Junior Canadian Rangers mix history, training at anniversary event

It was three days of learning outdoor skills, becoming better leaders and celebrating their own history when the Junior Canadian Rangers marked their 25^th anniversary in Kuujjuaq this past weekend.

The celebration of the Junior Canadian Rangers program brought together local residents, dignitaries and members of the Canadian Armed Forces, including Gov. Gen. Mary Simon who is their commander-in-chief.

Close to 100 junior Rangers from as far away as British Columbia attended the weekend event, which included activities like ice sculpting, Inuit games, dogsledding and ice fishing in Kuujjuaq and at Lake Stewart in addition to winter skills training and information sessions.

There are five Ranger groups across Canada, including Quebec’s  2^nd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group.

In Quebec, there are 25 Canadian Ranger patrols including 700 Canadian Rangers — members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are called into action for emergency or domestic operations — as well as 700 Junior Canadian Rangers and 73 military and civilian personnel.

In interviews with Nunatsiaq News, three members of the 1st and 2nd Junior Canadian Ranger Patrol Groups talked about what it means to be part of the youth wing of what’s considered an important line of defence in Canada’s arctic sovereignty.

Damian McPherson, 18, from Tulita, N.W.T., said he has been in the rangers program “since the day I was eligible at the age of 12.”

He said one of the benefits of events like this is it allows him to reunite with members from his Canadian Ranger Patrol Group.

Members live great distances apart and can’t be together all that often, but when the group comes together, it “always feels like home and brings a sense of family at the end of it,” he said.

McPherson is part of the 1^st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, whose geographic boundaries take in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Atlin, B.C.

He intends to go to school in the south and is debating whether to eventually join the army reserves or pursue a career as an officer in the regular armed forces.

He said his decision has been informed by his experience in the rangers.

Not all junior rangers start as young as McPherson did.

From left, Trudy Nagyougalik, 18, Baker Lake Junior Ranger Patrol, 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group; Damian McPherson, 18, Tulita Junior Ranger Patrol, 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group; Nikki Daisy Annanack (14), Junior Ranger Patrol, 2nd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. (Photo courtesy of Department of National Defence)

Trudy Nagyougalik, 18, of Baker Lake, only joined a year ago.

“I wanted to try new experiences and meet new friends,” she said, adding she wanted to try new things outside of home and school.

Nagyougalik has no immediate plans beyond high school just yet, but said she intends to continue with Canadian Rangers when she ages out of the Junior Canadian Rangers when she turns 19.

Meanwhile, Nikki Daisy Annanack, 14, of Kangiqsuallujuaq in Nunavik, has been with the Rangers less than a year as a member of the 2^nd Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, responsible for Nunavik.

She has enjoyed the experience so much, she said, that she has tried to convince her friends to join too.

All three youths got to meet Simon, who is Canada’s first Inuk governor general.

“A friend of mine in George River told me to tell her that she loves her, so I had to,” said Annanack, who gave Simon some country food.

“She’s really nice,” she said.

Simon, who was born and raised in Nunavik, said in her speech that her father was one of the original Canadian Rangers when the program was developed after the Second World War.

“He provided information about both air and sea movements and the weather, which were vital for transatlantic military flights,” she said.

“I have also had the privilege of meeting Rangers as governor general and commander-in-chief.”

She said “Rangers not only serve their communities, but also care for them.”

McPherson said he took the skills he learned with the Rangers back to his own community. Much of what he focused on was leadership training, and by the age of 15, he said, he was working for the hamlet of Tulita.

“I realized that when you take [on] more experiences, it widens your horizon in terms of your abilities … especially in areas that you really want to excel in,” he said.

For McPherson, this last enhanced training event was bittersweet. On Friday, he said with a laugh that he had seven more days until he turned 19 and “aged out” of the Rangers.

The experience, he said, has been life changing for him.