Policing Canada's Century: A History of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police

Steven R. Hewitt teaches history at the University of Saskatchewan.

Despite their importance as both a symbol and a shaping force, there are
few historical works on the police and policing in Canada. Too often the
works that do exist represent polar opposites: hagiography or polemics
with no middle ground. The positive portrayals, and these by far
represent the majority of the books, are usually written by ex-police
officers; the negative works largely emanate from disgruntled academics.
This scholarly appraisal of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
(CACP) marks a welcome break from the status quo.

Historian Greg Marquis’s study uses a chronological approach to
explore several themes related to the CACP, including its impact on
governments and on the criminal-justice system. More important, the CACP
serves as a vehicle in the 20th century. Social reformers pressured them
over such issues as the white slave trade, prohibition, and narcotics.

The potential weakness of the book is obvious. The fact that this study
was done in cooperation with the CACP (its current head wrote one of the
forewords, and Marquis notes that without the assistance of the board of
directors the book would not have been possible) raises questions about
its objectivity. In certain areas, the book does not seem critical
enough. When discussing drug policy and its enforcement by the police,
Marquis justifies the excesses by noting that the “substances were
harmful.” This entirely misses the point, for the literature on the
subject suggests that racial fear, not concern for the victims of the
narcotics trade, influenced Canadian drug policy in the early 20th
century. And there is a suggestion of currying favor with his
benefactors when Marquis writes that “unlike the modern [CACP], which
embraces multiculturalism, the 1920s and 1930s members, reflecting the
popular opinion of the day, saw many ‘foreigners’ as potential
troublemakers.”

Despite its lack of critical analysis in some areas, this book is an
important institutional study of the police—and, one hopes, the
beginning of a new trend.