True Blue Podcast

 ** Apologies for some poor audio in this episode. ** Thanks to Donnie Graves (serving RCMP member) for chatting with us about “Operation Pegasus” and to Laurie White (retired RCMP) for agreeing to jump out of a perfectly good airplane! Donnie has been skydiving for his entire adult life and volunteers with Operation Pegasus which is intended to support Veterans, Serving Military and First Respond...

VCPU President, Angela Van Eerd hosts this episode to introduce Tiffany Parton , the Director of Strategic Communications and Community Engagement for VicPD. Tiffany grew up in Stayner, Ontario a small town of about 3000 people before moving out to the West Coast to work in fundraising for a number of charities.  She later moved to Vancouver Island in 2015 to work for the Victoria Hospitals Founda...

In this episode, Joel Durling is joined by Sergeant Vlad Filatov.  Vlad has been with VicPD since 2015 but started with the RCMP in 2013.  Vlad and his family immigrated from Romania when he was 9 years old, after spending some time in Montreal they moved West to Victoria where he graduated high school and completed a degree in Criminal Justice at the University of Victoria.  He began volunteering...

Joel Durling hosts another really good episode of the True Blue Podcast.  In this episode, you get a chance to meet Sergeant Dyanne Parker who previously served with the Toronto Police Service (TPS). Sergeant Parker completed 13 years with TPS before applying to VicPD a little over 2 years ago.  Dyanne shares some stories of what working in Toronto was like as a police officer - lots of gangsters...

Constable Adam Osmond was a 10 year veteran of the Calgary Police Service (CPS) before moving to VicPD to continue his policing career.  Adam and Host Joel Durling run through Adam's life before policing and some fantastic details on why he wanted to work in policing.  Adam discusses his favourite hobbies to many of the great experiences he had in the CPS.  On New Year's Eve in 2020, Ada...

Joel Durling is a 10 year veteran of the RCMP and recently moved to VicPD to continue his policing career.  It was Joel's idea to have experienced officers come on the podcast and share some of the details of their move over to VicPD.  He will be hosting future episodes and chatting with more experienced officers to hear their stories. Joel is originally from Nova Scotia, he was a Registered...

2026 WOUNDED WARRIOR RUN BC 8 DAYS 8 RUNNERS 800 KMS February 22 – March 1, 2026 From Port Hardy to Victoria, no small feat. Come cheer along the route or meet us at one of 28 stops to support our runners, Canadian Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Thanks to Capt(N) Kevin Whiteside (CFB Esquimalt) and Ret’d Deputy Chief Jason Laidman (VicPD) for taking time to chat about this year’s...

In this episode, VCPU President, Angela Van Eerd speaks with City of Victoria Mayor, Marianne Alto.   Many different topics get covered in this interview including some interesting personal details about Her Worship and the educational path she experienced as a young person which is certainly very different than most people.   You'll hear some views on Community Safety and Wellbeing, VicPD&ap...

To kick off Season 6 of the True Blue Podcast, we chat with Sgt. David Jorgensen, current Vice-President of the Victoria City Police Union (VCPU) and Sgt. (Ret’d) Ole Jorgensen, former long time VCPU executive member.  We discussed the Regimental Mess Dinner that occurred in late 2025.  Well over 100 serving and retired members participated in the event, which is intended to foster camaraderie, pr...

The True Blue Podcast wraps up Season 5 with Host Tom Stamatakis interviewing the VCPU President Angela Van Eerd.  Hear them discuss the successes and challenges of 2025.  Furthermore, they look into the future and discuss what Contract Bargaining and Crime Fighting will look like in 2026. Ang and Tom make it clear that the complaint process needs to be better, the lengthy delays are weighing on t...

Great interview with two NPF (National Police Federation) representatives, Rob Farrer - VP Pacific Region and Chirs Voller - Director Pacific Region. https://npf-fpn.com/ The National Police Federation is the sole certified bargaining agent for regular Members and reservists of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police below the rank of Inspector. The NPF was certified to represent ~20,000 RCMP Members se...

Dr. Lydia Vallieres - "Just F*ucking Do It" - A No Bullshit Survival Guide For First Responders - What The Academy Didn't Teach You. Hope you enjoy these episodes with Dr. Lydia as we talk about her book and experiences working with first responders on their mental well-being. Seven Parts of the Book 1.         The Hidden Toll of the Job 2.         Cognitive Survival 3.         Nerv...

