Immediate release

SENATE ENDORSES RUNCIMAN’S SCHOLARSHIP MOTION

OTTAWA, Dec. 15, 2010 – The Senate is standing behind the families of fallen peace officers.

Senators voted unanimously Tuesday evening to pass a resolution by Senator Bob Runciman (Ontario – Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes) urging the government to institute a scholarship program for families of federal peace officers who are killed in the line of duty.

“I am grateful that senators on both sides of the aisle put aside partisan differences to support the families of peace officers,” Runciman said.  “It’s a small thing, but it sends a message that we appreciate the sacrifices they make.”

Runciman would like to see a federal program patterned after a fund that was instituted when he was Solicitor General in the province of Ontario. The Constable Joe MacDonald Public Safety Officers Survivors Scholarship was named after a dedicated young Sudbury police officer who, following a routine traffic stop, was murdered execution style by two violent thugs, one of whom was out on parole at the time.

The Ontario fund was started with $5 million, which has never had to be replenished. A federal fund would apply to such federal peace officers as RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, and the Correctional Service of Canada, among others. Forty-nine federal peace officers have lost their lives in the line of duty in the last 20 years, most of them Mounties.

The resolution passed by the Senate is non-binding, but Runciman is hopeful the measure can be included in the next federal budget.

“I’d like to see the government heed this resolution, but I’d like it even more if it wasn’t necessary, if our peace officers could return safely to their families every night,” Runciman said.

For more information, please contact:
Barry Raison
Office of Senator Robert Runciman
(613) 943-4020
raisob@sen.parl.gc.ca