Role of Military Police

A big part of it is what you’re taught, right and taught at home. And I was taught always to treat people with respect and to try to sort of treat them the way you want to be treated. So when I would, as a military policeman, get in a situation, I would, you know you sort of think there but for the grace of God go I, and sometimes you have to sort of put people in jail because they’re drunk or fighting or whatever. But you try to do it as nice as possible if I could put it in that . . . that may not, you know, be that easy to do and sometimes you have to do the things that you have to do. And one of the things is that you may not, you know, win many friends at the time, but generally you hope that the person comes to accept, yeah, I was responsible for my actions and the military policeman was just doing his job.

Mr. Halliday describes the duty of a military police officer during Canadian Forces service in Cyprus.

Dennis Halliday

Mr. Halliday was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia, and raised in a family with nine children. His father served in the Second World War. After the war, his family moved to Montréal, Quebec, where he attended school. During his high school years, Mr. Halliday became a member of the Army Cadet Corp. In 1974, he joined the Canadian Forces and became a member of the United Nations Policing Company. During his military career, Mr. Halliday accepted a six-month deployment to Cyprus. After 12 years of military service, Mr. Halliday retired, moved to Belfast, Prince Edward Island, and became employed as a security officer with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Charlottetown.