All posts by Wynn

May 8th meeting

Events, Meetings

Join us May 8th for a fascinating look at the use of number-crunching in sleuthing.

In “Crime Intelligence Analysis Unit; Discovering and exploring the details”, Kevin Mason, head of the Unit, will give us a behind-the-scenes look at what his team does, how data can be used to catch criminals, the analyst’s mindset and how his work ties in to the broader picture of law-enforcement.

The Crime Intelligence Analysis Unit of the Ottawa Police Service provides tactical and strategic support to operational, investigative and Executive teams ranging from tracking crime patterns and trends to geographic profiling of incidents and the identification of repeat offenders. The unit also monitors performance and changes in the areas of crime reporting, solvency, arrests and victimization.

*copies of the presentation unfortunately cannot be provided.

 

Before the meeting, CCW will be holding its annual pizza bash and elections.

The meeting starts at 6:30 pm.  Please note we will be at Ottawa City Hall,

Colonel By Room.

 

KEVIN MASON

Manager – Crime Intelligence Analysis Unit

Office of the Chief Directorate, Ottawa Police Services

Kevin is in his 23rd year as a member of the Ottawa Police Service and is the Vice President of the National Capital Region Chapter of the International Association of Law Enforcement Analysts as well as being certified as a Geographic Profiling Analyst. He sits on the Chief’s Advisory Committee and has been active within academic advisory boards related to programs in Public Safety and Behavioural Sciences.

Prior to embracing the profession of finding and tracking bad guys/girls, Kevin spent over a decade in the area of managing prisoner movement and incarceration within the court system and Correction Canada.

 

Writing Workshops at OPL – Publishing, fiction writing

Events, Meetings, Workshops

The Ottawa Public Library is holding a series of writing workshops in April, May and June.  Workshops include sessions led by Denise Chong and Alan Cumyn.  Mystery author Vicki Delaney is also holding a seminar on mystery fiction writing.  All sessions are free (although some are meant for ages 50+) For a complete list of workshops:

http://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/program?branch=255&type=All&audience=All&keyword=writer

One seminar in particular is being held in partnership with Ottawa Romance Writers, here are the details.

Publishing your Book

While several traditional publishers and bookstores have closed their doors, you have new opportunities to publish your book in print and digital formats. Successful traditionally- and self-published authors will describe the pros and cons of getting your book published by a traditional publisher versus using self-publishing platforms offered by Amazon Kindle Direct, Kobo, Smashwords, and now big New York-based publishers. As well, new players such as Amazon Publishing and agents offering publishing services will be discussed.
 
The Ottawa Romance Writers Association is partnering with the Ottawa Public Library to present this workshop twice as part of the OPL May 2013 Author Month schedule. The panelists are multi-published romance authors; however, the workshop content is targeted to all writers of book-length fiction and non-fiction. Note that the author line-ups on the two panels differ but the workshop content is the same.   Register via the Ottawa Public Library website http://biblioottawalibrary.ca  for one of the following:
 
 – Monday, May 13, 6:30- 8:30 p.m. at the OPL Greenboro Branch, with authors Sharon Page, Teresa Morgan and Brenda Gayle.
 
-Saturday, May 18, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at the OPL Main Branch, with authors Opal Carew, Maureen Fisher, Teresa Morgan and Coreene Callahan

If you do not have a library card, please register via an email to Madeline McBride at madelinem AT rogers DOT com, and indicate which date you plan to attend.

April 18th – Arthur Ellis announcement

Uncategorized

A Mysterious Celebration!

OPL-RGB
To announce  the nominees for the 2013 Arthur Ellis Awards for the best in Canadian Crime Writing
and
The shortlist for the Audrey Jessup short story contest.

Join Ottawa’s top crime writers for an entertaining evening of celebration of Canadian crime writing.

o Refreshments
o Hard-Boiled or Laughs: What makes a great mystery?
o No-holds-barred debate

The announcements take place at 8:45 pm

Thursday April 18. 7:00 PM

Auditorium, Main Branch, Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch.

120 Metcalfe St.

Books for sale from Books on Beechwood

April 17th meeting – Horse Racing in Canada: Equine Drug Testing.

Meetings

NOTE:  This meeting will be held at the Honeywell Boardroom at Ottawa City Hall (2nd floor).  Also note the date – this is the third Wednesday, not the usual second Wednesday of the month.

