The Toronto Star
WINNIPEG — Help from above couldn’t hurt, says new top cop, police chaplain in the murder capital of Canada
Winnipeg, Canada’s violent crime capital, could use divine help, acting Police Chief Devon Clunis says.
Clunis, who is still chaplain for the Winnipeg Police Service, told ChristianWeek.org recently he truly believes prayers will be a “significant piece” of his efforts to reduce crime and put Winnipeg back on the right track.
“I’m a little tired of us . . . being '(the) murder capital of Canada,’” said the Jamaican-born Clunis, 48, who is Winnipeg’s first black police chief. He was appointed the city’s new chief earlier this month but has yet to be sworn in.
Earlier this year, Statistics Canada reported that the Manitoba capital once again had the highest homicide rate and violent crime rate in the country in 2011.
“What would happen if we all just truly - I’m talking about all religious stripes here - started praying for the peace of this city and then actually started putting some action behind that?” he said. “I believe something phenomenal is going to happen in our city. I truly believe it’s coming. I don’t think I’ve arrived at this position just by chance.”
While it is somewhat unusual for a police chief to publicly call upon a higher being for a little help, Rev. Bill Miller, of Knox United Church in downtown Winnipeg, thinks Clunis may be on to something. Others are a little more skeptical but wish him well just the same.
“I think it is incredibly important and I would agree very much with the chief,” Miller told the Star Monday. “I am a very strong believer in it (prayer). What is prayer at its essence? It’s a positive energy . . . it’s a collective intention for good. So whether it’s Muslim prayers or Christian prayers, Jewish prayers or aboriginal prayers, it all adds to a kind of positive energy,” he said.
Clunis, who could not be reached by the Star, told ChristianWeek.org his Christian faith is the basis for everything he does. He recalled asking God in 1998 “to put me in a place in the police service where I have the opportunity to stand up and tell people there is a God who truly cares about them.”
And just three weeks later, the police department started a chaplaincy program and asked him to join.
Pat Martin, the New Democrat MP for Winnipeg Centre, said he welcomes a “more enlightened spiritual approach to law enforcement.” But “Winnipeg’s crime rate is more a function of chronic long-term poverty.”
Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal MP for Winnipeg North, said he wouldn’t discourage prayer. “But ... what we need in addition to that would be programs that would take kids out of gangs and into more productive activities. That’s the real issue.”
Copyright 2012 Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd.