By David F. Rooney
RCMP Cpl. Doug Morris knew he was in for a ride the day he started work at the Revelstoke detachment.
“I was at the Three Bears (what is now Bad Paul’s) having coffee with some of the guys when we got a call: there had been an avalanche on the Durand Glacier. There were seven dead.”
That was six and a half years ago and Morris, who is the detachment’s highly skilled forensics expert has enjoyed every moment of his time here in Revelstoke. He has helped unravel all kinds of crime in the city and the surrounding region. He was tapped to undergo highly specialized training in nuclear, chemical and biological threats in case the unthinkable happens at the 2010 Olympics. And he was one of the forensics specialists sent to the Lower Mainland to investigate the string of gang-related shootings there earlier this year.
But now it’s off to Ottawa, where he’ll be promoted to sergeant and become one of the instructors in the Forensic Identification Unit of the Police Sciences Faculty at the Canadian Police Academy, training forensic police for every force in the country — and a few from abroad — except the Ontario Provincial Police and the Quebec Police Force.
“2010 is still a go-ahead,” Morris said. “It was one of my conditions. After spending all of these years training for the Olympics I wasn’t going to move if it meant missing that.”
This will also mean a big change for his wife, Jane, who is the District Principal for Support Services.
She’s an old hand at having to start over. Over the years she has had to acquire teaching certificates from a number of different provinces. Ontario’s will just be the latest.
“I’ll miss this role and (her former posting) being principal at Columbia Park Elementary,” she said. “I couldn’t have been more fortunate.”
But who knows what the future will bring?
“It’s the same thing with every move,” she said. “But I always land on my feet.”
For now, they plan on getting through the summer, getting all of their belongings packed and ready for the big move to Wonderland-on-the-Rideau and finding a new home there.
“Know anyone who wants to buy a lovely house in Revelstoke?” laughed Morris.
