Brenda Butterworth-Carr of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Hän Nation in Yukon has been appointed as the Deputy Commissioner of the B.C. RCMP. She takes over for Craig Callens, who is retiring after 32 years in the force.
British Columbia’s E Division is the largest of the RCMP’s 15 divisions in the country. This appointment is the first time the post has been held by a First Nations woman in British Columbia.
She was also the first aboriginal woman to lead an RCMP division when she took the role of commanding officer in Saskatchewan in 2013. In August 2016, she returned to B.C.’s E Division in the role of officer in charge of criminal operations core policing.
Butterworth-Carr is chairwoman of the RCMP’s National Women’s Advisory Committee and a member of the Canadian and International Association of Chiefs of Police. She was invested as a member of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.
She has been a Mountie since 1987, and has been the officer in charge of criminal operations core policing in B.C. since August 2016, police said in a statement. She has also held a wide range of positions in police organizations at the provincial, federal and international level.
B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Morris, a former Mountie, said he met Butterworth-Carr several years ago.
“I was immediately struck by her professional and personal integrity and passion for public safety,” he said in a statement. “I’ve observed her progression over the years as a leader in the RCMP and continue to be impressed.”
