May 14–15, 2025
Sandman Signature Mississauga Hotel
LAW OF POLICING CONFERENCE
EASTERN EDITION
Canada’s Most Practical, In-Depth Conference on Critical Policing Law Issues
Bringing together professional standards, in-house counsel and police leaders
Featured Speakers: Benchmark with Expert Faculty From:
Stuart Betts Chief of Police
Peterborough Police Service
Rhonda Blackmore Assistant Commissioner RCMP Saskatchewan
Mike Federico Vice President Coalition of Canadian Police Reform
Canadian Armed Forces
Kingston Police Service
Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA)
Ministry of the Solicitor General
National Police Federation
Ontario Tech University
Ottawa Police Association
Peterborough Police Service
Public Prosecution Service of Canada
RCMP External Review Committee
Surrey Police Service
Toronto Police Service
University of Toronto
York Regional Police
Speaker Faculty
CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS
Sergeant Amar Gosal Professional Standards Unit (PSU) Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
Chris Kirkpatrick Deputy Chief of Police Durham Regional Police Service
DISTINGUISHED FACULTY
Christine Ashcroft General Counsel Department of Justice
Surinder S. Aujla General Counsel, Ontario Regional Office Public Prosecution Service of Canada
Gary A. Bennett Partner GAB Law Firm
Stuart Betts Chief of Police Peterborough Police Service
Rhonda Blackmore Assistant Commissioner RCMP Saskatchewan
Lisa Bianco, M.O.M. Chief Administrative Officer Ottawa Police Association
Dr. David Cameron
Regional Supervising Coroner – Inquests, Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario Forensic Pathology Service Ministry of the Solicitor General, Ontario Public Service
Mattison Chinneck Lawyer
Filion Wakely Thorupt Angeletti LLP
Rob Farrer Vice-President National Police Federation
Mike Federico Vice President Coalition of Canadian Police Reform
Jason D. Fraser
General Counsel, Legal Services
York Regional Police
R. Kyle Friesen, O.O.M.
Barrister and Solicitor, General Counsel, Legal Services Surrey Police Service
Carla Goncalves
Deputy Director
Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA)
Brigadier-General
Vanessa Hanrahan
Canadian Forces Provost Marshal Canadian Forces Military Police Group
AJ Iafrate
Law Enforcement & Government Relations Kodex Global
Lauren Katz Counsel Ministry of the Solicitor General
Pamela Machado Barrister & Solicitor Machado Law Professional Corporation
Staff Sergeant
Mario Mastropieri
Operations Division –Secondment, Ministry of Public Safety & Solicitor General Vancouver Police Department
Inspector Joseph Matys Specialized Criminal Investigations – Hold Up Toronto Police Service
Kim Motyl
Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario Forensic Pathology Service Ministry of the Solicitor General, Ontario Public Service
Ivy Nanayakkara Unit Commander, Wellness Unit Toronto Police Service
Dr. Barbara Perry
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Ontario Tech University
LCdr/ Capc Jordan Premo
Legal Advisor to the Strategic Joint Staff, Directorate of Strategic & Operational Law, Office of the Judge Advocate General
Canadian Armed Forces
Mj. David Quayat
Senior Crown Counsel
Public Prosecution Service Canada
Sgt. Craig Reynolds
Vancouver Police Department
Dr. Peter Shipley, M.O.M.
Assistant Director Operations, Campus Safety Special Constable Service University of Toronto
Alex Sinclair Partner Hudson Sinclair LLP
Brennagh Smith Crown Counsel Department of Justice
Caroline Verner
General Counsel and Director of Operations
RCMP External Review Committee
Kathy Washington Investigator
Toronto Police Association
Former D/Sgt., Professional Standards, Toronto Police Service
Morgan White Labour Relations Officer, National Police Federation
Colin Woods President Thunder Bay Police Association
K.C. Wysynski
General Counsel
Hamilton Police Association
Arezo Zarrabian
Senior Crime Analyst
Vancouver Police Department
Michelle Zare Paralegal
Zare Paralegal Services
Professional Corporation
Who Should Attend
• Police Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, Sheriffs, and their Counsel
• Police Commissioners
• Professional Standards Investigators
• Executives of Police Associations and their Counsel
• Police Discipline Adjudicators
• Criminal Law Practitioners
• Government Policy Drafters
• Government Attorneys
• Members of the Plaintiff Bar
• Police Service Board Members
Streamline Police Standards with FIS
FIS delivers a modern, secure software platform for managing police complaints, conduct, and investigations—offering workflow tools, audit trails, multi-force collaboration, and over 60 built-in reports. Designed for professional standards teams since 1992.
This 2-day conference program can be applied towards 8 of the 9 Substantive hours of annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD), plus 1 Professional hour as required by the Law Society of Ontario. Members will also receive an additional 3 Substantive hours for attending pre-conference Workshop A and B
The same number of hours may be applied to your continuing legal educational requirements in British Columbia.
The Barreau du Québec recognizes this training activity, the latter having been accredited by another Law Society subject to the MCLE. For Alberta lawyers, consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual Continuing Professional Development Plan as required by the Law Society of Alberta.
The Law Society of Saskatchewan recognizes another province’s CPD credits so long as the hours are submitted to the Director of Admissions & Education for approval.
May 13, 2025
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
WORKSHOP A
8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (Registration opens at 8:00 a.m.)
A Practical Guide to Assessing Employee Performance and When to Escalate to a Discipline Investigation
This interactive, in-depth session will examine the differences between a discipline investigation and how to triage internal complaints to determine an accurate response. Benefit from practical takeaways, smaller-group discussion and speaker-prepared reference materials for your work after the conference.
Part I: Taking Stock of Emerging Complaints
Analyzing the most common complaints against officers, including:
• Validating the complaint
• Gauging the level of severity
Part II: Triaging Complaints
• Performance actions taken against the officers
• Actions communicated to the complainant and/ or general public
Conducting a disciplinary investigation under the provinces’ respective Police Service Act and Police Act
• Triaging workplace complaints against a police employee
• Actions to resolve employee conflicts and/or performance challenges internally
• Examining the threshold for escalating a performance challenge to a discipline investigation
Part III: Action Items
• Best practices for “no contact provisions”
• Examining specific challenges for employees under probation
• Determining the threshold for dismissal
How can the role of a police agency as a customer service provider reduce complaints?
• What role can public education campaigns and community policing initiatives play in reducing complaints?
• Assessing the correlation between training initiatives and a reduction in complaints
The Scope of the Duty to Accommodate
• The lengths and limits of the duty to accommodate: Key and recent case law-and their practical implications
• Determining when a task is a BFOR – and when it is not: Concrete examples
• The role of the employer versus the union in the accommodation process
• Managing the costs of accommodation
• Addressing poor performance, discipline issues and patterns of negative behaviour when mental health is a consideration
Managing Operations
• Assessing stress leave entitlement in the absence of mental/physical disability diagnosis
• Accommodating employees with mental health leave, sick leave and parental leave
• Determining how to accommodate physical and disabilities
Return-to-Work Strategies
• Building tailored, employee-specific strategies versus a one-size-fits-all policy
• Keeping employees on the job and in the workplace versus paid leave
• Accessing medical and other documentation: How far you can go in communicating with the employee, the union, legal counsel, medical professionals, and insurance companies
• Providing adequate support during internal investigations
• Deciding if and when to move ahead with employee dismissals and transfers
May 14, 2025 DAY ONE
7:30 Registration Opens and Refreshments Served
8:45 Opening Remarks from the Co-Chairs
Sergeant Amar Gosal
Professional Standards Unit (PSU)
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
9:00 Keynote Address
Brigadier-General Vanessa Hanrahan
Canadian Forces Provost Marshal
Canadian Forces Military Police Group
I was very pleased with the whole thing. The speakers were all knowledgeable about their topics, and the topics were interesting and varied. Legal Counsel, RCMP External Review Committee
Chris Kirkpatrick
Deputy Chief of Police
Durham Regional Police Service
Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing Act (CSPA) came into effect April 1, 2024, bringing many changes including the ability for a chief to suspend an officer without pay. The circumstances for suspension without pay include when a police officer is convicted of an offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment; and when a police officer is in custody or is subject to conditions of judicial interim release, or conditions imposed under section 499 of the Criminal Code (Canada), that substantially interfere with the officer’s ability to perform the duties of a police officer.
During this session, topics will include:
• Exploring the threshold for suspension without pay and the chief’s discretion
• Factors that are taken into account and how they are applied in practice
• Determining the threshold for invoking a suspension without pay, and what are the cases that would warrant this measure
• Mitigating the risk of wrongful dismissal liability
• Examining what legal counsel can (and cannot) do under the new law
• Balancing the cost of a forced resolution: a guilty plea versus getting fired
• Determining jurisdiction: Who is responsible for maintaining the peace on park land and city property
• Examining the public’s Right to Assembly and to use public spaces versus the municipality’s duty to provide space for public use
• The role of police, and police resistance to be involved in clearing encampments
• Analyzing when to use the Trespass Act and when to file an injunction
R. Kyle Friesen, O.O.M. Barrister and Solicitor, General Counsel, Legal Services
Dr. Peter Shipley, M.O.M. Assistant Director Operations, Campus Safety Special Constable Service University of Toronto
9:30 Suspension Without Pay: Rethinking Disciplinary Action Amid the New Police Act
Pamela Machado Barrister & Solicitor Machado Law Professional Corporation Colin Woods President
3:30 HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIOS and INTERACTIVE POLLING: Officer Accommodation, Return-to-Work Policy and Legal Implications for the Union and Employers
• Analyzing disability and family status
• New, emerging case law trends
• Applying the Moore test for disability management
• Determining what satisfies the duty to accommodate – and what doesn’t
• Providing adequate support during internal investigations
• Appropriate actions for employee dismissals and transfers
4:15 Reducing the Risk of Exposure and Liability by Standardizing Training
• Examining how police departments face increased legal exposure
• Exploring how nationwide standardized procedures of governance could be implemented, and the impact on policing
• What is (and isn't) needed for policing education and when and how to update training
• Addressing resistance to training and fostering engagement
• Connecting police education to statistics and offender recidivism
• Responding to conduct issues: How long does it take to get a candidate to respond to discipline and performance training
5:00 Closing
Remarks from the Co-Chairs
Gary A. Bennett Partner
GAB Law Firm
Morgan White
Labour Relations Officer, National Police Federation
Mike Federico
Vice President
Coalition of Canadian Police Reform
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May 15, 2025 DAY TWO
8:30 Registration Opens and Refreshments Served
9:00 Remarks from the Co-Chairs
9:05 Keynote Address: Police Culture Changemaker
Stuart Betts Chief of Police Peterborough Police Service
Great experience overall. Appreciated the different points of view represented by the different speakers on such a variety of topics. Lieutenant, Canadian Forces National Defence
9:30 Transitioning Public Complaints under the New Ontario Police Act: How Police Codes of Conduct and Complaint Management Are Now Being Addressed
Part One: Codes of Conduct Changes
• Determining what is now classified as misconduct
• Safeguarding the health and safety of a person in custody
• Encompassing peace officers in Codes of Conduct
• Satisfying the duty to report misconduct
Part Two: Growing Pains of Addressing Public Complaints under the New Act
• Handling legacy cases under the old Act and transitioning to the new process
• Examining the new disclosure requirements, and what is now covered by statutory privilege
• Determining who has jurisdiction over the complaint investigation and hearing
Part Three: Confidentiality Surrounding Unit-Level Discipline
• What can now be made public and is open for cross-examination during trial
• Addressing an officer’s reputational risk
10:30 Networking Break
Goncalves
Deputy Director
Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA)
Mattison Chinneck Lawyer
Filion Wakely Thorupt Angeletti LLP S
10:45 “Project Barcode” Case Study: Behind the Scenes of Combating Retail Theft and Violence in Vancouver and the Lessons Learned
Hear how Vancouver Police Department responded to a 260% increase in retail thefts involving weapons in 2021, with the initiative Project Barcode. This session will explore why there has been a national increase in retail thefts, why they have become more violent, and what police are doing to combat them.
• Examining the Project Barcode initiative, and how it was planned to address retail theft
• The outcome and impact of Project Barcode
• Coordinating with business partners about financial loss and employee safety
• Identifying the scope of retail theft, and how and why there has been an increase
• Coordinating with all levels of government
Staff Sergeant
Mario Mastropieri
Operations Division –
Secondment, Ministry of Public Safety & Solicitor General
Vancouver Police Department
Sergeant
Craig Reynolds
Vancouver Police Department
Arezo Zarrabian
Senior Crime Analyst
Vancouver Police Department
S
Carla
3:30 Legal Ramifications of Off-Duty Conduct: Examining Liability, Misconduct and Disciplinary Action in Connection With Social Events, Political Opinions and Beyond
• Identifying what constitutes “discreditable conduct” and how this is changing under the new Ontario’s Community Safety and Policing Act (2019)
• Defining when an officer is a “police officer” with authority versus when they are a private citizen
• Debating whether Charter Rights extend to police officers: Does an officer have Freedom of Self-Expression, etc.?
• What constitutes an unpermitted secondary activity
• Examining the Federal Court ruling, RCMP Cst. Michael Muller, Kamloops
• Lessons from the case of the Peel police officer suspended over Brampton protest
4:15 Closing Remarks from the Co-Chairs
Upcoming Events
Rob Farrer
Vice-President
National Police Federation
Caroline Verner
General Counsel and Director of Operations
RCMP External Review Committee March
