Little did police officer Nathan Lynchuk know a trip to take his kids to a rally would lead him to give up his badge and gun..“I got a call from one of my superiors that I wasn’t allowed to come into work Monday because I had allegedly gone to an event. I didn’t deny it right off the go because I’m not ashamed of what I did. And I’m not gonna lie about what I did,” the Saskatchewan Police Service (SPS) officer told the Western Standard..The April 24 outdoor event, which contravened public health orders, was billed as a “Children‘s Freedom Rally” in Saskatoon’s Kiwanis Park. A poster for the event said it featured hula hoops, jump rope, bubbles, and a magician. Yet Mayor Charlie Clark condemned the “dangerous activity” of the “super-spreader event” as “insidious,” “insane,” and “the last thing we need in our community.”.While Lynchuk brought his children to have fun, some of his colleagues were there in uniform to reroute traffic and ensure public health orders were enforced..“Police officers, you have each other’s backs and their trust is everything. So when I saw that people were actually taking pictures of me there and everything and going to my higher-ups, not approaching me first — trust is gone there now.”.Lynchuk knew his time with Saskatoon Police Service had to end..“I decided to quit, I wouldn’t say they pushed me out. At the end of the day, there would have still been a public hearing, everything in that regard. I just wanted to go out on my terms and get everyone to see things from my perspective rather than from theirs first because there was a leak to the media that on officer was at the … children’s event. And I wasn’t even walking around there saying I was SPS, anything of the sort. But they still were trying to make an example of me, I guess I wasn’t gonna have it.”.Lynchuk lives on a ranch near Saskatoon and will continue to make a living in agriculture. He might have kept a low profile thereafter except for a “pretty amazing” visit to the Whistle Stop Café in Mirror, AB..“I was in Alberta to go pick up some goats for the farm, and I ended up stopping at the Whistle Stop. My family ate some burgers, just talked to some people. Ends up coming up that I was the officer who resigned, and it had already hit the paper. People started asking if I wanted to do interviews. I said, ‘Yeah I’ll tell my story. I’m not a cop anymore, what difference does it make right now?’”.Lynchuk said he serves the public in a different way now as he speaks to crowds at freedom rallies..“I’m very uncomfortable with these kinds of things. I’m not a public speaker or anything. But someone had to do something, someone had to stand up. And I decided I couldn’t look my kids in the face and sit there, and say, ‘We’re living under communism’ within a few years or even sooner,” he said..“I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself knowing that (my children) looked at me and said, ‘Dad, did you do anything?’ Can’t do it.”.At the Regina event on Saturday, local resident Josh Rees expressed his gratitude to Lynchuk and also spoke to the Western Standard..“The average person leading by example goes a long way. But somebody in a position such as a police office who sees what’s happening and sees what the system is making him do to other people, and infringing on their rights, and then standing up and with integrity, saying, ‘I’m not participating in this anymore,’ then people watch that. And that’s the way that you change people’s behavior.”.Rees said he hopes his own example will make an impact, just like Lynchuk..“That’s why I do it. I’m a local realtor. I can be in trouble for being here. But I don’t care. I’ll sell houses until they take my licence away. And then I’ll do something else.”.So far, Lynchuk doesn’t know any other cops who are willing to break ranks..“A few guys in my service that I know are against this stuff and are against what’s happening. There’s 600 members. So. there’s some guys that I never even talked to, and they’re texting and showing support in that way. And they’re telling me to come over for coffee anytime,” Lynchuk said..“Things are starting to catch fire here a little bit. But someone just needed to be that first guy to step up and do it. And that’s why I did it. I said, ‘They’re trying to dictate what I do with my family on my days off. And that’s not something I signed up for.’”.Harding is a Western Standard correspondent based in Saskatchewan
