REGINA - Troy Ostapiw grew up with a challenge a lot of kids face, which was bullying.
He described growing up around a rough area of Regina, so Ostapiw knew he needed to "learn to deal with that [bullying] and cope with that [the fact he was in an unsafe area]"
Ostapiw started to train in martial arts and got help from neighbours to learn how to protect himself.
Because of his experience with bullying, Ostapiw wanted to help those "underdogs who were bullied."
He mentioned how "bullying is happening online, the pressure that it puts on kids, the effect that it's having on the young generation [makes it tough for people to stand up for themselves]."
Through him learning self-defence, Ostapiw realized how it can empower oneself and one's self-esteem, so he started going on a journey that took him around the world.
In the 30 years Ostapiw has taught self-defence. He’s collaborated with many different organizations to hold seminars and classes to teach people about self-defence.
Some of the more notable places Ostapiw has taught at is the Saskatchewan Police College, where he taught Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Additionally, the RCMP brought in Ostapiw in 2001 as an instructor to teach "self-defence, defensive tactics, strategies, ground combatives [and] edge weapons combatives," said Ostapiw.
One of the biggest highlights of his life was being contacted by the Canadian Armed Forces in 2015. The Canadian Armed Forces saw his edge weapons program and wanted to add it to their program.
Ostapiw was brought to their base in Alberta and trained with the Canadian Armed Forces close-quarter combat instructors.
Getting the chance to train people in the military meant "everything" to Ostapiw. He added, "the fact that they adopted my program, you know, was just a great experience for me. It was kind of the icing on the cake and just showed that everything I was doing, the direction I was going in, you know, is obviously the right direction."
During the years he's trained people to understand self-defence, Ostapiw has heard many stories from individuals about incidents in which they were attacked.
One that stood out to him was when "a Regina individual was leaving one evening. This was well over a decade ago, and they were leaving a location. He went outside, and he saw three individuals attacking a female. So he went out there in that direction, moved towards them and said, hey, what are you doing? Like, what's going on? Stop it. Of course, they turned on him [and] put him in the hospital. He was in a coma. Luckily, he survived, and he got the strength back."
The man decided to empower himself and start training with Ostapiw. One day, he pulled Ostapiw aside during their training to tell the story, which Ostapiw found very "overwhelming."
Ostapiw spoke about how the community needs better education for self-defence. He gave an example of a time when he and his wife were in New Orleans.
Ostapiw noticed there was an individual screaming and figured they were having a mental crisis. He told his wife, "let's go over here. I [Ostapiw] moved her quickly into the door [of a building, which was] the closest exit. And we just kind of went towards the back."
The individual then assaulted a person walking past them and started running across the street. Ostapiw called the police but never got the chance to talk to the victim. However, Ostapiw said after the assault happened, the victim looked "stunned."
When looking at the incident, Ostapiw mentioned, "there are cues and indicators that he [the victim] could have realized and seen ahead of time. It's a great time [when a person is coming towards you] to cross the street or get yourself, you know, get in between you and a car. So you have a barrier to protect yourself [and then] walk around that or duck into a store close by or a location that's safe."
Those indicators are part of the lesson Ostapiw teaches people. "Always get yourself out of that situation if you can. Don't be there. If somebody wants your property, give it to them. It's not worth dying over."
He added people sometimes walk on the streets of downtown Regina with their heads buried in their phones, which limits their situational awareness.
If a confrontation can’t be avoided, Ostapiw recommends "to use your presence, your communication, your ability to talk down [to] the [person who is instigating the] altercation."
There are also tools people have at their disposal, like car keys or backpacks, to use for scaring off victims or as a means of defence.
When discussing self-defence, one thing Ostapiw feels people don’t realize is that Canadian Laws work differently than American Laws.
Ostapiw said it’s important for him to give people a "general understanding of that knowledge base of, you know, use of force. What is excessive, you know? What is acceptable force if I had to use force? Is there another option? Do I have to use force? Can I just get myself out of that circumstance?"
Many people who trained under him told Ostapiw how grateful they were for the training. One officer even told him, "it [the training] literally saved my life."
To help those in the community understand self-defence better, Ostapiw runs a self-defence community program at the Cathedral Area Community Association. He added, "it's open [for everyone]. If you're under the age of 10, that's fine as long as you're training with a parent or a teenager. We have people between the ages of 10 years old all the way up to 75. So, if you're younger than that, as long as there's a parent, you can come and train. We make it fun, and we want to give back to the community. We want to educate the community and help keep people safe."
To join the classes, Ostapiw said to contact the Cathedral Association, and they will direct you to a place to register for the program, which runs twice a year for a couple of weeks.
