Under Reserve

For more than 30 years Colonel Horn, OMM, MSM, CD, PhD, served in the Canadian Armed Forces, including more than 10 years of regimental service with operational combat arms units.

In 1993 he was posted to the Canadian Airborne Regiment as the Officer Commanding 3 Commando. At the time of 9/11 attacks he was the Commanding Officer of First Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment.

From 2007-2009 Colonel Horn was the Deputy Commander of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) and later would act as the director of the CANSOFCOM Education and Research Centre (formerly known as the Professional Development Centre).

During his career Colonel Horn also earned a Masters in War Studies and later a Phd, in addition to various honours awarded by the Governor General.

Colonel Horn released from the CAF in 2016 but continues to serve CANSOFCOM as the command historian, a position he fills as a civilian.

In this episode Colonel Horn and I discuss the focus of much of his academic work - the history of Canada's special operators. From the WWII First Special Service Force, to the little known Canadian SAS company, to the Airborne Regiment and the standing up of JTF2 - we cover it all.

You can find Colonel Horn's works published by Dundurn Press and Double Dagger Books.

Show Notes

2:10 - Always wanted to serve

4:40 - Joined RCR in 1983

5:55 - The Airborne Regiment: Canada’s Cold War Commandos

10:37 - Discipline issues coming to a head in Somalia

15:10 - Academic pursuits

19:00 - Deputy Commander of CANSOFCOM

20:00 - What is SOF?

24:00 - Churchill invented SOF?

30:28 - The myth that SOF is more expensive than conventional forces

32:57 - Why do SOF operators need to look different?

32:25 - SOF want to look special

43:30 - Canadian SAS?

47:20 - Canadian Airborne Regiment

49:30 - First Special Service Force

53:00 - JTF2

57:10 - From RCMP SERT teams to JTF2

1:05 - General Hillier stands up CANSOFCOM

1:14:07 - Prototypical SOF operator? 

1:16:40 - Canadian SOF culture and keeping a low profile

1:21:52 - Unleash the Dogs of War, new book published by Double Dagger

Under Reserve thanks Colonel Horn for his time, and his service.

John Williams worked for the Correctional Service of Canada for over 30 years. His service included time at the notorious BC Penitentiary and the Kent Institution - both maximum security prisons.

In 2020 John wrote Life on the Inside: One Correctional Officer's Story where he provides readers with a frank look at the highs and lows of working a federal corrections officer. His account of a career spent walking the "high fives" is at times graphic, but it's not sensational. John makes it clear that maximum security prisons are not a place where you'd want to spend any time as an inmate, but he doesn't describe these institutions as terrible places to work.

The work was taxing, and the threat of violence was always present - but like so many men and women who serve in uniform John found strength and sense of community with his colleagues.

Show Notes:

• 4:20 – Discharged from the Navy. No what do I do?
• 6:20 – The jail in New Westminster was hiring
• 10:00 – BC Pen housed the worst of the worst
• 16:00 – Advice from an old con
• 18:00 – Shawshank Redemption
• 22:50 – Why do stabbings happen in prison?
• 25:25 – Gangs in prison
• 29:33 – Prostitution in prison
• 34:15 – Drug dogs
• 40:40 – Sexual pressure on inmates leads to suicide
• 44:50 – Female correctional officers
• 49:40 – What’s the hole?
• 52:40 – Protective custody
• 56:15 – Guards ever get star struck?

If you enjoyed our conversation, and want to read the book, you can find it here.

Under Reserve thanks John for his time, and his service.

Dr. Scott Blandford is an Assistant Professor at Wilfred Laurier University. He is an instructor and program coordinator for undergraduate and graduate studies in policing and public safety.

Prior to his career in academia Scott was a police officer for 30 years with he London Police Service in Ontario. He retired at the rank of sergeant.

The current focus of Scott's research and writing is the selection, and educational requirements for new police officers. In this episode we explore Scott's views on whether it should be mandatory (as opposed to merely preferred) for police officers in Canada to have post-secondary education at the college or university level, and if policing can be described as a profession.

Under Reserve thanks Dr. Blandford for his time, and his service.

Show Notes:

• 3:24 – Getting a start in policing. Applied to RCMP at 18.
• 12:00 – London, Ontario
• 13:15 – door stop conversation on domestic call
• 15:40 – educational qualifications to be a police officer
• 17:15 – education beyond high school de facto requirement to be police officer
• 25:15 – cultural resistance to police hiring candidates with university education
• 28:04 – police promote to rank rather than to position
• 31:40 – a service that acts professionally vs. a professional service. Policing in Canada is not a profession.
• 43:40 – police officers aren’t paid to lose
• 45:50 – militarization of police
• 50:10 – less-lethal force
• 54:30 – would you do it all over again?

Tim “Gunny” Turner joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1982 and by 1986 was a member of 2 Commando/Canadian Airborne Regiment. His time in the CAF included three years in the Patrol Pathfinder platoon, qualifying as a master sniper, time with the Sky Hawks parachute team, and tours in Cyprus, Croatia, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Sierra Leone.

