Surviving genocide, Mountie’s life comes full circle leading BC Hate Crimes team

B.C., BC Hate Crimes

2025-03-21 10:00 PDT

At 46-years-old, RCMP Sergeant Elvis Musinovic’s life has come full circle.

As the Sergeant in charge of BC Hate Crimes there are probably few RCMP members better suited to the role. The 18-year-RCMP veteran survived ethnic cleansing and genocide as a Bosnian refugee, following the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

He has seen and experienced what can happen when people hate simply because of the colour of your skin, your ethnic or geographic background. Sgt. Musinovic understands all too well, the emotional and physical damage victims of hate endure because he’s felt the terror of it first hand.

When Yugoslavia was still Yugoslavia, Sgt. Musinovic’s parents lived and worked in Slovenia. When he turned five, his parents moved back to Bosnia where they were originally from. But a few years into the move, the Yugoslavian Federation began to dissolve politically and economically. Factions, built along ethnic and geographic lines emerged. In the beginning, Sgt. Musinovic’s family and the area where they lived was still relatively unaffected.

We watched as the atrocities unfolded and we were almost untouched, but then things started happening in our village, explains Sgt. Musinovic.

By this time, Sgt. Musinovic’s father who had worked in Slovenia prior to the war, was recalled to back to work. While the occupation in their Bosnia village took hold, his father couldn’t make it back to be with his family. If he had tried, his father could have been killed by the occupying force. That left his mom, sister and him to navigate the fear and complexities of the occupation now on their doorstep.

As soldiers advanced into their village, Sgt. Musinovic, knew he was a target of the occupying force. The 14-year-old teen had to get away, and fast. He took his nine-year-old sister and escaped into the forest with just minutes to spare. His mom stayed behind ensuring her kids were well-ahead of the soldiers now taking over their village. It was a long four days in the woods, but the two siblings eventually made their way to a town—not yet occupied—where they had extended relatives. The pair were reunited with their mom a few weeks later.

Eventually, the Musinovic family made it back to Slovenia where his father was living and working at a train transfer station as a foreman. His father was packed and ready to go back to the occupied Bosnian village where he thought they were still living. Thankfully, serendipity intervened. They banged on his door, saw his packed bags and they couldn’t believe their luck. If we were one day later, we would have missed him, recalls Sgt. Musinovic.

On February 14, 1996, the Musinovic’s arrived as landed immigrants in Canada. He was 17. They had left the former Yugoslavia which recorded one of the coldest years on record only to land in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where it was -40 C. I saw cars plugged in and I thought, wow Canadians have electric cars, Sgt. Musinovic laughs.

Within a few months, the family made their home in Burnaby, British Columbia. Sgt. Musinovic couldn’t speak English and he struggled in those first few years. I couldn’t get a job to pump gas or at a (fast food restaurant). I survived genocide and here life wasn’t getting any easier. But he kept moving forward despite the obstacles and lingering memories of Bosnia.

He went back to high school to study English and finalize his grades even though he was four years into a university degree in mechanical engineering from Yugoslavia. Finally, he was hired by the ABC Restaurant in Burnaby where his English improved measurably thanks to the owner and employees at the restaurant. I met some awesome people at work and at the high school, he says.

A few months after he arrived in BC, he was enjoying a summer day at the White Rock Pier when he saw two Mounties in Red Serge walking toward him. I thought, that’s it. That’s what I want to do, he says.

He had some familiarity with policing as some of his relatives were police officers in Slovenia. And at his citizenship ceremony he met, RCMP Supt. Sharon Toor—at the time a rookie member—who was standing guard in Red Serge at the ceremony. He later had the privilege to work with her at Burnaby Detachment. He was also impressed that she was a female police officer because it was uncommon in Yugoslavia.

In 2003, he applied to the RCMP. He passed the exam but was not accepted at the time, which wasn’t unusual in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, he continued university classes, and his work at ABC Restaurant. The owner was volunteering at Burnaby Detachment and he asked me if I was interested, he says.

Sgt. Musinovic jumped at the chance to get involved and volunteered at the Burnaby detachment’s community police stations. He also took a job working in group homes and as an education assistant with the Vancouver school board. He got involved in sports and all the while became more and more fluent in English and the ways of Canadians. Undeterred, in 2006, he applied to the RCMP again and was accepted.

In retrospect, I’m a believer in things happening for a reason. I wouldn’t have done all those things, volunteering, getting involved in sports, becoming a member of the community, if I was hired in 2003, says Sgt. Musinovic.

Once he successfully made it through depot, his first posting was to Burnaby Detachment where he remained for about 10 years. Wishing to expand his knowledge and expertise about transnational organized crime groups, he transferred to Federal Serious and Organized Crime (now Federal Policing Pacific Region) at the BC RCMP Headquarters in Surrey in 2016. In 2018, he was promoted to the E DIV Criminal Intelligence Section, where he found his true passion.

Four years later, while working with the BC RCMP Major Crime Section, he was encouraged by a senior officer and an important mentor Staff Sergeant Greg Yanicky, to take on the lead in BC Hate Crimes in 2022. In the beginning he wasn’t sure it was for him, but the provincially-mandated unit, has turned out to be a near-perfect fit. He says his work on the team has helped him to open up more about his own experiences during the war in the former Yugoslavia.

Sgt. Musinovic says he’s been fortunate to have senior officers and managers supporting his efforts to expand the unit from a two-person team to eight people. We’ve given 70 presentations in the last two years, we review files coming in from across the province, make contact in the communities we serve and we work investigations, explains Sgt. Musinovic. He also created an Investigators’ Guidebook to Hate Crimes which is now in use across Canada. We’ve been able to create something new and I have been lucky to have had so much support from the management, he adds.

Unfortunately, the team is busy especially post COVID and the growing intolerance fueled by world events occurring in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, and the LBGTQ community to name a only a few.

This husband and father of two amazing girls remains grateful for all he has and the chances he’s been given no matter how hard won. You have to trust in your morals and your values.

He adds, be open-minded. Sometimes it is about being in the right place at the right time, and sometimes things do happen for reason. Don’t blame other people, you have no control over them, trust in yourself and the process, he says.

Sgt. Musinovic has this parting message about his career in the RCMP: I have had the great privilege to meet some of the most amazing people in the organization and make some great friends. They all played a significant role in my growth as a police officer from Burnaby to FSOC, Criminal Intelligence Section (CIS) and now BCHC. I thank you all for your support and encouragement.

Released by:
BC RCMP Media Relations
778-290-2929

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