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British Columbia Police Curling Association
| News: This year's Provincial Championship will be held at the Chilliwack Curling Club, February 24-26, 2012. 12 regional qualifiers will play off for the chance to represent the BCPCA at our Canadian Championship in Montreal, Quebec in April. This event will have "live scoring" and postings of photo's of game and event action. History: The history of police curling dates back to 1955 when the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police first formed the Canadian Police Curling Association for the purpose of encouraging fellowship and liaison among Canadian police officers as well as promoting the game of curling in Canada. The first "National Police Bonspiel" was organized and held at the Granite Curling Club in Winnipeg on March 12th, 1956 Between 1956 and 1971 the annual bonspiel was held in various cities across Canada. It was sponsored by the Chiefs of Police Association, but most of the expenses were paid by the curlers themselves. Due to the costs involved, not all of the provinces or police forces always sent a rink to the bonspiel and local area rinks were substituted to make up the full complement of 16 rinks. Nevertheless, the event proved to be very popular in the police community and the original purpose for which it was organized was achieved. The event became more competitive each year and play-offs to get into the bonspiel generated much more liaison and friendly rivalry among the police forces and police officers. In March 1972, with the support of a major sponsor, the first truly Canadian Police Curling Championship was held at the Thistle Curling Club in Hamilton, Ontario. The Brier format of a round robin competition was adopted and teams from all of the Provinces and the Yukon-Northwest Territories were present with a sponsor, Rothmans. After the Rothman sponsorship ended, Labatt Breweries sponsored Canadian Police Curling at the provincial and national level for several years. The Labatt Breweries sponsorship ended in 1990 and the CPCA has not had a national sponsor since that time. In spite of the lack of sponsorship, the provincial associations have continued to carry out various fundraising events in order to fund a provincial champion to attend the Canadian championship each year. This tradition continues today. In 1994 the Canadian Police Association became involved in a limited sponsorship of the CPCA. This involvement lasted for two years. These various fundraising ventures have enabled the CPCA to become involved in community charity fundraising efforts right across the country. In 1996 the Special Olympics was adopted as the CPCA “charity of choice”. Since 1996 the CPCA and its member provincial associations have donated 10’s of thousands of dollars to various charities from coast to coast. In 2008 the Canadian Police Curling Association began its involvement with the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada in an attempt at raising awareness and funds for those effected by Tourette Syndrome. The BCPCA is organized with District Zones that declare regional teams that qualify for our Provincial Championship. |