Gunny retired from the regular force in 2008 at the rank of Master Warrant Officer, followed by a stint in the reserves.

Gunny pursued a second career with the Alberta Sheriffs, spending over eight years with the Executive Protection Unit (EPU) holding the ranks of 1st Regimental Sgt Major and Inspector. During his time with the Sheriffs Gunny worked for Premiers Redford, Hancock, Prentice, Notley and Kenney as well as Lt. Govs Norman Kwong, Col Don Ethell and Lois E. Mitchell.

 My conversation with Gunny offers listeners a peek inside the capabilities and operations of Alberta Sheriffs, and in particular its Executive Protection Unit.

 Under Reserve thanks Gunny for his time, and his service.

Show Notes:

• 2:15 – Gunny meets the Prince of Wales (Now King Charles III)
• 6:35 – Wanted to be a paratrooper since age 12
• 8:05 – Composition of the Canadian Airborne Regiment
• 9:50 – Focus of Canadian Airborne Regiment
• 12:20 Canadian Airborne Regiment sea and land capabilities
• 16:15- Disbanding of Airborne Regiment laid groundwork for modern era Canadian Special Operations
• 17:55 – Sniper qualification and the Princess Patricia’s snipers
• 23:40 – Close call in Afghanistan (’06)
• 26:39 – Transition from regular force to reserves (’08)
• 30:57 – Knowing it was time to get out
• 33:00 – Looking at the Alberta Sheriffs
• 35:00 – Alberta Sheriffs course
• 38:54 – Day in the life of a sheriff in the Executive Protection Unit (EPU)
• 41:10 – Favourite premier to work for
• 43:55 – What goes on behind the scenes?
• 47:25 – When bodyguards have to go hands-on
• 50:00 – Role of the Advance Team
• 52:45 – Local law enforcement love to help
• 58:20- If you could do it over again
• 1:01 – Reflections on CAF in Afghanistan
• 1:05- Life post Sheriffs (2020)

Keith Bracken joined the RCMP in 1963 at the age of 18. He served in uniform for 9 years before going to university and earning a law degree in 1976. He was appointed a judge of the Provincial Court of British Columbia in 1991 and in 2007 was elevated to the Supreme Court of British Columbia where he sat until his retirement in 2018.

Judge Bracken is a rare individual who can speak from experience about life on the beat, at the bar, and on the bench.

Speaking with Keith about the life of a Mountie in the 1960s and early 1970s is nothing short of amazing - for better or worse it was a very different landscape back then. His training, his responsibilities as a member, and the nature and risk profile of the work back then is very different than it is now.

As he transitioned to other aspects of law enforcement (first as counsel, and later as a judge and justice) it is apparent he never lost the common touch.

Keith's daughter, also a member of the RCMP, is currently serving as an instructor at Depot.

Show notes:

• 4:02 - All mounties learned horseback riding in early 1960s
• 6:40 - RCMP application process took 11 months
• 7:08 - A day in the life of a cadet in the 1960s
• 11:30 - Mounties could be fired, but couldn’t quit unless they purchased their discharge
• 16:10 - Transition out of RCMP
• 19:00 - purchased discharge from RCMP to go to University of Sask
• 21:00 - Mounties in this era prosecuted many of their own cases - including drunk driving and assault
• 25:45 - Graduates law school and obtains articles in Victoria. Called to bar in 1977.
• 27:25 - Pathway to provincial judgeship
• 30:34 - Anyone teach you how to be a judge? (not really)
• 39:15 - Cases involving children the hardest to decide
• 43:10 - Experience as a police officer useful experience as a judge
• 45:20 - Elevation to BC Supreme Court
• 47:15 - Difference between BCPC and BCSC
• 48:40 - Faith in the jury system
• 50:59 - A day in the life of a BCSC justice
• 59:40 - BC Courtroom procedure - forms of address, communications with bench, dress and decorum
• 1:02:34 - Barristers meeting with judges in their chambers?
• 1:09 - Final reflections on rural policing

Under Reserve thanks Justice (Constable) Bracken for his time, and his service,

Kelly Thompson was a captain in the RCAF where she served for almost a decade before being medically discharged. She is now an instructor and mentor at the University of Kings College in Halifax, NS in its creative nonfiction writing program.

Kelly’s educational and publishing credentials are impressive. She holds a BA (Hons) from York University where she studied professional writing, an MFA from UBC in creative writing, and a PhD in literary and critical studies in creative writing from the University of Gloucestershire.

In 2019 McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House published her military memoir Girls Need Not Apply: Field Notes From the Forces. The book was an instant Globe & Mail bestseller and was listed as one of the top 100 Books of 2019. If there was a URP book club, Girls Need Not Apply would be on the list. 

In this episode Kelly and I discuss her experiences growing up in a military family, and how that experience and the events of 9/11 influenced her decision to put on a uniform. We also explored many of the themes covered in her book: her experience as a young woman in basic training, dating within the military, physical performance standards, sexual harassment, career advancement and mentorship.

