2023 conference speakers

Marc Larochelle has been a Police Officer for 17 years spending 14 years in Criminal Investigations, Drug Enforcement and Biker Enforcement. In 2022, Marc was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and assigned to Patrol Operations. After a decade of covert investigations, Marc decided to leave his new position with the Greater Sudbury Police Service to join the Ontario Provincial Police where he continues to organize crime investigations with the OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau.

D/Insp Donnelly has been a case manager in the OPP since 2013 with many years in homicide and major cases as well as organized crime. He is one of the designated multi-jurisdictional major case managers for the province. D/Insp Donnelly is now assigned as the Hub Commander for East/North Organized Crime Bureau and his territory reaches from Cornwall in the East to Thunder Bay in the West.

Joined Corrections in March of 2017, became a member of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team in October 2018, and Team Leader in April of 2020. In 2022 I became one of the original members of the Institutional Security Team at Central East Correctional Centre.

Dr. Cathy Prowse, PhD is a former 25-year police officer with the Calgary Police Service, who currently holds faculty appointments at both the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University in the departments of anthropology and sociology. She is the recipient of local, national, and international recognition for her gang research, which, over the course of her policing career and beyond, has been requested and used to inform expert testimony on four continents. As a result of her early work in this area, she was honoured in 1996 by the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts for her writing of a police investigators’ book on the organization of evolving 21st century street gangs; the first individual Canadian to receive this honour. Notable recognition of Dr. P Prowse’s expertise in the area of street gangs includes her participation on expert panels assembled by the Department of Justice Canada to provide direction on youth-at-risk initiatives and her book titled ining Street Gangs in the 21st Century: Fluid, Mobile, and Transnational Networks (2013) which is now in the holdings of over 800 university libraries worldwide. In 2018, Dr. Pr Prowse was asked to deliver a keynote presentation in Ottawa to “Set the Stage” for the Summit on Gun and Gang Violence hosted by Public Safety Canada; an event which officially launched Canada’s 5-year, $350-million anti-gang strategy. Prowse continues to publish on a wide array of topics within her area of expertise that include crime, justice, policing, and social-cultural influences on perceptions of crime.

Justin Parry is a 19-year member of the Winnipeg Police Service and is currently the Sergeant of the Secure Operations Unit, which oversees witness protection, member security, informant control, intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Intelligence. Additionally, Justin is the manager and a contributing member of the Winnipeg Police Service Gang Expert Program. In 2012, Justin was qualified as an expert in Manitoba Provincial Court to provide testimony on two Indigenous-based criminal organizations. During his assignments with the Homicide Unit, Major Crimes Unit, and Organized Crime Unit, Justin has gained extensive experience with gangs and gang-motivated offences. He has conducted complex investigations that focused on gang-related activities, including several large-scale Part VI investigations. This work has allowed him to gain familiarity with the mindset of gang members, cultivating them as sources and witnesses and utilizing that information to successfully further major gang-related investigations.

Dr. Todd D. Negola is a clinical/forensic psychologist working for the federal government (Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Veterans Affairs) for the past 27 years.  Aside from his work with VA, he also conducts training internationally and consults regularly with federal, state and local law enforcement as well as public and private educational institutions, community programs and mental health personnel on areas including gangs and gang activity, psychopathy and safety. He has several peer reviewed publications, a co-authored book chapter and teaches regularly at several college/universities. When not working, he is often found coaching his daughter’s softball team or his son’s baseball teams. He is married to Kristi and they celebrated 27 years of marriage last summer.

Thomas started his career in Corrections in October of 2016. Member of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team 2020. Defensive Tactics Instructor 2021. Current member of the Institutional Security Team starting the roll in September 2022.

Detective Sergeant Craig Sharpe has served as a police officer for 27 years. Throughout his career, he has worked for the Waterloo Regional Police Service, Kingston Police Service, and currently serves with the OPP. His current role is the unit manager for the Indigenous Issues and Intelligence Unit (IIIU), established in response to the recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry. The IIIU is responsible for strategically deploying its members across Ontario to gather and provide intelligence to disrupt, deter, and dismantle organized and serious crimes. The unit focuses specifically on preventing criminal organizations' exploitation of Indigenous communities.

Detective Bezaire has been a member of the London Police Service for over 23 years. During his tenure, he has worked in various departments including general patrol, robbery, guns and gangs, and major crime. Additionally, Detective Bezaire has served as a member of the London Public Order Unit and currently holds the position of director on the London Police Association. Currently, he is the officer in charge of the London Human Trafficking team. Proudly, Detective Bezaire is a devoted husband and father of two children.

Detective Sergeant Kim Harris has been serving in the Toronto Police Service for 25 years. She is currently the Controller of the Covert Operations – Source Management Section. She is a experienced criminal investigator and has served in various investigative units over the course of her career, including Divisional Street Crime and Major Crime Units. She also has several years of experience in both the Gun and Gang Task Force Street Enforcement Teams and Major Projects Section. For the past five years, Detective Sergeant Harris has been assigned to the Source Management Section, where she oversees the daily operations of the unit, provides and facilitates training, offers investigative support, and is an experienced Agent and Confidential Source Handler.

