Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 13/01) - The garage sale last weekend means one thing for certain: his experience in the North -- for the time being -- is over.

RCMP Cpl. Mike O'Malley is going home. The impetus for the move is family.

"It would be good to get closer acquainted with family. We've been at a distance for quite a long time," said O'Malley.

He was scheduled to fly to New Brunswick late last week after 11 years in Nunavut and the NWT. Of his six postings with the RCMP during the last 15 years, five of them have been in communities above the 60th parallel.

Calling Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope, Coral Harbour, Hall Beach and Iqaluit all home at one point or another, O'Malley said he relished his time in the North and will miss it. His experiences here, he said, had changed him for the better.

"It's what you make of it. If you go in with a positive experience, then your experience is going to be positive," he said.

"Eleven years in the North have gone by like a heartbeat."

Much of the reason for the speedy passage of the last weekend was the way O'Malley immersed himself in the communities in which he lived and policed. He said he took every opportunity to befriend his neighbours -- a step that provided him with the opportunity to go hunting, boating and snowmobiling on the tundra and the taiga.

O'Malley said those experiences with Northern aboriginal cultures taught him more about tolerance and patience and had shown him to approach life with a more relaxed attitude.

"To see the way life is lived in the South -- it's a very hectic pace and people seem to get caught up in small issues that don't have impact on their life. Because of my experience here, I let the small things go and appreciate life more."

That's not to say that O'Malley isn't realistic about his work as a member of the RCMP. He's faced his fair share of tragedy since 1990.

Suicide, accidental death and family despair all make his work as a police officer difficult. But tragedy has reinforced for O'Malley how quickly life can change and how important it is to be appreciative of life's gifts. He learned that lesson once again this winter, when Const. Jurgen Seewald was shot to death in Cape Dorset.

"There are certain risks inherent in the job," said O'Malley, whose own father died in the line of duty as a police officer in 1970. "I have first-hand experience in how severe the risks are."

O'Malley said he's been involved in situations where he's had to face someone holding a firearm, an incident he's come to describe as "a few seconds of terror followed by hours of paperwork."

Rather than letting the terror cripple or embitter him, O'Malley said he has learned to effectively negotiate with people in distress.

"You have to use your skills as a police officer to bring them down so they're out of their crisis and able to deal with whatever caused them to be in that situation in the first place," he said.

"Everybody makes mistakes, but the smarter person makes the mistake, learns from it and moves on."

O'Malley said his immediate goal is to stay in his new home for more than two years and to pursue higher ranks in the RCMP. That, he said, might lead him back to the North in the years to come.

"We're already talking about under what circumstances would we come back. We're not closing the door on the North."