Diderot, a Correctional Officer at the Federal Training Centre in Quebec

My name is Diderot Roc, and I am a Level Two Correctional Officer.

I was pleasantly surprised when the director sent me the order for a briefing. That’s when she told me that she had just received the news that I was the new recipient of the Emerson Douyon Award. So, it was a pleasant surprise and as I say, it’s an individual and collective form of recognition. Because apart from or after me, there are quite a few people who are involved, who help me, who support me in all my activities, at the Employment Equity Committee, in terms of diversity.

I have been involved in several committees, and I am still involved. What I am most proud of is to share a little of my culture with the officers and all the staff, but also to have been able to contribute to a gathering event. So, I think sometimes it’s fear of others that makes us a little afraid. But I think that when you participate, when you share, you learn to know others. Therefore, my main goal is to create a quiet climate at work of brotherly camaraderie between all of us.

And in terms of multiculturalism, it’s to enable those who are in the majority to understand the differences that come from elsewhere. I also believe that, instead of being perceived as a problem, it should be seen as a privilege and a benefit.

I am not there to judge inmates. They have already been tried. Therefore, I am there to help them move forward. And by my own example, to show them that they can change.

It’s important to be able to make a difference for the clientele, to be able to help someone to get out, to reintegrate into society, because I believe in rehabilitation and I think that inmates are a projection of our image. They are human beings like us, who may have made serious mistakes, but as the Service says so well, everyone deserves a second chance. So if we can work, if there is an inmate who reintegrates into society and does not come back, it is a success for us.

I love my work, I love what I do, I love my involvement and I think that on the last day I’m still going to be involved in various committees.