March in downtown St. John's honours first female Mounties

Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Troop 17 — the first class of women recruits on the national police force — the RCMP in Newfoundland and Labrador led a ceremonial march through a small part of downtown St. John’s on Tuesday afternoon.

Just as they would have worn almost fifty years ago, some of the first female Mounties sported red blazers and black knee-length skirts for a march in St. John’s on Tuesday.

Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Troop 17 — the first class of women recruits on the national police force — the RCMP in Newfoundland and Labrador led a ceremonial march through a small part of downtown St. John’s on Tuesday afternoon.

Gail Courtney, one of the three Newfoundland and Labrador women to head to Regina and make up Troop 17, took in the event as it marched to the Lieutenant Governor’s official residence in St. John’s.

"To see all these members here and retired members celebrating us, and all women who have come behind us, it’s a tribute and it’s a very wonderful experience," she said.

When the first call for women recruits went out in 1974, Courtney had a brother already working with the RCMP, so a career in policing was already on her mind.

"I was in an office type of career, and I wanted something that would offer to me adventure, travel, working outside,” she remembers now.