Blue Line, The Podcast

Join us on this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, as we sit down with Sgt. Francis Manila of the Eeyou Eenou Police Force (EEPF) to discuss his 13-year journey policing northern Quebec’s Cree communities. Manila shares his unique perspective on managing a territory the size of a mid-sized European country, where extreme logistical challenges mean specialized backup can be more than 8 hours away....

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, Editor Brittani Schroeder was joined by Chief Fiona Wilson of the Victoria Police Department. In late 2023 and early 2024, the pair sat down to discuss British Columbia’s drug decriminalization pilot project. With the recent announcement from the B.C. Provincial Government that it will end the pilot and not seek an extension, Schroeder and Wilson reconven...

In this episode of  Blue Line, The Podcast , host Brittani Schroeder is joined by Insp. Dawn-Lyn Blake of the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service to discuss one of the most pressing issues in law enforcement today: recruitment. Blake shares her personal journey into policing and offers a unique perspective on the challenges police services face in attracting new members, particularly within Indig...

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, editor Brittani Schroeder sits down with psychotherapist Stephanie Samuels, executive director of Copline, to explore the profound impact of repetitive head trauma on law enforcement mental health. Samuels explains why head trauma is a critical “missing piece” in understanding challenges like PTSD and suicide risk, and how its symptoms are often misattrib...

n May 2025, Ontario’s Inspectorate of Policing released its first spotlight report, focusing on the  State of Public Order Policing in Ontario . Inspector General Ryan Teschner and his team made 12 recommendations to address growing demands and emerging strains.    In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, editor Brittani Schroeder and Ryan Teschner discuss the role of the Inspecto...

While the Military Police Group primarily serves the Canadian military community, there are striking similarities between military police officers and their counterparts in civilian law enforcement across Canada.  In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, host and editor Brittani Schroeder sits down with Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, Vanessa Hanrahan. As the commanding officer of the Cana...

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, editor Brittani Schroeder was joined by Brian Carwana, who provides religious literacy training to communities and organizations. They discussed the importance of this knowledge for law enforcement personnel as they perform their roles.

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, editor Brittani Schroeder was joined by Dwayne Zacharie, Chief Peacekeeper of the Kahnawake Mohawk Peacekeepers in Quebec. The two discussed the unique challenges and triumphs of First Nations policing in Canada.  Zacharie highlighted the importance of community connection and culturally appropriate policing, emphasizing the need for increased resour...

Despite massive leaps forward in the world of technology, information sharing and an increasingly sophisticated cyber platform for crime to take place, “the essence of an investigation still needs to be that thorough search for the truth, that analysis of the available intelligence in evidence, and trying to make sense of the objective in mind to hopefully secure the investigation,” says Mick Cree...

Cybercrime and financial investigation

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we sit down with Border Services Officer Tamara Lopez. She is with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in the Greater Toronto Area and is also a TV host, actor, mentor, conference speaker, a lifelong volunteer, former mascot and a new Serving with Pride director. She tells us more about her career journey, her most challenging as well as most memorable m...

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we sit down with Constable Amy Boudreau, who has spent the last eight years as a police officer with a specialty in crime prevention. She is currently enrolled in a Leadership Certificate Program at the University of Waterloo and is an active executive board member for the International Society of Crime Prevention Practitioners. She also holds an Internat...

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we sit down with police officer Natalie Hiltz, an executive member of the Canadian Society of Evidence Based Policing and a key member of the Advancing WE in Policing (Ontario) initiative. Hiltz, who is in the middle of her master’s degree with Cambridge University in the U.K. (in the applied criminology and police management/police executive program), ex...

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we catch Helen C. Escott from her home in St. John's, N.L. Helen created the RCMP’s Media Relations/Communications Unit in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1998. She became the first female senior communications strategist and media relations spokesperson for the RCMP in that province. She was the communications lead on high-profile events, including the RCMP...

As part of our exclusive women in law enforcement podcast series this fall, Blue Line, The Podcast sat down with Durham Regional Police Service’s first female cadet in her Whitby, Ont. kitchen. Maria Iannuzziello, a Durham College professor currently teaching in the Police Foundations program, shared her memories of impactful moments in policing with Blue Line as well as her perspective on the evo...

In this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we sit down with York Regional Police Officer Michelle Vincent, who has been in the field for 18 years and is also the writer behind Blue Line’s “Holding the Line” column. Furthermore, she is an officer on a serious mission to save lives when it comes to the first responder mental health crisis. As one of the founders of a new non-profit, Vincent is in th...

Have you watched the Irishman movie with Robert De Niro yet? You don’t want to miss this podcast then... Blue Line, The Podcast is kicking off 2020 with a bang — a big bang into the underworld and its sprawling violence here in the Greater Toronto Area. In this episode, we travel to Hamilton’s Mohawk College campus for some facetime with organized crime specialist Stephen Metelsky. He is a writer,...

For this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we sit down with Jim Bremner, the president and founding member of the Canadian Tactical Officers Association, or CTOA, who is freshly returned from the Shot Show in Las Vegas. We chat about shields, Blue Line Expo coming up on April 21, and even dogs, among other tactical tidbits, so grab those headphones. Bremner was a SWAT team leader and has over 30...

For this episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we steal some time with Martin Cronin, the CEO of Patriot One Technologies, during one of his Washington, D.C. trips. Patriot One is a provider of cognitive microwave radar technology for concealed weapons detection and the current sponsor of our podcast. We chat about the evolving trends in threat detection, artificial intelligence and privacy concerns...

Dr. Vern White, senator and former police chief, joins us from our nation’s capital for this special episode as we grapple with this unprecedented coronavirus situation. Dr. White is the former Chief of Police in both Ottawa and the Durham Region, and he served with the RCMP for more than 20 years. He is also the lead consultant with Syntax Prepares, an emergency planning and crisis communications...

For this special bonus episode, Blue Line, The Podcast connects with Toronto Police Service (TPS) Deputy Chief of Police Shawna Coxon to hear more about how TPS is handling the COVID-19 outbreak as well as all the details on her cybercrime journey and her commitment to analytics excellence in policing.

On April 16 Blue Line hosted its very first virtual roundtable, where we invited five police leaders to turn on their webcams for a joint discussion via video. We thought it was a good time to check in with various agencies in an array of locations, as we continue to manage and strive to slow the outbreak of COVID-19. Specifically, after watching social media the last month or so, we wanted to dis...

In the May episode of Blue Line, The Podcast, we take a look at panic buying and the calls those on the frontline may have to attend that involve such incidents. Elaine Birchall, a hoarding behaviour and intervention specialist, is our guest this month. She is the founder of the Canadian National Hoarding Coalition and also spent time as a counsellor with the Nepean Police Victim Crisis Unit (long...

How would you rate your media relations as your service continues to manage the impacts of COVID-19? What about the bigger branding picture? Or internal mental health campaigns? For another special bonus episodes, Blue Line, The Podcast welcomes Roxanne Beaubien to the mic. She is an award-winning strategist and former journalist with more than 20 years of policing communications experience at the...

Isobel Granger, recently promoted to superintendent at Ottawa Police Service, is now leading the service’s newly launched Respect, Values and Inclusion (RVI) Directorate. She joins us for the June edition of Blue Line The Podcast to share her thoughts on this fresh opportunity with RVI, living authentically, climbing and building ladders, and more on her recently published book, Smashing the Glass...