For Immediate Release
October 21, 2004

Sterling Supports Naming Bridge for OPP Officer

Lanark-Carleton MPP Norm Sterling delivered his strong support for a motion at Queen’s Park today that would name a Highway 17 bridge in Renfrew County after an OPP Constable who died in the line of duty just days before his retirement.

Senior Constable Philip Shrive, an officer in the OPP’s West Carleton detachment from 1996 to 1999, was involved in an on duty motor vehicle accident on May 16, 2003. He passed away in the hospital the following week. Today at Queen’s Park, Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski introduced a private member’s motion to rename the Bonnechere River Bridge on Highway 17, the “Provincial Constable Philip Shrive Memorial Bridge.”

“Constable Shrive had a commitment to young people in our community,” Sterling said. “We’ll never know how many lives, through his dedication, he saved by working with the youth of West Carleton.” 

The MPP listed a number of initiatives that were driven by Constable Shrive, including:

• Being the first officer to open an office in West Carleton Secondary School;
• Working with the Western Ottawa Resource Centre on youth programs and services;
• Helping start the Brady Burnette Teen Assistance Fund, a partnership with local business people to raise funds and awareness regarding youth suicide prevention;
• Taking youth at risk out on marine patrol in an effort to get them on the right track;
• Being a founding member of Positive Futures for Youth; and
• Educating youth on the dangers of impaired driving and the need to use seat belts. 

Sterling talked about the special activities and events Constable Shrive used to organize, including the time he arranged for two boys with terminal cancer, aged seven and 10, to be honorary OPP officers for a night. The boys and their parents were driven to an Ottawa Senators game in a police cruiser and enjoyed all the action from a private box donated by a local company.

“Both of those young children unfortunately passed away months later, but their parents remember the kindness and care that Constable Shrive showed with his generosity to people who were in great need of support,” Sterling said. “He will be a man that will be remembered always. We admire him greatly.”

The motion to name the bridge in Constable Shrives memory passed with the officer’s widow, Karen, and his close friend and fellow officer, Sgt. David Crilly, watching from the legislature gallery.

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  For more information, please call: MPP Norm Sterling at (613) 253-1171