RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT - Through the Years

RICHARD ALLEN SCOTT
THROUGH THE YEARS
Rockcliffe is located in the east-end of Ottawa and was
established in 1864 as an independent village, which
status it maintained from 1926 until it was
amalgamated with the rest of the city, on January 1,
2001. In 1977 the entire village of Rockcliffe Park was
designated a Heritage Conservation District. It is one
of only three surviving nineteenth-century communities
of its kind in North America. The other two, in the
United States, are both recognized as national historic
places.
Residence of Prime Minister
My duty, on 12-hour shifts, was to ‘patrol’ the streets of the village to ensure the security of the
VIPs living there. Some embassies and Ambassador’s residences were outside of the village,
in the city proper, so I could get a change of scenery. But this was a mind-numbing job, and
one I could not come to terms with. I absolutely hated it, and wished even more that I hadn’t left
the West.
After about a month I was transferred back to my original assignment within Records
Management. That again was a disappointment. I ended up on a rotational training program,
spending time in the various records offices of the RCMP in HQ. It was interesting, however, in
that the Security Service records (this is before Security & Intelligence was taken away from the
RCMP) contained files on a number of fellows I went to school with in Regina! Interesting
reading. Another section I rotated through was Forms Design…which I was quite good at. The
Sergeant in charge asked me to stay there, and although I enjoyed the creativity and design
work, I couldn’t think of a good reason, as a uniformed police officer, to stay in such a position.
Other than sight-seeing and going out drinking on the weekends, I can’t think of anything that
sticks in my mind for this period of time, other than my sheer disappointment in leaving B.C.
June 2017
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