Cornwall police awards handed out

CORNWALL – Two retired Cornwall police officers have been recognized for more than three decades of policing the Seaway City.

Bob Burnie and Blake Paquin were among the 150 at the Simon Fraser Ballroom at the Ramada Cornwall Thursday night for the 20th Annual Retirement & Recognition Evening, organized by the Cornwall Community Police Service and the Cornwall Police Association.

Burnie started with the Cornwall force in 1981 and climbed through the ranks to inspector in July, 2010. He also had five bosses during his career, which ended in August, 2013.

Paquin started with CCPS in 1984 as a beat cop as well as handling major case files and handling complaints. He’s probably best known for being a media relations officer during his 30 years with the service. Paquin also organized ten Cops & Rockers Video Dance Party events, which raised money for the Boys & Girls Club of SD&G. He retired last month.

With the developments in the Ottawa shootings still fresh in everyone’s mind, many of the opening remarks touched on the importance of law enforcement. “It was your colleagues that looked after us and our country,” said MP Guy Lauzon. “We can never say ‘No, that (a terrorist attack) can’t happen here,’” remarked Mayor Bob Kilger.

During his address, Police Chief Dan Parkinson said this was one of his favourite evenings with a group of officers that had “so much class.” The chief spoke about the force’s community involvement. “There’s the firm hand of enforcement but there’s the open hand of what we do,” he said.

Awards were then handed out for different lengths of service. Here is the list of recipients:

35 Years

• Mrs. Wanda Carroll
• Staff Sgt. Brian Snyder

30 Years

• Mr. Blake Paquin

25 Years

• Det. Sgt. Marc Bissonnette
• Sgt. Trevor Butler
• Const. Constance Troutman

15 Years

• Const. Andrew Arbic
• Sgt. Rachel Carpenter
• Det. Const. Anthony Joseph
• Const. Jason Kilger (absent)
• Const. Jeffery Lalonde
• Ms. Josee Lalonde
• Staff Sgt. David Michaud
• Sgt. Patrick Paquette
• Det. Const. Tracey Pilon (absent)
• Sgt. Troy St. Germain (absent)

10 Years

• Det. Const. Mark Anderson (absent)
• Const. Dan Cloutier
• Mr. Danick Dumoulin
• Sgt. Chad Maxwell
• Chief of Police Daniel Parkinson

There were also awards of excellence for various officers.

Det. Const. Anthony Joseph received the award for excellence in investigation. He was recognized for solving the case of three armed robberies this year in Cornwall – from profiling the suspect to obtaining a full confession from the perpetrator.

Consts. Andrew Arbic and Sherri Cameron received an excellence award for dedication for their involvement with the Youth Services Branch and for going above and beyond for local youth.

Const. Justin Wheeler also received a board award of excellence for dedication for helping put out a fire and rescue tenants in an apartment complex on Glengarry Blvd. in May.

Consts. James Lemoyre, Brian Langlois and Casey MacGregor received the community service award of excellence. The trio helped put together and run the “Bikes and Badges” program. Over 50 kids were equipped this summer with bicycle safety equipment and also interacted with uniformed police officers, all with the help of local sponsors.

The award of excellence for innovation went to Lawrence Silmser. The so-called “Quartermaster” of the force was able to save the police service $75,000 over the last five years by recycling parts from old police cars on the fleet of newer vehicles.

Here is the gallery of board award of excellence recipients. Click on each one to enlarge.

Ontario Police Fitness Pin Awards were also given to Scott Coulter, George Knezevic and Patrick Paquette for 15 years service. The five year service award winners – Matthew Lemire, Michel Riel, Scott Bonneville and Patrick Depratto – were not able to attend the ceremony.