Educating the world’s first responders

by Chris Thatcher

What do a search and rescue team from Abu Dhabi, heralded for its work in the Pakistani city of Balakot in the days following the October earthquake, and the Hong Kong ambulance service have in common? Both were trained by the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC).

From police officers in Beijing to fire crews in Saudi Arabia, all have honed their craft under the guidance of the JIBC, a Canadian educator of first responders, corrections and court officials, and emergency management practitioners that has earned a remarkable international reputation.

Established in 1978 by the BC Ministry of the Attorney General and the then Ministry of Education to provide education and training in justice and public safety, the institute has grown rapidly, acquiring clients not just outside the province but across the globe.

“We’re physically in over 180 communities around the province each year,” said Jack McGee, president of JIBC. “We offer programs to other provinces, territories, municipal governments and the federal government. And, with greater frequency, students from other countries are heading to the JIBC.”

Graduates include most search and rescue programs in western Canada, staff with Correctional Services Canada and the RCMP, and all Canadian Forces search and rescue technicians, who receive their paramedical training from the JIBC. In fact, when Canadian soldiers were caught in a friendly fire incident south of Kandahar, Afghanistan in April 2002, in which four were killed and eight were wounded, the responding paramedics were JIBC-trained. “The paramedics were recognized by both Canadian and American commands, and the institute was recognized by the commandant of the Canadian Forces Medical Services School in Borden,” McGee said.

From an initial focus on justice and public safety, the institute has expanded to seven campuses throughout the province offering programs and courses up to a Masters level in 10 disciplines to over 30,000 students each year.

That success has not gone unnoticed by foreign federal, provincial and municipal governments.

“We have delivered programs in five Chinese provinces and Mongolia,” McGee said. “Last year we had 365 police officers from Beijing come here. We also had faculty exchanges with Chinese officers. We have delivered programs in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and we currently have our third group of Saudi police officers here taking advanced programming. Through our Centre for Leadership and Community Learning, which offers a sexual abuse trauma certificate program, we have delivered to a group of Japanese psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors. They come here for a condensed version of the course over six days.” In addition, private corporations such as Saudi Aramco have contracted with the institute to provide fire officer diplomas.

JIBC is also looking for ways to increase access to international training via the internet, and has developed a method for cardiac technologists scattered across Canada to receive their annual evaluations. However, most programs require students “at some point to demonstrate their skills in front of an instructor”, a critical aspect they have yet to resolve, McGee notes. “We have 600 courses on the internet and over 3000 students at any one time but we can probably do a lot more online.”

Why the high demand from foreign governments? McGee believes it has much to do with the institute’s approach. When possible, instructors will use the native language, and all course documents are translated. For shorter courses, JIBC will even offer simultaneous translation.

“Cultural sensitivity is a significant issue,” he acknowledged. “However, we attempt to ensure that Canadian values are clearly underscored in how we deliver our programs. In our police training abroad, we often use senior female instructors. It gets some interesting reactions, but we’re finding that the senior leadership in our host countries want this cultural exposure for their officers; they want them to understand that it’s not only males who do this work, that they need to understand and respect the talents that are brought by people regardless of gender.

“Our police training, for example, goes beyond the traditional advanced models, with courses in human rights, ethics, internet security, forensic investigation, sexual abuse and family violence investigation, smuggling and immigration investigation, drugs and organized crime. We also specialize in programs that deal with terrorism, safety and security, leadership, management and strategic planning, and the development of police services particularly for the re-building of civil societies.”

JIBC instructors range from a core staff, to serving members of various forces to specialists in a particular field. “Some will provide our courses on a part-time basis, and some are willing to take their vacation and go overseas to deliver the course,” McGee notes. “In some cases, we have had departments provide people to provide courses overseas because it was important to them.”

Foreign venture
One of its earliest and ongoing foreign programs involves the Hong Kong fire service and ambulance command. In 1992, JIBC developed a paramedic-training program, which it has provided both in Hong Kong and Vancouver.

“They approached us because of the quality of the programs we were delivering to the BC ambulance service,” McGee said. “They had very limited experience with emergency medical services and delivering patients to a hospital. We have graduated 1000 people to the EMA 2 level, which is a fairly advanced level of programming. And our train-the-trainer model has allowed them to initiate a lot of the basic training on their own as well as the updates that are required. As a result – and we’re now into our 14th year of collaboration – we’ve indirectly assisted in the health system, saving thousands of lives of people who might not have been delivered successfully to hospital.

“The program is much more self-sufficient now than it was, and they’re developing a very good reputation on their own. They still stay in touch with us to make sure their standards are correct. It’s not exactly the best business model, but in terms of public safety, it’s what you want.

Five years ago, JIBC began delivering a high commanders course to police officers in Abu Dhabi. That led to training for corrections officers, a component of their police force, and paramedics. In the summer of 2005, a 12-man team of officers arrived in Vancouver to take a rescue skills course provided by the Fire and Safety division. Two months after graduating, they distinguished themselves among the rubble of Balakot, assisting with search and rescue efforts. “They received tremendous acclaim,” McGee said. “We were very gratified to see the work of the program.”

That and other accomplishments in Abu Dhabi led to inquiries from Saudi Aramco, the oil conglomerate, and the Saudi police force. Three years ago, 20 Saudi officers arrived for a year of specialist training in forensic traffic science, cyber crime, crisis management, leadership and other applied police techniques. “They liked that group’s work, so they sent us another group of 19 officers; this year they sent us 21,” McGee said. “We’re finding it a very rewarding program. It’s certainly been challenging.”

A program in conflict resolution has yet to become the same draw as policing or paramedic training, though it has been delivered in such countries as South Africa and Israel. But as the JIBC continues to explore options for internet delivery – “we are in discussions with Saudi Aramco about delivering our fire safety studies degree program via the internet,” McGee notes – expect its reach and influence on global justice and public safety education to broaden.