Dr. Lydia Vallieres - "Just F*ucking Do It" - A No Bullshit Survival Guide For First Responders - What The Academy Didn't Teach You. Hope you enjoy these episodes with Dr. Lydia as we talk about her book and experiences working with first responders on their mental well-being. Seven Parts of the Book 1.         The Hidden Toll of the Job 2.         Cognitive Survival 3.         Nerv...

Sgt. Ron Kirkwood joined VicPD in 2009 after serving his country in the Royal Canadian Air Force.  Ron's career includes time in Patrol, walking the Beat in the downtown core and a number of years on the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team (GVERT).   In this episode Ron talks about his journey through the Police Discipline Process after discharging his ARWEN which unfortunately resulted...

The VCPU is pleased to add this episode to the Greater Victoria Area Chiefs Series and introduce the first ever female Chief Constable for the Victoria Police Department, Fiona Wilson!  Host, Tom Stamatakis helps us all to get to know Chief Wilson a little bit better. Chief Wilson talks about the Esquimalt & Victoria “framework agreement” and how in her view it isn’t working well, specifically...

In the final episode of this series, we got a chance to chat with Chief Del Manak before he sailed off into retirement.  Chief Manak made it through a 35-year policing career and spent the past nearly 10 years as the Chief Constable.  A graduate of JIBC Class #44, recruited by Vancouver Police, however Del spent the majority of his career with the Victoria Police Department. Del tells us about his...

Thanks to Chief Dean Duthie from Saanich Police for participating in our podcast series.  Dean is the 18th Chief of Police for Saanich since 1906.  Chief Duthie had a variety of experiences throughout his career progression.  His skills took him to many important investigative roles that included the Saanich Drug Enforcement Team and the Major Crime Unit. As many of our listeners know, Saanich Pol...

It was great to chat with Todd before his retirement from his RCMP career which started over 28 years ago.  After graduating from Depot, the RCMP sent him to Alberta as a young officer.  In fact, he was so young that the Mounties sent him to work as an undercover operator because of those young looks!  His career continued in the Yukon and throughout BC for a few years before his promotion to Serg...

Chief Constable Ian Lawson started his policing career in the RCMP back in 1988.  He’s spent most of his RCMP career on Vancouver Island and after 32 years’ service he accepted the Chief Constable position in Central Saanich.  Ian was the Primary Investigator on the BC Rail corruption scandal where Bribery and Fraud charges were pursued.   One of Ian’s favourite career moves was to become the Deta...

Chief Constable Julie Chanin is the first ever female Chief of any police department in Greater Victoria.  Julie started her policing career in January 2000 as part of the millennial troop at the RCMP Training Depot in Regina.  Julie’s RCMP career was spent on Vancouver Island, first in Port McNeil for 5 years and then to the Westshore for another 7 years before making the transition to Oak Bay. ...

In this episode, we chat with Andy Dunstan to discuss his brilliant idea to create the End2End Cycling Relay in support of Island Kids Cancer Association (ICKA).  Andy is a former police officer and has been supporting kids with cancer for over 20 years.  He talks about how this unique fundraising event got started, the goals of supporting local families stricken by childhood cancer and so much mo...

Will Dodds is the host of the ForensicsWorld Podcast and a recently retired Sergeant from the Saanich Police Department.  Will began his police career in 2002, worked in Patrol Division to learn the basics and later was drawn to being a “crash analyst” in the Traffic Section, then transferred over to the Forensic Section as a Constable, and afterward was lucky enough to be promoted and to finish h...

On this episode of the True Blue Podcast, host Matt Waterman talks specifics about the Ron Kirkwood Police Act decision.   It’s clear the BC Police Act process has failed again.  Hear a little bit about how things unfolded over the past close to 6 years and most importantly learn a little bit about Ron Kirkwood, Medal of Valour recipient. https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comment-system-failed...

The True Blue Podcast is proud to introduce Cst. Tyrus Sleightholme (Class #174) and so happy to see him achieving his goal of serving as a police officer.  Tyrus was born with Cystic Fibrosis and thankfully remained healthy as a child, fortunately once he received the live changing medication “Trikafta” his goal of becoming a police officer became very achievable.  Tyrus was very active in sports...

The True Blue Podcast is honoured to share Scam Prevention information with some help from Cst. Berle Zwaan of the Saanich Police.  In today’s complicated world protecting yourself from those trying to prey on you is vitally important.   Berle is now in her 30th year of policing, she has experience in Patrol, Traffic, Mountain Bike Squad, Child Abuse Investigations, Financial Crimes and Community...