Ron Gignac
Manitoulin has benefited from strong policing by both the Ontario Provincial Police and Indigenous police services for many years. Recently, there has been a major changing of the guard as long-serving police officers have retired or moved on and been replaced with a fresh crop of people dedicated to serving and protecting the community. This is especially true in local Indigenous police services. This series follows the beat of a new generation of police men and women on Manitoulin.
Ron Gignac’s long and winding road of service seems destined to have brought him to Manitoulin. Everything from his childhood family travel adventures to his diverse career spanning decades in the military and policing set the stage for his current role as Chief of the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Force.
Despite a lifetime of adventure and frequent change, the one constant has been his profound belief in, and commitment to, public service. “There is no definition of success that does not include service to others,” he says.
That sentiment may stem, in part, from his experiences as a child that exposed him to different parts of the country. Born and raised in St. Catherines, his parents and two siblings spent their summers camping and exploring as much of Canada as they could. They spent extensive amounts of time in northern Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, discovering a broad array of communities and nurturing a love of the north in young Ron. The family lived on a farm for several years in rural Niagara raising mixed livestock that they sold locally, also teaching Ron the importance of routines and the value of hard work.
Ron’s outlook on life was influenced as well by his family history of military service. His great grandfather was a veteran of the first World War, his grandfather a veteran of WWII, and his father had been in the Canadian Army engineering corps as well as an auxiliary OPP officer in St. Catherines. He felt the call of duty as early as Grade 9 in high school. “It was what I wanted to do. I wanted to stand up and serve. I knew that was my calling.”
After graduation, Ron was accepted into the Canadian Military Engineers branch of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1984. He spent from 1985 to 1993 at CFB Petawawa. While there, he trained as a paratrooper and became part of the Canadian Special Service Forces Command (SSF), a specialized high-readiness unit that can deploy on short notice to protect Canadians from threats at home and abroad. During his 15 years in the armed services, he also did two peacekeeping tours in Cyprus and was sent to the first Persian Gulf War, and then another deployment to Iraq in 1992.
Somehow, amid all this action, he found time to marry his teen sweetheart and the continuing love of his life, Betty, whom he met at 15 through Cadets at CFB Borden. They married in 1989 and are still going strong 36 years later. The couple has two daughters, Jackie and Nicky, both serving in the military as Air Force officers, and five grandchildren living in Manitoba and Alberta.
Ron’s life of service next took him to CFB Chilliwack, BC where he was chosen to be an instructor at its school of engineering on the bomb disposal and demolitions team. In Iraq he had specialized in landmine warfare and ordnance disposal and was internationally qualified to work on explosive ordinance disposal. That expertise caught the attention of the Vancouver City Police, where Ron provided ordinance disposal training. And that launched the next stage in his career path. “It’s what got me interested in policing. There are a lot of parallels between the two services, and I loved it from the start.” He was soon hired by the Ontario Provincial Police. Despite his military background, he was required to undergo training at the Ontario Policy Academy.
Having a taste of life in Ontario again, Ron was happy to be recruited by the Shelburne detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), where he was later selected to serve on the OPP emergency response team. The opportunity took him across central Ontario, moving on to New Tecumseh and Caledon detachments before being promoted to detachment commander, taking him back to Petawawa once again, where he rounded out his 13-year career with the OPP with the Upper Ottawa Valley Detachment.
“I aspired to take on larger leadership roles because I would have the ability to have positive influence and I wanted to serve in an expanded capacity. Having had leadership positions in both the Armed Forces and OPP inspired me to look at promotion opportunities. I always wanted to make a positive difference – to enrich the lives of those I had charge of and to have a positive influence in communities I was policing. So, I became active in committees and sub-committees working with communities. I wanted my staff to know I had their back.”
Ron’s sense of duty extended beyond his professional life. He and Betty were engaged in everything from church to school voluntarism in their successive communities. They also made mission trips to El Salvador doing volunteer activities. “We wanted to raise our daughters to have a sense of service and community responsibility. If you look at those who history has lauded and people appreciate, their lives always included service to others and doing something greater than serving themselves.”
Prior to leaving the OPP, Ron was given an 18-month leave for a special assignment to lead a Nuclear Response Force for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited in nearby Chalk River. The tactical force was comprised of former police officers and retired military members. It was equipped with everything from weapons to armoured vehicles to safeguard the nuclear facility from attack.
