After the Badge: John Mentis

When I finished the course in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, one of the instructors told me that I was the first male Black prison guard in Canada.

The Correctional Service of Canada presents: After the Badge

Hi, I'm John Mentis. I worked in corrections for 30 years.

I grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia. I was born 1938. Most of the restaurants, they didn't serve Black people at that time. So for my parents, it was tough and like, even the kids, you know, as a kid, I left Truro when I was 18 and there were still some restaurants that didn't serve Black people.

The path to a career in corrections

Me and one of my buddies, I was just getting ready to sign up for the Air Force. And then I got a call from Quebec that I had a chance to go to training camp with the Boston Bruins. My father was a good hockey player and the first thing he told me when I left home, he said, John, try and find yourself a half-decent job because you won’t make it in hockey, and I lived with that all my life. You know, I’d never get to the top.

So I was working in Cowansville and then I saw in the Granby paper a prison was going to open up in Cowansville and me and one of my buddies said why don't we apply? So we applied for the prison in Cowansville and we got accepted and all the training, my training, was in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. When I finished the course in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, one of the instructors told me that I was the first male Black prison guard in Canada.

Confronting racism

I had no problems with the inmates who I was working with at the time. Just one time, it was funny because we had a fellow there, I think he, he was in for a murder or something, and I go into the cell and this young fellow said, “Chuck, what are you doing in uniform?” He thought I was one of the other prisoners that stole somebody else’s uniform. (laughs)

At the provincial I had a problem not with inmates, but one of my, with my co-workers. This fella, he didn't like Black people, you know, and since I got transferred there. So, one day it's just him and me in the office and we were talking about something and it’s starting to get rough. So he said, “you're going to see what we do to [censored].” And I spit right in his face, and he didn't move because I was ready to... you know, I didn't take that from nobody.

After that, I got transferred to Rimouski... but I came back and he got transferred to Waterloo. (laughs) So they saw it wasn’t me the problem, you know, and I went back to Cowansville and I finished almost my rest of my time there.

Looking back as one of Canada’s first Black Correctional Officers

I was confident because, you know, I went through a lot in my life and, you know, it's I wanted to prove that I could do the job and even if I was Black, I could do the job as (well as), you know, somebody else.

 

A proud and distinguished career. John, thank you for your service.