command and bore fruit under her successor, Eric Stubbs.
While Paulson's editorial may have been premature on the gender parity front, it hit the bullseye when it came to its primary subject.
"Certainly Butterworth-Carr is destined for things greater than the command of the Prince George force," Paulson wrote.
"Get used to the fact she will not be whiling away the rest of her career in Prince George."
At just 49, Butterworth-Carr has to be considered on the right track to eventually become RCMP Commissioner. What an amazing accomplishment that would be.
Whether she reaches that goal or not, she is an inspiration to young women and indigenous youth across Canada, an active role model able to demonstrate that career success and the highest levels of public service are attainable.
If she becomes the top Mountie in Canada, hopefully she will be far more than a mere figurehead.
She has spent three decades inside a national law enforcement organization that was slow to move on the harassment and post-traumatic stress disorder files.
Both in her current post here in B.C. and in whatever role her future career holds, she should keep working on those issues and many others facing the RCMP.
It's great to celebrate her career but we must also encourage her to continue to make it better for the women and indigenous officers coming up through the force behind her.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
