New partnership with the Ontario
Association of Chiefs of Police
October 21, 2022
Paramount EventSpace

Schedule

10:00am	Trade show opens
10:00am - 10:05am	Opening remarks from Blue Line and OACP
10:05am - 11:00am	The economics of the post-COVID era: Future shock for police services and other public service organizations? Speakers: Richa Kharbanda Lindsey Gray Police services, other first responders and public service organizations will not be immune from consequences of the immediate economic outlook for the Province of Ontario and Canada. Pressures on the public sector are bound to increase as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. Is a financial reckoning on the horizon? Are police leaders and their organizations ready?
11:00am - 11:45am	Recruit to lead Panellists: Dennis Matthews, President of Creative Currency Dr. Scott Blandford Dr. Frank Trovato Police organizations are increasingly competing with other sectors for new recruits to deliver policing services that meet the changing needs of their communities. Moreover, services must retain their people to ensure they are positioned to succeed. Hear an outstanding leaders panel discuss the marketing of policing: the Constable Selection System, recruitment, hiring and retention of police members, and the need for a broad strategy for promoting policing as a career option and profession.
1:00pm - 1:45pm	Mental health literacy Speaker: Nick Halmasy Mental Health for First Responders = PTSD. We are missing so much of the story, so much of the impact, and so much opportunity to engage and, potentially, divert mental health towards wellness instead of towards despair. Not having mental health literacy means that we are constantly questioning, swayed by, and implementing programs and tools that may not work. This talk aims to improve your critical thinking on topics of mental health while challenging some of your beliefs. This is an engagement driven discussion.
1:45pm - 2:00pm	Break
2:00pm - 3:00pm	“Think about tomorrow, today”: The undeniable importance of court considerations for law enforcement officers Speaker: Brian Lass Arguably, the less “exciting” part of the law enforcement profession lies on the other side of chasing/arresting/charging the “bad guy”. However, an officer must always realize (and appreciate) that Sec. 11(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states “all persons are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty according to law”. As such – and in many ways – an officer’s job is only just beginning at the time a respective charge is laid. The world of Court is an integral and mandatory component of any officer’s tenure. In this session, Brian Lass will preface the undeniable importance of court considerations for law enforcement officers, including (but not limited to) myths about an officer’s role in court, items of evidentiary consideration during an investigation, creating a Prima Facie Case, the officer’s role vs. the prosecutor’s role, and the court process itself (including officer testimony).
3:00pm - 3:30pm	The critical importance of effective communication in coordinating a multi-agency major incident response Speaker: Chris Ullah We’ve become all too familiar in recent years with events that can suddenly overtake our normal lives. Critical Event Management can relate to a wide variety of scenarios – from a chemical spillage to a terrorist attack. During those crucial first moments of a crisis, clear efficient communications across all responders are essential. Indeed, it can mean the difference between life and death. Join Chris Ullah, a recently retired Police Superintendent from the UK who will share with you his knowledge and experience of dealing with such incidents and how organisations are successfully increasing their resilience and averting crises. Ullah is BlackBerry’s CEM Evangelist who works globally with the emergency services, public sector bodies and private organisations to replace or enhance their communications solutions by introducing BlackBerry’s CEM solution, AtHoc. His main focus has been to ensure organisations form part of a critical communications network. Not only is BlackBerry AtHoc used at times of crisis, but Ullah has ensured that organisations utilise the solution on a daily basis so that it becomes part of their business as usual – realising huge efficiency gains.
4:00pm	End of event

Speakers

Brian Lass

Brian Lass is currently Sergeant-Special Constable with the Toronto Community Housing – Community Safety Unit, and formerly Provincial Prosecutor with GO Transit/Metrolinx. In addition to 16+ years of experience in the field of law enforcement – coupled with still being a Licensed Paralegal with the Law Society of Ontario and graduate of the Osgoode Hall Law School Provincial Offences practitioner program – Brian has been regularly sought after as subject matter expert by numerous public sector agencies. Brian is a published author by both Blue Line Magazine and HQ Magazine (an OACP publication), further to facilitating a strong educational social media presence in his respective subject matter expertise. Brian will be commencing an Adjunct Professorship at Seneca College (Fall 2022), as Professor within the Police Foundations Diploma Program – in addition to becoming Principal POA Instructor with TNT Justice Consulting. Furthermore, Brian is perhaps most noted for bringing a very innovative, engaging, energetic and entertaining teaching style to his training sessions – with a passion for assisting persons to excel in their professional pursuits.

Chris Ullah

Chris Ullah is BlackBerry’s Critical Event Management Evangelist, focused on consulting with customers and delivering true value from the BlackBerry AtHoc critical communications platform. His work focusses largely on ensuring organizations are prepared for major incidents and are able to communicate effectively both internally and externally to improve response times and outcomes. As a recently retired Police Superintendent from Greater Manchester Police, Chris has a wealth of knowledge at a strategic and tactical level of planning, leading some of the largest security operations in the history of the Force as well as dealing with countless major incidents and emergencies. In addition to his daily operational duties, he was a qualified National Security Coordinator providing security advice to target harden some of the major iconic sites in Greater Manchester. He has also worked at an international level with the FBI which involved visiting the USA for a significant security operation.