Vincent Paris is a Dalhousie Law School graduate who articled for Cooper, Sandler & West in 1996-1997. He worked as a researcher for Commissioner Fred Kaufman at “The Commission on Proceedings Involving Guy Paul Morin.” Later, he joined the downtown Toronto Crown Attorney’s Office in 1998. In 2004, he was assigned to provide legal advice to the Toronto Police Service Criminal Intelligence and Organized Crime Enforcement branches, which eventually became the MAG Guns and Gangs initiative. In 2007, he was appointed as counsel to the Firearm Investigation and Enforcement Services Directorate of the Canadian Firearm Program under the R.C.M.P., a role he continued until he was promoted to General Counsel in 2017. Currently, Vincent is the team leader of the Gun and Gang Support Unit, a group that assists police agencies across Ontario in tackling organized crime. He has lectured extensively on firearms, organized crime, search and seizure, and police use of force to police forces throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico, as well as Judges, Crown Attorneys, and defence counsel. Since 2007, he has been a board member of the Ontario Gang Investigators Association, and he is recognized as a Subject Matter Expert on organized crime and firearms by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He was the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held in Vienna, where he discussed the importance of tracing firearms. Presently, Vincent is working with the UNODC and Interpol on some training initiatives to counter firearm trafficking in Africa and South America. He is also engaged in a project with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute to counter the involvement of organized crime and terrorist groups in the trafficking of precious metals.

Marc Labrosse has been working as a member of the Quebec Provincial Police (SQ) for the past 25 years. Currently, he is responsible for managing the Office of Collaborating Witnesses, which oversees the development, evaluation, and control of agents working in the field for the SQ. His office also manages the special witnesses and cooperating witnesses. Previously, Marc oversaw ENRCO, an organized crime task force in Montreal supervised by the SQ. The task force manages wiretap investigations regarding Hells Angels and other gangs. Since 2013, Marc has gained extensive experience in Part VI investigations, writing over 450 different authorizations in numerous gang-related cases. One of these files, Project "Objection," where an agent was involved, made it possible to arrest and charge four Hells Angels members. Marc has had the opportunity to work with different collaborators in a wide area of criminality, giving him access to talk directly with career criminals involved in operations to deploy realistic operations on the field.

Betty Laurent is an Assistant Chief Prosecutor for Quebec’s DPP office in charge of handling large or complex prosecutions (Bureau de la grande criminalité et affaires spéciales).  Member of the bar since 1997, she has practiced almost exclusively in complex mega cases involving organized crime. From  2001 to 2014, she practiced within the Bureau of Organized Crime (BLACO). From then on, her responsibilities included planning prosecutions targeting the main actors of organized crime. In 2014, she became Assistant Chief Prosecutor within the same team, and her responsibilities moved towards  supervising, counseling and coordinating mega cases in the province of Quebec.  Since the merging of the BLACO with two other specialized teams to create the current office in 2015, she has been known as an expert on  wiretapping, mega cases involving informants, unsavory witnesses and civil infiltration agents, as well as privileges. She has also given numerous conferences over the years on these subjects and is a recurrent teacher of criminal law at Bar school.

Carlene has been with CSC since 2008. She has spent 11 of her 15 years within the Intelligence Program. She has been involved in intelligence operations, intelligence policy, and security intelligence training, and has worked on files such as incompatible offenders, security threat group (STG)/gangs, and cooperating witnesses.

Brittanie holds a degree in Criminal Justice and began her career with CSC in 2012. She has spent the majority of her work in Security Operations, and Communications. Brittanie joined the Intelligence Program in 2019 and has worked on files such as security threat group (STG)/gangs, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) investigations, digital forensics, and social media intelligence.

Andrew Steinwall has been a member of the Toronto Police Service for the past twenty-five years. He is currently the Detective Sergeant of the Organized Crime Enforcement – Gun and Gang Task Force (GGTF) and the Centralized Shooting Response Teams (CSRT). Prior to this, Detective Sergeant Steinwall spent six (6) years with the Toronto Police Service - Major Project Section where he was the lead investigator on six (6) large scale Part VI wiretap investigations targeting Criminal Organizations, from 2013 – 2018. Andrew has also been a member of the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit and the Toronto Police Service – Counter Terrorism Unit. Since 2005, he has been involved with seventeen wire-tap investigations with a primary focus on Criminal Organizations, the importation and trafficking of firearms, drug trafficking and terrorism.

Detective Constable Paul Askin has been serving in the Toronto Police Service for 23 years. he is currently assigned to Organized Crime Enforcement. Paul is an experienced criminal investigator, and has served in various investigative units over the course of his career, including Divisional Street Crime and Major Crime Units. He also has several years of experience in both the Gun and Gang Task Force Street Enforcement Teams and Major Projects Section. For four years, Detective Constable Askin was assigned to Covert Operations Source Management Section, where he served as an experienced Agent and Confidential Source Handler.

Since 2008, Stacey Armstrong has worked as an intelligence analyst for the Indigenous Issues and Intelligence Unit. She is responsible for providing tactical and strategic analytical support to unit members deployed across the province and has extensive experience providing intelligence products in support of investigations to deter and disrupt organized crime on and around Indigenous territories.