Work has been a lot easier for an RCMP officer since he showed off his dance skills at Waterhen Lake’s annual powwow earlier this month.
Cst. Jean-Philippe Gauthier has been stationed there for five months, but before a video of him dancing was released many didn’t know he actually lived in the community.
The video went viral online, receiving a multitude of hits.
For Gauthier, a phone call from RCMP’s media relations the morning after he spent the whole night at the powwow came as a huge surprise.
“They woke me up,” he said. “So she’s said ‘yeah, your video is like, right now, is at like 30,000 views, you got approximately, every 10 minutes 10,000 views.’ So I’m like ‘okay, but still what are you talking about?’”
With a light-natured laugh, Gauthier, a francophone man originally from Montreal, recalled what he said next; ”so am I in problem now?”
When he moved to Waterhen Lake, which is north of Meadow Lake, the RCMP strongly encouraged him to be a part of things.
“Their first thing that they wanted to improve is that they felt the gap between the police officers and the community,” he said.
Gauthier said he wasn’t sju about dancing despite his inexperience, but admits he was shocked that the video went viral.
“I’m not a dancer but I saw the other people. I even asked on Friday and before I had kids show me how to dance, but I tried to follow what I saw,” he said.
“It just came right out of me. After my shift I just stopped by the powwow by myself and I thought you know what, like let’s enjoy what’s going on. And I stayed there, like, on the Sunday I stayed there until it was over at 1 (a.m.)”
Since that night, he said things have improved for him on duty.
Doing some bar walks the weekend after and during traffic stops, there have been less barriers between himself and the people he serves.
“It helps, let’s say that way. People are actually pretty nice, they recognize me. I think there’s maybe that feeling that there’s not much of a distance between me and the people I actually work with,” Gauthier said. “People are more open with me so it’s way easier for me to do my job.”
He’s keeping optimistic that RCMP officers will become more active in their communities, especially after seeing a new video of Mounties in Manitoba dancing at a powwow recently.
Here’s a link to one of the videos on Facebook: