2022 Labour Conference

About Allison Johnstone & David Cowling

Allison Johnstone is an Associate with Johnstone & Cowling LLP. Allison obtained her J.D. at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) at Cornell Law School. She practices in all areas of labour and employment law and has particular experience in police disciplinary cases and human rights law. Allison appears as a Prosecutor under the Police Services Act, as well as at arbitration hearings and before the Human Rights Tribunal, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, as well as the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.

David Cowling has over 25 years’ experience appearing as counsel for management in arbitration hearings, Labour Relations Board hearings, Court proceedings involving judicial reviews and labour injunctions, as a prosecutor under the Police Services Act, and as Counsel to Administrative Tribunals as well as matters involving property assessment. He also acts as a spokesperson for management in collective agreement negotiations.

David also provides advice and opinions on a full range of labour and employment law matters, including human rights, employment standards and other labour relations issues.

David played for the Canadian Australian Football Team in the World Cup held in Australia and was voted Best and Fairest in the Canadian Championship. He refuses to disclose what year this was.

About Ian Johnstone

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ian served as a police officer with the Peel Regional Police. He holds a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice (summa cum laude) and attended the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law where he received the law school awards for both labour and employment law. He also attended the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law and completed his Master of Laws.

Ian has taught labour and employment courses at the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law and the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law. He is a regular lecturer at the Ontario Police College. Ian is a member of, and serves on several committees of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, and is a co-chair and co-founder of the OACP Police Labour Conference. He and some of the other lawyers at the firm act as counsel to police chiefs, police service boards, provincial ministries of public safety, as well as on behalf of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

Ian also acts for private sector employers and various government agencies as employer counsel for a wide range of issues.

About Nathaniel Marshall

Nathaniel Marshall is the founder of Marshall Workplace Law. His practice focuses on conducting external workplace investigations, audits, training, and mediations. Nathaniel is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, and the Law Society of Nunavut.

After practicing law for close to a decade, Nathaniel has become known for his thorough and practical approach. His clients include unionized and non-unionized employers, public and private companies, school boards, financial institutions, unions, universities, and police services.

Nathaniel has conducted complex workplace investigations for both provincially and federally regulated clients in matters relating to: sexual harassment, workplace harassment, discrimination (particularly anti-Black racism), benefits fraud,  bullying, workplace violence, and those concerning employer specific Codes of Conduct and workplace policies.

As a compliment to his investigation practice, Nathaniel oversees workplace audits and assessments where no complaint has been received. Through these processes, he helps employers check the pulse of their organization by exploring employee morale, engagement, workplace culture, and systemic workplace issues. Nathaniel also provides a wide range of workplace training including on how to conduct workplace investigations, respectful workplaces, and managing complaints of harassment and discrimination. As a mediator, he helps resolve conflict by working with employees to identify and find solutions to their problems.

Nathaniel is counsel to employees and employers on all matters connected to the workplace. He regularly advises on employment contracts, hiring, terminations, workplace policies, human rights, and health & safety. He has represented clients before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.

Nathaniel is a Strategic Advisor to the Black HR Professionals of Canada Network, a not-for-profit social purpose collective for the advancement of Black HR professional across Canada. He is a frequent lecturer at George Brown College's Continuing Education, the Law Society of Ontario, and the Ontario Bar Association. He has also been published in the Canadian Human Resources Reporter and Canadian Employment Law Today.

Nathaniel received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (Dean’s List) and J.D., both from Dalhousie University, where he was a member of the Indigenous Black and Mi’Kmaq initiative.

About Stan MacLellan & Vernon White

Stan MacLellan - Raised in Cape Breton, has extensive experience in the municipal policing field.  He has worked for two of Ontario's larger police services - Ottawa Police Service 1995 - 2003 and the Durham Regional Police Service 2003.

Stan has an undergraduate degree from St. Francis Xavier University, has obtained his Masters of Business Administration from Queen's University and is currently studying at Charles Sturt working towards his doctorate in Policing and Security

Stan is active within his community working with youth and with agencies supporting the vulnerable as a volunteer and board member.

Senator Vern White has worked with the RCMP, moving through the ranks from Constable to Assistant Commissioner and has served in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Ontario and spent almost 19 years in the three northern territories. Worked for the Durham Regional Police Service and the Ottawa Police Service in the role of Chief of Police between 2005 and 2012.

Has been an Adjunct, visiting or part-time professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Charles Sturt University, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and as a visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Police Management.

Has extensive background at the investigational/supervisory and Aboriginal/First Nation and Community Policing level over a 31 year policing career. Has extensive experience in all avenues of policing, administrative, managerial and investigational.

Guest lecturer at the University of Alaska, St Mary's University, Dalhousie University, Charles Sturt University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Simon Fraser University, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, Chinese People's Public Security University and The Indian National Police Academy.

About Allison Johnstone

Allison Johnstone is an Associate with Johnstone & Cowling LLP. Allison obtained her J.D. at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law and completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) at Cornell Law School. She practices in all areas of labour and employment law and has particular experience in police disciplinary cases and human rights law. Allison appears as a Prosecutor under the Police Services Act, as well as at arbitration hearings and before the Human Rights Tribunal, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, as well as the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.

About Stephen Leach & Joseph Markson

Stephen Leach was appointed as the Independent Police Review Director on January 31, 2020.

Mr. Leach is a veteran lawyer with extensive Canadian and international experience and a distinguished career in public governance. Mr. Leach studied law at the University of Alberta and received his MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He was called to the Alberta bar in 1992 and the Ontario bar soon after.

Before his appointment as the new Director, Mr. Leach was a private practice lawyer in criminal and civil law in Ontario and Alberta. Recently, he spent several years working as an international consultant in Tunisia, Istanbul, Indonesia, Lebanon and Iraq. His work included strategic planning and the implementation of programs preventing violent extremism, and anti-corruption.

From 2009 to 2016, Mr. Leach was the President/CEO of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal, where he restructured the tribunal, increased productivity, reduced expenditures and implemented a governance structure with a focus on stakeholder relations.

Joseph Markson’s practice is directed to the defence of individual and corporate clients in criminal and regulatory litigation. His practice areas are criminal and regulatory law, tax evasion and white-collar crime, and the law of policing and professional discipline. He has extensive experience successfully conducting criminal and quasi-criminal trials, regulatory and professional discipline hearings, appeals, advisory work, and witness representation.

Joseph has been selected by his peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in Canada for his work in Criminal Defence since 2020. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, an organization of preeminent trial lawyers from the United States, Canada, and more than 30 countries. Fellowship in the Academy is by invitation only, and trial lawyers become Fellows only after a careful screening process, which includes both peer and judicial review. He is a former Director of The Advocates’ Society (2014-2018) and an Honorary Overseas Member of the Commercial Bar Association of England and Wales. Joseph is Secretary-Treasurer and a Past-Scholar of The Harold G. Fox Education Fund.

Joseph’s individual clients are professionals, first responders, and persons for whom a criminal or regulatory investigation, prosecution or conviction may jeopardize their employment, professional and personal reputations, and ability to travel. He advises and represents corporations, professional service firms, and their directors, officers, senior employees, and partners.

Joseph is routinely retained to direct internal investigations and to navigate interactions with the police and investigative agencies where there is possible criminal or regulatory law exposure. He works with teams of counsel to solve the challenges posed by national and cross-border criminal and regulatory investigations and prosecutions. Joseph advises civil tax counsel and acts for clients under investigation for or charged with domestic and offshore tax evasion by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Joseph brings to the practice his expertise as a former federal prosecutor. Appointed from 1995 to 2021, he was an Agent of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. He has extensive trial, jury trial, search warrant, and wiretap experience and has prosecuted numerous major complex cases involving organized crime, tax evasion, white-collar crime, proceeds of crime, regulatory, cross-border and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act offences.

Joseph has extensive experience acting for police officers in investigations by the Ontario Special Investigations Unit and facing criminal and Police Services Act investigations and charges. He is counsel to the Ontario Provincial Police Association, police associations in the Greater Toronto Area and across Ontario, the Toronto Police Service Senior Officers’ Organization and Peace Officers in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He has acted for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, members of police services boards and police services. He advises on law of policing issues and represented the Police Association of Ontario in its submissions to the Independent Police Oversight Review conducted by Justice Tulloch.

About Bob Richardson & Amanda Galbraith

Bob Richardson brings over 25 years of public affairs experience in both the public and private sectors. His previous roles include Executive Vice President at Edelman, Senior-Vice President at Ipsos Reid and Vice-President at The Angus Reid Group. In the Ontario Government, he served as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition, and as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Colleges and Universities, the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Energy. Bringing together his private and public experience, Mr. Richardson co-founded The Devon Group (2003), a company that was acquired by Edelman in 2014, where he built one of Ontario’s most reputable public affairs agencies. Bob also serves as vice-chair of the board of The Ontario Centres of Excellence, director of Soccer Canada, and a member of the Board of Governors of George Brown College.

Amanda Galbraith is a Principal at Navigator and brings over 15 years of communications experience working in the federal and municipal government, private sector, on political campaigns and as a journalist. She specializes in crisis communications, media relations and reputation recovery.

Prior to joining Navigator, Amanda was the Director of Communications to the Mayor of Toronto. While in the Mayor’s office she played a key role in shepherding two multi-billion dollar budgets and the city’s successful labour negotiations. Amanda was also co-chair of Mayor Tory's successful 2018 re-election campaign.

Amanda held a senior leadership position at a boutique public affairs firm where she provided strategic communications, media relations and created multi-faceted communications campaigns for leading organizations in the energy, technology, health, government and infrastructure sectors.

Previously, Amanda held a range of senior communications roles in the federal government with the Prime Minister of Canada and as Deputy Director of Communications for the Minister of the Environment.

Frequently called on for her public affairs expertise in the media, Amanda is the host of Free for All Friday, a weekly national radio show on the iHeartRadio Talk Network tackling the biggest national news stories from coast to coast. She is also a regular contributor and guest-host on Newstalk 1010 and her commentary can be found on BNN, TVO, CTV, CBC, CityTV, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun. Amanda is also the host of Political Traction, a weekly political podcast powered by Navigator.

Amanda currently serves as a Director of the Canadian Club of Toronto, Canada’s oldest podium of record. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Victims Services Toronto, a volunteer with the Art Gallery of Ontario, the President of the Toronto Chapter of the Carleton University Alumni Association and a volunteer with Fetch+Releash animal rescue where she fosters rescue dogs. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carleton University.

About Gary Melanson & Sharon Wilmot

Gary Melanson graduated WLU in 1989 (Psychology and English).  He worked for the D.N.D. teaching English as a second language. 

In 1995, Gary graduated law school (UWO) having received the Edna Yuet-Chan Memorial Award in second year – awarded to the student who has best displayed ingenuity, humour, enthusiasm and camaraderie. Gary articled/was in private practice with Madorin, Snyder (Kitchener) until 1999.  Gary then became the senior Assistant City Solicitor for Kitchener. 

In 2003, he was hired by the Waterloo Regional Police Service and became vice-chair of the Police Legal Advisors Committee of the Ontario Association of Chiefs Police from 2004 until 2017, and currently is the Co-Chair (OACP Liaison).  

Gary has appeared before various courts (including the Court of Appeal) and administrative tribunals, been actively involved in reform to the Police Services Act and its Regulations and the development of terms regarding the production of police records in family, CAS and Children’s Lawyer proceedings.

Gary has been published in the National Journal of Constitutional Law regarding the police obligation to disclose misconduct in criminal matters (R. v. McNeil) and an author of a chapter on bias neutral policing in “Racial Profiling and Human Rights in Canada: The New Legal Landscape”.  Gary has been a frequent presenter - including for the Ontario Police College, the Ontario Bar Association, a guest speaker and panelist at the conferences put on by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and at the Police Associations of Ontario annual employment/law conference; as well as conducting extensive police training for his and other Services.   Gary was appointed to the Order of Merit of Police Forces (M.O.M.) in June of 2020.

Sharon Wilmot is general counsel for Peel Regional Police.  Prior to joining Peel Regional Police, she acted as legal counsel for the Toronto Police Service.  Sharon was called to the bar in 2008, after graduating from Queen’s University, where she received her LL.B degree.  Prior to attending Queen’s University, she graduated with an Honours Bachelors of Commerce from Laurentian University.  She articled and practised at a large Toronto law firm, where she maintained a general litigation practice with a particular focus on criminal and professional negligence cases.  She is a current member of the Police Legal Advisors Committee of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.

About David Cowling

David Cowling has over 25 years’ experience appearing as counsel for management in arbitration hearings, Labour Relations Board hearings, Court proceedings involving judicial reviews and labour injunctions, as a prosecutor under the Police Services Act, and as Counsel to Administrative Tribunals as well as matters involving property assessment. He also acts as a spokesperson for management in collective agreement negotiations.

David also provides advice and opinions on a full range of labour and employment law matters, including human rights, employment standards and other labour relations issues.

David played for the Canadian Australian Football Team in the World Cup held in Australia and was voted Best and Fairest in the Canadian Championship. He refuses to disclose what year this was.

About Mike Federico & Vernon White

Deputy Chief (Ret.) Federico served over 42 years with the Toronto Police Service, providing effective leadership locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally.  He was in charge of Community Safety Command which is comprised of three core functions:Area Field Command, Central Field Command and Divisional Policing Support Unit.  In addition to his regular police duties Deputy Federico is the President of the Board of Directors of the Vitanova Foundation a community based substance abuse and mental health treatment centre, a member of the Board of Directors of the Universal Youth Challenge Fund, a community based youth support program, and the Service’s champion for the Canadian Cancer Society - Cops for Cancer.  Demonstrating his commitment to continuous learning, Deputy Chief Federico holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Justice Studies from the University of Guelph. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management - Police Leadership Program, and the Executive Development Course, and the Senior Police Administration Course of the Canadian Police College.  He also holds a Certificate of Management from the University of Virginia.  He is a recipient of the Vice Provost Award for Academic Excellence from the University of Guelph-Humber and he is a faculty scholar of the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto.  Deputy Chief Federico is a Member of the Order of Merit of Canada and a recipient of the Police Exemplary Service Medal and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Deputy Federico leads or is a member of numerous provincial and federal committees working to improve public safety. One of the special assignments Deputy Federico leads is the Police Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT) that partners a police officer with a mental health nurse to help emotionally disturbed persons receive the help they need while diverting them from the criminal justice system.  More recently, in partnership with Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and several community based mental health agencies, Deputy Chief Federico established a 24/7 phone service that connects police to resources that assist mentally ill adults without the need to apprehend them.  Both of these programs are being watched with interest nationally.  Deputy Federico is a strong proponent of progressive human resource principles and practices that,coupled with high professional standards, promote diversity and inclusiveness in recruitment, training and staff development. Deputy Federico’s contributions have left a lasting mark on policing locally and nationally.

Senator Vern White has worked with the RCMP, moving through the ranks from Constable to Assistant Commissioner and has served in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Ontario and spent almost 19 years in the three northern territories. Worked for the Durham Regional Police Service and the Ottawa Police Service in the role of Chief of Police between 2005 and 2012.

Has been an Adjunct, visiting or part-time professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Charles Sturt University, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and as a visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Police Management.

Has extensive background at the investigational/supervisory and Aboriginal/First Nation and Community Policing level over a 31 year policing career. Has extensive experience in all avenues of policing, administrative, managerial and investigational.

Guest lecturer at the University of Alaska, St Mary's University, Dalhousie University, Charles Sturt University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Simon Fraser University, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, Chinese People's Public Security University and The Indian National Police Academy.

About Bruce Chapman