Practically in the neighbourhood, Ron then transitioned to community policing when he was hired by the Deep River Police Service as an officer. It was understood he would be groomed to replace the Chief when he retired, a role Ron thoroughly enjoyed. The next opportunity arose two years after that when he became Deputy Chief with Belleville Police Service. The bigger centre had more to offer and the chance to learn more before Ron was promoted to the top job there when the former Chief retired in 2016. It was a position he would hold until 2021. In 2018, he was awarded national recognition for reducing violent crime in his jurisdiction more than any other police chief in Canada within just one year of his appointment.
“By that point I had 37 years of combined service and felt I had accomplished what I wanted to in Belleville, building a robust integrated police service. I decided that, after going full tilt for years, it was time for a little break, and Betty wanted to travel while she was still mobile, having been diagnosed with MS.”
The couple spent the next couple of years travelling extensively across Canada and the United States. As their grandchildren were being born, they also were drawn back home. It was while back in the country that Ron was contacted by an executive search firm seeking candidates for a new Chief of Police position in Wikwemikong. Ron knew that the service needed to be reorganized and restructured. He was attracted by the opportunities, especially to develop specialized policing units and to build a police service into a vibrant service delivery gold standard. Of course, he also knew there would be challenges but viewed them as an opportunity to make a positive difference. He arrived in June 2024 and took up his new duties later that month. It is a decision he revels in.
“This is a really good place to be – take it from someone who’s lived in different parts of the world and across Canada. There’s no place like Manitoulin. This beautiful part of creation is a very special spot. There is peace and serenity in the traditions and values that people have here. The law of reciprocity is alive and well on Manitoulin. I’s very giving atmosphere is a welcoming presence.”
“I believe our work is not just about public safety but also community safety in the sense of addressing drug abuse, addictions and recovery and all the pressing health and social problems impacting our families that flow from those challenges. Usually, mental health challenges are related to addictions and illicit narcotics and alcohol. As the comprehensive drug strategy we launched late last year makes clear, this isn’t just a local issue, it’s a national crisis and one that requires the support of the entire community. We need to shift the culture away from problems to solutions that necessarily involve a multi-pronged, community-wide approach.
Our goal as a tribal police force is to safeguard our people, preserve our way of life, and become a model for proactive, culturally grounded approaches to the drug epidemic. That runs the gamut from working with young people in schools to educate our community and prevent drugs from coming in, to providing the appropriate avenue to citizens in crisis to get help in recovery.
It also means collaborating with our local partners, the OPP and the UCCM, and the RCMP on border integrity matters such as joint marine patrols. The effectiveness of these partnerships was demonstrated during the last few days of 2024 when, working with the OPP K-9 unit, we conducted a sweeping operation that led to the seizure of trafficking quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine. We need the strength and resources of our policing partnerships. Because, even with the important work of agencies helping community members with addictions, recovery and so on, we need to take the lead as we are the front line in times of emergency.”
With a year now under his belt, Chief Gignac is encouraged by the progress being achieved and optimistic about being able to do even better in the future. “A big component of what we’re doing and will be doing more of is addictions education, the recovery component and enforcement all working together at the same time. We are learning from subject matter experts from across the province and the country as well as emergency personnel and community members how to build education portals to services available so we can bring the community together – not just in Wikwemikong but Island-wide. If people know those support mechanisms exist it’ s another step in the right direction to community healing and dependency recovery. Even more important, if we can prevent these problems through early childhood interventions, that’s 10 steps in the right direction.”
An especially promising development is the assurance of stable financial resources, thanks to an agreement signed in February among the Wikwemikong Tribal Police Service, the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario. Under it, the WTPS will receive $112 million dollars over 10 years, which Ron describes as a “paradigm shift for public safety in our community.” Among other benefits, additional funding will be put to work to increase both uniform and civilian personnel from 40 to 72 positions and build a new expansion to the current station.
There’s still a long road ahead and this seasoned warrior knows that battles inevitably lie in wait. But Ron’s life of service and commitment to community has convinced him that even the toughest challenges can be met and overcome if you see them as learning opportunities and the chance to do better – something he will continue to do no matter how daunting the task.