Horse racing is an international sporting industry with deep roots in Canadian culture, yet it is relatively little known to the general public. Because of its association with gambling and potential for fraud, it is one of the most heavily regulated sports in the world.

Adrienne Stevenson will be talking about the forensic science of equine drug testing, touching on historical aspects, what is regulated and why, current challenges, international issues and links with human sports medicine. The world of horseracing offers writers many  opportunities to tell interesting stories in a variety of settings. You may be surprised by how much the sport has influenced our language and history.

BIO:

After getting degrees in Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Adrienne Stevenson spent 6 years as a Forensic Toxicologist with the RCMP, analysing over 500 cases for drugs and poisons in humans.

Adrienne then transferred to the Race Track Division of Agriculture Canada, which is now the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency. For 26 years she managed the Equine Drug Control Program. She retired in 2009 and is now an occasional consultant to racing industry regulators.

During her time with the CPMA, she was active in the international Association of Official Racing Chemists and the Canadian Society of Forensic Science, of which she is a Past President.

Adrienne is also qualified as a Technical Assessor for the Standards Council of Canada’s Lab Accreditation program, and was a member of their national oversight committee for the program for over 10 years.

 

March 13 meeting – Crisis and Hostage negotiation

Events, Meetings

Staff Sgt Lynne Turnbull has been a police officer for 28 years and a Crisis Negotiator for 17 years. It is a part time role as crisis negotiators are called out as required. She currently manages the Ottawa Police Services’ Professional Development Centre (training branch). She has worked in many areas over the years including Patrol, School Resource, Partner Assault Unit, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit, and Temporary Custody.

Lynne will speak about the structure of a major incident response and the specific role of the negotiator, negotiations vs crisis intervention, and she will have a couple of case studies to share with the group.

Time:  March 13, 7pm.  Place:  Library and Archives building, Wellington and Bay, Room 156.  Guests welcome.

January 9th meeting – We, the Jury.

Events, Meetings

When all goes well, juries make decisions based on the evidence and the law but research shows that jurors are swayed by other factors.  What are those factors?  And what are the implications for justice?

The popular heroic view of juries come from movies like “12 Angry Men”, where a single juror manages to change the minds of the other jurors.  How likely is this in reality?

Join Evelyn Maeder, an expert in jury research, at our January 9th meeting as she discusses

* the structure and differences in the jury systems of Canada and the US.

* the influence of legal and extralegal factors on juror decision making

* special topics within jury research, such as juror decision making in capital and insanity defence trials.

Evelyn is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Carleton University, and is also cross-appointed in the Department of Psychology. She studies the influence of psychology on the law and legal decision-making, particularly with respect to juries and public policy.  Her current research projects include studying the effects of extralegal information (including defendant race, victim attractiveness, and defendant gang affiliation) on juror decision-making, legal decision-making in NCRMD trials, and the effects of race salience in the criminal courtroom.  She is the director of the Legal Decision-Making Lab at Carleton, and her work is funded by SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) and APLS (American Psychology-Law Society).

 

Annual Christmas Dinner – Dec 12th

Uncategorized

Be sure to reserve a place at this year’s annual Christmas Dinner with special guest Tim Wynne-Jones.

Where: KS on the Keys, 1029 Daze Street (South Keys)

When:  Wednesday, December 12th

Time:   Mingling begins at 5:30 p.m.

**To register, click here.

We are extremely pleased to announce this year’s December guest speaker – Tim Wynne-Jones is a two-time Governor General’s Award-winning author, Order of Canada recipient and nominee for the 2012 international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international honour for children’s authors and illustrators. Tim’s 2011 novel Blink and Caution won the Arthur Ellis Award for best children/YA crime novel and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for 2011. He won his first Arthur Ellis for the Boy in the Burning House, which also won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 2002, for best young adult mystery.

Tim’s eclectic, pre-author years included stints as:  band member in several rock groups (Boogie Dick and Alabaster, to name two), fine arts student, book designer and owner of a graphic design firm. He wrote his first novel Odd’s End in 1978 while in the Masters Fine Arts program at York University – it won the Seal First Novel award along with the $50,000 prize, making him believe that ‘this writing thing might be fun’.

Tim lives in a house that he designed in Perth, Ontario on 76 acres of ‘rough and tumble land’ that has figured prominently in his writing over the last twenty years.  He spent most of last year ‘playing hooky’ overseas with his wife Amanda Lewis but is now back at his computer, working on a new manuscript. For more information about Tim, his travels and his writing, please visit his website.

Books will be available for purchase.