(typical Comissionaire in picture)
Of all the jobs, and there were many, I’ve had over the decades, perhaps the most interesting was as a Commissionaire. For those under the age of 60 in particular, the Royal Canadian Corp of Commissionaires is an association of mostly former armed forces service personnel, hired to perform contracted security work across Canada.As a new member, after being the only person to ever ‘ace’ the obligatory government Security course, my first assignment was as a White Rock by-law Enforcement Officer.
Although as mentioned it was a contract job, we felt like we were part of the White Rock city team, in full cooperation with the local RCMP detachment (sorry about all those parking tickets I wrote :-).
I was also assigned as a gate keeper at a large brewery; and at a CNR container shipping yard; mail sorter and deliverer in the mail room of a high rise office tower in downtown Vancouver, and so on.
Indeed the sites were many and varied.But the most interesting job site assignment for me was at the OCA (Organized Crime Agency). I can discuss this because their name has been changed (but not their purpose) and they are now located in a new multi-million dollar Surrey RCMP headquarters building.
But at the time I was assigned, it was located in an unmarked converted industrial building on Annacis Island. Commissionaires like me controlled all entree and exits by remote control. We also monitored multi external cameras, even passing traffic was recorded. Of course all personnel had to use magnetic access cards.
Night shifts could be rather eerie, literally a hundred or more humming computers on several floors with few personnel were our primary companions. (Speaking of that, (ahem), I received a commendation from the Commandant for suggesting computers could be safely shutdown each night to save electricity.)
At one time a particular disturbing responsibility was when Robert Picton mass murder evidence was kept in a locked trailer on the property. We had to regularly check on it, preserved for subsequent court actions during the night shifts.
I also had some separate employment with the OCA apart from Commissionaires, but its probably not appropriate to publish details about that, even though its just tech history now. Suffice to say it was a one of a kind unique experience to be associated with major organized crime-fighters.