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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A murderous prison riot in Manitoba, the search for a killer after the Giant Mine bombing, training police in war-torn Afghanistan – Staff Sgt. Major Al McCambridge has seen his share over 31 years with the RCMP.

Staff Sgt. Major Alan McCambridge received his Diamond Jubilee medal from RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson on Nov. 27 for his time on the force and his work in Afghanistan. - Svjetlana Mlinarevic/NNSL photo

The longtime Yellowknife resident was honoured last week with a Diamond Jubilee medal from RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson. McCambridge is currently the non-commissioned officer in charge of community policing – major crimes services division.

“I was very honoured that both my partner and my youngest daughter could be there,” said McCambridge, who received the honour for his duties as a member of the force and for his work in Afghanistan

As I’m walking back I got a high five from my daughter and that may seem corny but that in itself meant a lot.”

McCambridge, a military kid with both parents in the Navy, was born in Edmonton but raised in Victoria, B.C. He has one sister and two brothers, the youngest of which is in the military.

“I’m somewhat the black sheep of the family. I went into the RCMP while most of the family has gone military,” he said. “Going through high school it was something that I believed in.”

He said the lure of the North and watching the marine section of the RCMP sail by with its “bells and whistles was predominantly a driving force” in his decision to join the Mounties. He also liked the fact that he wouldn’t be deployed for months at a time and away from his family.

In 1981, after graduating from the RCMP academy in Regina, he was deployed to Stonewall, Man., where he did community policing as well as policing at Stony Mountain Penitentiary. While working in Stonewall, McCambridge decided to focus on major crimes.

This change in direction was due to a pivotal event for the then 21-year-old – the Stony Mountain riot in 1982. The riot involved a group of prisoners who had taken over the prison, killing one guard and holding several others hostage.

“Seeing that whole dynamic and even being in a peripheral distance outside it was a new challenge to policing that I had never been exposed to,” said McCambridge. “At that point in time you’re dealing with a very much life and death situation. You’re dealing with a lot of emotion. Emotions are very volatile, extremely dangerous, but you also see the best come out of people.”

Later, he put in an application to work in either the Yukon or NWT. He ended up being deployed to Inuvik in 1987 and stayed there on and off until September 1992 before being heading to Yellowknife in March 1993.

In September 1993 McCambridge's adventures in the RCMP continued with his involvement with the Giant Mine bombing.

“For those who have lived in Yellowknife it’s a very emotional event. There are very few people who lived in Yellowknife at that time that were not effected, whether you were effected directly or indirectly,” said McCambridge. “It was one of the biggest files I’ve worked on. It was a challenge because it was an unsolved homicide for 13 months. Unlimited resources were applied to this file because next to Air India it was the second largest unsolved mass murder in Canadian history.”

McCambridge was promoted to the homicide task force and then subsequently won a promotion to be in charge of the G Division general investigative unit.

In 2006, McCambridge decided to make a change in his life by volunteering for an overseas mission.

“I was selected to go to Kandahar, Afghanistan, as part of a RCMP civilian police contingent that worked with the Canadian military and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and that was at the physical readiness training from March 2006 to March 2007,” he said.

“Its one of those things, and I’ll be quite frank with you, it’s one of those missions that you look at and you say, ‘The year before I retire, I want to do a peace keeping mission.’”

While in Afghanistan McCambridge trained the Afghan police.

I couldn’t do a power point and I couldn’t do a book or explain something because some of them had never spent a day in a classroom. Some may have actually only have had a Grade 3 level education but if you gave them an IED (Improvised Explosive Devise) they could dismantle it.”

He said the Afghan people were a proud people who held strong loyalties to their families. He also said while they were happy the military came in to oust the Taliban, they also wanted the military out.

“Its always has been an area that has had conquerors and people coming through. So, the Afghan population is very sensitive to people coming because they’re now occupiers and that’s an issue,” he said.

McCambridge said he felt very honoured working with the Canadian military.

“I was a lot older then most,” he said. “There were a lot of young soldiers that were in their 19 to early twenties that were on the pointy end of the stick. A lot. I think I went to 27 ramp ceremonies when I was there. There was a lot of loss of life. But the dedication and the honour to be amongst them was an experience I will never forget.”

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