Honourable senators, I rise to pay tribute to a Yukoner — a Canadian who might have thought that what he did was ordinary in the course of his duties as an RCMP officer, ordinary in the role of a husband and father, ordinary for a member of the Oldtimers Hockey League, Jim Giczi was truly extraordinary.

September 6, 2019, was a gorgeous day in the Yukon. Sergeant Jim Giczi and friends went for a motorbike ride along the beautiful Klondike Highway.

En route home, Jim, alone on his bike behind his companions, suffered a medical event. Despite the best efforts of well-versed medical personnel who were relatively close by, Jim passed away.

Losses are always difficult, especially with someone who is only 56 and starting to think about retirement. Jim’s passing was especially hard for the Yukon community.

As I began to speak, I used the term “extraordinary.” Let me tell you why. My first encounter with Jim was when I served as a member of the Yukon Legislative Assembly. Giczi, as we knew him, appeared in my office in his shirt and shorts. Whenever and wherever you saw Jim, no matter what the temperature, he would be in shorts.

At that time, Jim was lobbying on behalf of the community of first responders for changes to legislation to require testing of blood samples of accused who had bit or spat upon a first responder, in order that, if necessary, they could start treatment.

Sergeant Jim Giczi, a 28-year member of the RCMP, was the head of the Forensic Identification Section in the “M” Division of the RCMP in Whitehorse. In 2007, in the course of an investigation, Jim could not match a tire track to the make and model of the tire. The software available to him did not come up with a match.

Jim made it a personal hobby — a passion — to create a new database that would enable police to match patterns to makes and models of tires. That personal hobby became the sole search database that the Canadian Police Information Centre uses to search any crime scene impressions found anywhere in Canada by any police department. Jim’s personal hobby was instrumental in catching former Colonel Russell Williams in 2010. In 2015, Jim was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General for his work.

Jim’s extraordinary service was not only through his work. A devoted husband to Tanis and father to Zach and Alex, he was that co-worker who was first in the door when someone returned from sick leave, the one to offer his support.

Jim was about the community as a whole, and the community remembered him in a rather out-of-the-ordinary way. We gathered in a large gym at a local school. There was an honour guard with the RCMP in their red serge. The rest of us, as per Tanis’s request — and probably Jim’s wishes — were in our shorts and hockey jerseys.

The Oldtimers Hockey League began their season shortly after the service with a small patch on their jersey with the initials “JG.” Hockey jerseys, shorts and music that included AC/DC — you can guess the song — we mourned the loss of a truly extraordinary member of our community. It helped us to know that it was the way Jim would have wanted it, and it reflected who he was — extraordinary. Thank you, senators. Mahsi’cho.