Senator Vern White will be our speaker Tuesday, September 17. Most of us are familiar with his role as Chief of the Ottawa Police Service from 2005 to 2012. He also worked with the RCMP as Assistant Commissioner, and served in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and three northern territories, as well as Ontario.
He will be speaking about his experience in those provinces and territories.
The meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Honeywell Room, second floor, at Ottawa City Hall.
SHORT STORY CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT
The winners of the CCW short story contest will be announced on Wednesday June 12 at the Clock Tower brew pub, located at 418 Richmond road (in Westboro). The event begins at 6:00 for people wishing to order dinner. The contest winners will read their submissions. Other members are invited to read from their work.
In keeping with past practice, book donations for the library at the Ottawa Boys and Girls club will be accepted. The library serves youth from
6-17.
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.
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
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.
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.
February’s meeting will be a question and answer session on the modern reality of prosecuting drug offences and drug offenders.
Claude Richer is a Counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) for the National Capital Region. As Counsel, Mr. Richer represents the Attorney General of Canada in conducting criminal prosecutions which relate to the administration of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, and other federal statutes before provincial and superior courts in Ontario. Mr. Richer’s area of practice is focused on prosecutions involving drugs, organized crime and proceeds of crime. Prior to working for the PPSC, he worked as counsel for the RCMP Legal Services attached to the Technological Crime Section and as an Assistant Crown Attorney in Ottawa. Mr. Richer has been a lawyer practicing in criminal law for 16 years.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada is a federal government organization, created on December 12, 2006. The PPSC fulfills the responsibilities of the Attorney General of Canada in the discharge of his criminal law mandate by prosecuting criminal offences under federal jurisdiction and by contributing to strengthening the criminal justice system. The PPSC is responsible for prosecuting offences under more than 50 federal statutes and for providing prosecution-related legal advice to law enforcement agencies. Cases prosecuted by the PPSC include those involving drugs, organized crime, terrorism, tax law, money laundering and proceeds of crime, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Criminal Code offences in the territories, and a large number of federal regulatory offences. The PPSC is an independent organization, reporting to Parliament through the Attorney General of Canada.
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).
In the Line of Fire: PTSD and Law Enforcement Officers
Syd Gravel is a retired Staff Sergeant from the Ottawa Police Service and is one of the founding fathers of “Robin’s Blue Circle”, a post-shooting trauma team that assists officers in working their way through the trauma of death or near-death work-related incidents. The Circle was first established in 1988. Syd has personally assisted over 40 officers survive near-death incidents over a period of 12 years.
Syd is a 31-year veteran of the Ottawa Police Service. In his book, 56 Seconds, he tells the story of how his life took a dramatic turn when he was involved in a shooting. He shares information on how he survived post-traumatic stress disorder – PTSD – as a two-time shootist, during his years of work as a front-line police officer. The book describes how his healthy survival was based on a solid foundation of peer support, friends, family and medical practitioners.
Syd Gravel was a keynote speaker at the First Canadian Forum on Traumatic Stress Conference, Surviving Post-Shooting Trauma, in Toronto, Ontario. He was a guest lecturer for Correctional Services Canada, on Wellness and Traumatic Stress, in Kingston, Ontario. He was the keynote speaker at the International Conference of Conservation Officers, Stress Management and its Realities, in Ottawa, Ontario.
In 2007, Syd was inducted as a Member of the Order Of Merit (M.O.M.) in Policing.
“In 1987, Syd was involved in a very traumatic incident in which a robbery suspect lost his life. The event deeply affected Syd. To his credit he developed a comprehensive Police Peer Support Network on dealing with PTSD. It is Syd’s legacy to the Ottawa Police.”
– Brian Ford, Chief of the Ottawa Police Service, 1993-2000.
Rapid Reads books are a growing phenomenon both in the adult and young adult market. Writers as diverse as Minnette Walters, Alexander McCall Smith, Terry Jones, and Karen Slaughter, have delivered their own mini-masterpieces.
Rapid Reads or Quick Reads books are geared toward reluctant readers whether adult or young adult. Though the popularity goes beyond those who ‘hate to read’. These short novels can be found in the classroom, libraries, even prisons. Come out for October’s meeting where novelists and CCW members Brenda Chapman, Barbara Fradkin, and Jeff Ross will speak about the Rapid Reads market in Canada, their experiences writing in this format, and the publishing possibilities.