Dennis Matthews
President of Creative Currency

Dennis Matthews is President of Creative Currency, an advertising agency and content studio in Toronto. At Creative Currency, Dennis leads a team that works with major leaders, brands and causes to tell their story and move public opinion. He was an advertising advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a veteran of numerous political campaigns, and remains a frequent media commentator on advertising, digital and political issues. He was recently recognized as an Adweek Magazine Toronto Brand Star and is a member of the Board of Directors of Destination Ontario and the Marketing and Communications Committee of the Michael Garron Hospital. Dennis is also a partner at Enterprise Canada, a national strategic communication firm.

Dr. Frank Trovato

Dr. Frank Trovato has taught in the University and College settings since 2003. Before joining the educational field, Dr. Trovato enjoyed a successful policing career for 31 years, retiring as a senior officer with the Toronto Police Service. From 2007 to 2010, Professor Trovato has served as Program Head for the Justice Studies Degree Program at the University of Guelph-Humber, Program Coordinator for the Police Foundations Program at Humber College, Program Coordinator for the Police Foundations Leadership Program at Humber College, and most recently since 2014, Dr. Trovato works at Centennial college as a professor in the Community and Justice Services Program.

Professor Trovato completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Toronto (2008), M.Sc. in Criminal Justice Administration from Niagara University (2000), a BA in Criminology and Sociology from the University of Toronto (1996), a Human Resource Management Certificate (2000) from University of Toronto, and a Law Enforcement Administration Certificate from the University of Toronto in (1987). Professor Trovato’s interests include social justice issues in diversity, equity, community projects, and educational projects. Examples include being a special advisor to the Association of Black Law Enforcers Association, The Ontario Chiefs of Police Organization, On the Board of Director for Canadian Critical Incident Inc. Centennial College Council, to name but a few.
Professor Trovato has been recognized fo

r his dedication to teaching as the recipient of the President’s Spirit Award (2017), Nominated for Teaching Excellence in the (Wicken Award) (2016), Dean’s Leadership and Community Award (2015), The Online Learning Award (2011), President’s Community Service Award in (2009), National Teaching and Leadership Excellence Award in (2007), Distinguish Faculty of the Year Award in (2006), and the Innovation of the Year Award in (2005).

Dr. Scott Blandford

Dr. Scott Blandford is a retired (30 years) police officer. He held a variety of operational and administrative positions, including emergency response, criminal investigation, training, human resources, and research & planning where he was responsible for policy and procedure development, major planning and overseeing the development a competency-based performance management, career development, and promotional system for his organization. In addition, he has been an instructor and administrator for several college and university programs focused on policing & public safety for more than 30 years.

Dr. Blandford Scott completed his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree at Columbia Southern University, with his dissertation, entitled Hired with Competence: An Examination of Police Hiring Standards in Canada, focusing on the nexus between performance management and competency-based hiring practices in Canadian police services. His research focus is on organizational development in public safety organizations, and competency-based recruiting and development of police officers, and he has presented nationally and internationally on these topics.

Lindsey Gray

Lindsey works in the community safety and justice practice of PwC Canada, helping organizations across Canada to solve important problems, especially those related to police governance, as well as employee and organizational wellness. Before joining PwC in 2022, Lindsey spent close to 15 years in the Ontario Public Service, primarily with the Ministry of the Solicitor General. Lindsey has a Master’s in Public Policy, Administration and Law from York University and she brings her professional expertise where she worked with chiefs of police, police services boards and a range of community safety partners across Ontario, with a focus on strategic and operational policy development and governance.

Nick Halmasy

Nick Halmasy is a registered psychotherapist who spent a decade in the fire service. He is the founder of After the Call, a free to use online resource for mental-health information, as well as the clinical director for a CISM team. Nick writes regularly for various publications on the topics of mental health. Nick is also a research collaborator for FireWELL out of McMaster University and is involved in various research projects based on First Responder mental health. Nick maintains a small private therapy practice focused on first responders—and their family’s—mental health.

Richa Kharbanda

Richa leads data and analytics initiatives for PwC’s federal government public safety practice helping high security clients through the different phases of their data value chain and leveraging a data-driven approach to solving complex technical and non-technical challenges at the organizations. She has 10+ years of experience in leading data programs, strategy, and implementation, in areas of Master Data Management, Data Governance, Data Quality, large transformation implementations, such as ERP (SAP, Oracle, Maximo), Data Lake, Data Migrations, Integrations, Data Warehouse, BI Analytics, Dashboards and Reporting.