Kelly’s next work, Still, I Cannot Save You: A Memoir of Sisterhood and Grief, also published by McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House is due out in January, 2023.

Under Reserve thanks Capt. Thompson for her time, and her service.

Brad Smith, QC is a criminal lawyer - he advises and defends people throughout British Columbia who are under investigation by the police, charged with a criminal offence, or are otherwise in trouble with the law. He is the principal and founder of Smith Law Group https://smithlitigation.com/

Brad has more than 20 years’ experience in the criminal law arena, acting first as a federal prosecutor and now as defence counsel.

As Crown Counsel, Brad prosecuted a variety of federal offences, from Fisheries Act violations to complex organized crime drug cases. 

As a defence lawyer Brad has defended clients charged with a wide variety of serious offences – he also represents police officers who are the subject of internal Code of Conduct hearings.

Brad holds both a Bachelor and Masters of Law from Osgoode Hall in Toronto, and took silk in 2019. As a QC Brad is recognized as one of a small group of a senior barristers.

I caught up with Brad shortly after he concluded a case in which his client was found not guilty of two charges of first-degree murder. The trial, which was held during the height of the pandemic, lasted more than 150 days.

Show Notes

Federal vs. Provincial prosecutors – 12:36

The role of the prosecutor – 15:36

R. v. Jordan – 23:55

The prosecutorial mindset – 30:23

The role of defence counsel – 32:00

Trials aren’t re- enactments of events – 35:00

The presumption of innocence – 36:55

Charter Remedies – 40:48

RCMP code of conduct hearings– 41:39

MacNeil Reports – 48:00

Complexity of the current state of criminal law – 51:30

Under Reserve thanks Brad for his time, and his service. 

Inspector Kevin Cyr is the OIC of British Columbia's Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team. He holds a bachelor of science from STFX University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and an LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Ontario.

In this episode Kevin rolls up his sleeves and walks me through what a search warrant is, how they are obtained, and ERT's approach to executing them. Later we pivot to ERT fitness standards, improving female membership in the emergency response team program, and the social isolation some police officers face.

Kevin speaks from a position of experience, education, and serious passion for policing and the work ERT performs.

Show Notes

• 6:20 - first posting
• 12:45 - Major Crimes in Surrey (2010)
• 15:10 - Masters of Law Osgoode Hall
• 18:27 - how police articulate evidence 
• 27:59 – what is a search warrant? 
• 33:52 - executing search warrants 
• 39:54 - no-knock entries 
• 43:43 - Seb Lavoie (friend of the show)
• 47:50 - origins of the SWAT team program 
• 50:30 - manner of executing a search warrant the prerogative of police
• 55:06 - VPD recruitment video controversy
• 1:02 – how many women in ERT?
• 1:08:58 - ERT fitness and selection: it doesn’t matter how you get over the wall, just get over it. Try your hardest and don’t quit
• 1:13:05 – social isolation of police
• 1:18:20 Echelon Front/Extreme Ownership
• 1:21 – Kevin on the witness stand

Under Reserve thanks Kevin for his time, and his service.

Superintendent Jim Elliott is the Officer in Charge of the BC RCMP Critical Incident Program.

Jim grew up in Saskatchewan, in a Mountie family, but it was an Emergency Response Team demonstration at the Saskatchewan International Tattoo & Festival that set the hook for his ERT aspirations.

Jim made it through selection as a relatively young officer, working first for the part-time ERT in Saskatchewan before moving over to E Division as a full-time member of the lower mainland ERT shortly before the 2010 Olympics.

In his current role Superintendent Elliott now oversees and deploys not only his former team, but also various other CIP assets including crisis negotiators, explosive disposal, police service dogs, underwater recovery (divers), and tactical marine, to name only a few. This is specialized and technical work. Jim insists that more often than not operators are performing tasks that they have drilled and rehearsed, making their operations rather clinical and procedural, and considerably less exciting than the dramatic affairs depicted on television.

If you are a serving member and curious about your options within the force, or you're an outsider looking for a peek behind the operational curtain, this is the episode for you.

Under Reserve thanks Superintendent Elliott for his time, and his service.

Cst. Scott Gibson has been a police officer for more than 20 years with a municipal department in Ontario, not far from Toronto.

Scott was diagnosed with PTSD following his involvement with the investigation and aftermath of a suicide by a local high school principal. Scott has been off work now for almost four years and his ability to return to work is in doubt.

Scott now focuses his energy and attention shining a spotlight on this important, and sometimes stigmatized, injury or disorder that is too common in the policing and first responder community.

Scott founded PTSD Broken Sword, an apparel company that raises awareness and funds for PTSD-related causes. You can find the company store here, or learn more about its initiatives on Instagram.

In our conversation Scott and I covered his training, his career, and his current journey towards recovery.

Under Reserve thanks Cst. Gibson for his time, and his service.