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Canada’s Bullet Catchers
by Jim Wagner
Canada has yet to lose a head of state to an assassin’s bullet, knife or bomb. That’s because surrounding the prime minister 24 hours a day are highly trained people who are willing to put themselves between their leader and life-threatening danger. They’re the “bullet catchers” of the Canadian Protective Services.
Although the bodyguards receive martial arts training, when the bullets start to fly, they don’t try to deflect or dodge them like Neo in The Matrix. They place their bodies between the prime minister and the lead—hence the nickname “bullet catchers.”
Becoming a bodyguard for government officials is the most difficult task in Canadian police work. Unlike our presidential-protection unit, the U.S. Secret Service, to which one can apply directly, Canada requires its bodyguards to start as police officers. During six months of basic training, they learn Canadian law, police procedures, firearms, emergency vehicle operations, and 40 hours of defensive tactics—a hybrid system of strikes, blocks, arrest-and-control techniques and physical conditioning.
The defensive-tactics program is designed to comply with use-of-force policies while giving constables the techniques and tactics they need to protect themselves. Their hand strikes resemble those of Western boxing. Their kicks stay below the waist so trainees can maintain balance while generating maximum power. Their ground tactics are a mix of wrestling, judo and jujutsu. The program also includes gun-retention techniques, baton techniques, gun and knife disarms, and lots of hitting and kicking drills to build power and speed.
After graduating, constables are sent to duty stations and spend six months in recruit field training, where they’re paired with a veteran training officer who familiarizes them with patrol, reports and protocol. Once they complete this phase, they’re ready to handle calls on their own. They can then pursue other specialties, but to become eligible for duty in the protective services, they need to learn detective work, traffic control, K9 operations, aviation and so on. Of course, being a member of an Emergency Response Team/Group Tactique Intervention—identical to American SWAT units—is always a big plus.
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Facing a gunman, Chris St. Jacques seizes the weapon’s barrel with his right hand (1) and the man’s elbow with his left (2). He then leverages the gun backward to break the opponent’s grip (3) so he can be disarmed.
- PHOTOS BY JIM WAGNER |
Because so many would like to join the protective services, only those with extensive experience and a spotless record receive serious consideration. A successful candidate must undergo three weeks of additional training in the protective services. Because agents can be thrown right into the prime-minister protection detail after graduation, the course is rigorous.
The curriculum consists of tactical driving, advanced firearms skills and methods for putting together a “file.” A file is a security package that’s created before the prime minister visits a given location. It includes a survey of the site, background checks on personnel who are involved, contact with the local authorities, route selection, threat assessment, contingency plans and hundreds of other details.
Trainees are then taught how to use their bodies and equipment as barriers to protect their principal. This can run contrary to their police training, for when an officer is fired upon or otherwise attacked, he’s conditioned to take cover and protect himself. To serve as a bodyguard, he must reprogram himself to protect the principal like a human shield, then evacuate him.
In some ways, Canada lags behind America when it comes to dealing with combative subjects. For example, most Canadian agents receive insufficient training in how to stop a knife attack. “Canadian edged-weapons training is not up to the standards of other countries,” said Chris St. Jacques, an agent in the Canadian Protective Services and one of six defensive-tactics instructors for the prime minister’s unit.
And he should know; he’s trained with the U.S. Marshals, the DEA, the FBI, the U.S. Marines and dozens of other police and military units, as well as Germany’s elite GSG9. His country’s police training isn’t as proactive as it needs to be, he said. “I’m trying to introduce reality-based training to this unit, as well as other agencies, and one day our training will be reality-based. It’s the only system that keeps constables alive.”
About the author: Jim Wagner is a police and military defensive-tactics instructor and a civilian reality-based personal-protection trainer. For more information, visit http://www.blackbeltmag.com and click on Community, then Black Belt Authors.
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