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Career dream of joining RCMP comes true after father’s murder BY IAN GRAHAM EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
Sean Carlson was fascinated with RCMP officers ever since he was a young child but when he failed to qualify on his first shot at becoming a member of the force at the age of 21, he figured that maybe he wasn’t cut out for that line of work. Nearly two decades later, he made the decision to go after his dream again, leaving behind a career in mining for one with Canada’s national police force. His father would have been proud of Sean if he were still around, but he died more than two years before his son began his training at RCMP Depot in Saskatchewan, a death that provided Sean the motivation to pursue his childhood dream once again – and this time achieve it. Nine years ago – on Oct. 26, 2007 – Sean’s father Bernie Carlson was fatally shot in his home by an unidentified person in a murder that remains unsolved. That tragedy is what started Sean on his journey to becoming what he is today, an RCMP officer with six years of service in Kindersley, Deschambault Lake and Yorkton, all in Saskatchewan. “About a year-anda-half after my dad passed is
when the seed was planted again for the second time,” Sean said in August during a visit to Thompson, where his mother still lives. “My wife was a clerk at the detachment here so between people that I got to know that were RCMP members here through her and those that I had met through the investigation into my father’s death it kind of got the juices flowing again.” It wasn’t easy for Sean to make the decision to change careers at that point but eventually he did so, with the help of some encouragement from his wife Denise. “It was in January 2009, the first part of January, where I was still talking but not actually doing anything about it and that’s when my wife said to me, ‘If you’re going to do this, then do it, but quit talking about it,’ and that was when I made the decision right then and there that I was going to go for it. It was the end of January 2010 when I left here and I started at RCMP depot in Regina on Feb. 2, 2010.” Sean was 40 and had 10 years of pensionable mining experience at Inco and Vale when he made his career switch.
Thompson Citizen photo by Ian Graham Sean Carlson on the steps of his family home in Thompson where his father was murdered two-and-a-half years before Sean began training at RCMP Depot in Regina, Saskatchewan. “It was getting to the point at 40 if you’re going to make a major career choice and change in life it’s now or it’s never,” Sean says. “I was tired of working at Inco and the min-
ing lifestyle and I wanted a change in my life.” His father’s death had also made him re-evaluate what was important to him. “At one time being retired
by 50 was a priority,” he says. “Suddenly, it didn’t matter anymore.” Training to be an RCMP officer was an ordeal. “There were times going through Depot that emotionally, physically, mentally you’re drained,”
says Sean. “They put a lot of pressure on you in all those aspects.” But the support of those around him and the realization that he was so close to achieving a dream kept him motivated. “Seeing the graduating troop every week all dressed in the red serge, the sense of pride and accomplishment that was literally built in every aspect of their being, was one of the things that helped me get through one more week,” Sean recalls. “Having the support of my wife, my children, close friends, there wasn’t anybody who come out and said, ‘Oh, this is the dumbest frickin’ thing you’ve ever said or done in your life.’ Everybody was rooting for me so that really helped to get through and then the day that I graduated was one of the proudest days of my life. Dressed in that uniform, standing up there being sworn in and receiving my badge were phenomenal experiences.” And as hard as training was, actually starting to work as an RCMP officer at his first posting in Kindersley was equally daunting. “You were no longer workContinued on Page 7
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