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Although his new book is an autobiography, Devon Clunis is quick to point out that the story in his new book isn’t merely his own.
“It really is our story,” he says.
The former chief of the Winnipeg Police Service recently shared ONE: A Story of Hope in Our Time, his first autobiography amongst his literary output over the course of his career.
Clunis, who retired from the Winnipeg Police in 2016 and went on to serve as Inspector General of Policing for the province of Ontario, says that he was inspired to use his story as a way to illustrate how to start community conversations that will help heal divisions.
“Right now, I feel that we’re so fractured in society,” he shared in an interview on Morning Light, expressing a desire for us all to find our shared humanity in our day-to-day lives. “When we move forward together, it’s incredible what we can accomplish, and that’s what my life has been about.”
Listen to Devon Clunis's full conversation with Nolan Kehler here:
ONE: A Story of Hope in Our Time traces Clunis’s humble beginnings growing up with his grandmother in Harmony Vale, Jamaica to moving to Winnipeg at age 11 to live with his mother. Clunis credits both women in the book for teaching him the values of resiliency that helped him to meet the challenge of living in a new place.
“The very first year was a big struggle for me,” shares Clunis, recounting how he failed sixth grade. “I remember sitting with two teachers and one teacher said these words: ‘Not a smart little boy’. But inside of me, there was something almost rebellious saying, ‘No, I can do this’.”
That spirit of facing down seemingly insurmountable obstacles is something that Clunis uses to describe his book: “a call to action encouraging us all to embrace compassion, build stronger communities, and work towards a more inclusive and caring world.”
“It is a call to all of us,” he elaborates, while acknowledging the challenges that come with building communities across social boundaries. “These struggles actually should be a compliment to us... because we’re so diverse. And yes, we’re learning and we’re growing and sometimes, something might come out the wrong way, but it’s not meant maliciously. So, let’s extend a little bit more grace to each other.”
In his new book, Clunis creates space to participate in nuanced community conversations by including questions at the end of each chapter, inviting readers to very intentionally engage with how they are relating to his story. It’s a way to break down the social isolation that Clunis has watched with alarm develop in the last five years after the COVID-19 public health lockdowns and the rise in racial divides after events like the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
“People are unable to process what they’re thinking, what they’re feeling together in a healthy environment,” Clunis observes. “All that’s occurring is fear, and the only thing that grows in fear is going to be greater division. Those questions were very intentional about pulling us out of that isolated state into more meaningful environments where we can have really collaborative, productive, cohesive conversations.”
Conversations between the Winnipeg Police Service and the community at large, particularly those from racialized backgrounds, have been frayed in recent years with community groups citing a lack of trust between the two. During his tenure as chief, Clunis addressed this by hosting community forums to foster better dialogue, and also encouraging officers to be catalysts for change, emphasizing that law enforcement is just a part of the role of police in communities.
Although Clunis notes that events like the murder of George Floyd have driven a “major wedge” between the police and the community, he’s still confident that fostering nuanced conversations is the best way forward.
“I’m putting the onus back on us to be the ones to extend the first olive branch,” says Clunis about the role that police as an institution have in starting those conversations. “I will see a couple of officers walking, and most times they’re just walking with their heads down or they’re talking with one another and not engaging. So, I'll be very intentional on saying, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’, and saying we have to be the ones to recognize that we have to be the ones to reach out and build that relationship with the community.”
“It’s the simple things that really make the biggest difference."
