For more than 30 years Colonel Horn, OMM, MSM, CD, PhD, served in the Canadian Armed Forces, including more than 10 years of regimental service with operational combat arms units.

In 1993 he was posted to the Canadian Airborne Regiment as the Officer Commanding 3 Commando. At the time of 9/11 attacks he was the Commanding Officer of First Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment.

From 2007-2009 Colonel Horn was the Deputy Commander of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM) and later would act as the director of the CANSOFCOM Education and Research Centre (formerly known as the Professional Development Centre).

During his career Colonel Horn also earned a Masters in War Studies and later a Phd, in addition to various honours awarded by the Governor General.

Colonel Horn released from the CAF in 2016 but continues to serve CANSOFCOM as the command historian, a position he fills as a civilian.

In this episode Colonel Horn and I discuss the focus of much of his academic work - the history of Canada's special operators. From the WWII First Special Service Force, to the little known Canadian SAS company, to the Airborne Regiment and the standing up of JTF2 - we cover it all.

You can find Colonel Horn's works published by Dundurn Press and Double Dagger Books.

Show Notes

2:10 - Always wanted to serve

4:40 - Joined RCR in 1983

5:55 - The Airborne Regiment: Canada’s Cold War Commandos

10:37 - Discipline issues coming to a head in Somalia

15:10 - Academic pursuits

19:00 - Deputy Commander of CANSOFCOM

20:00 - What is SOF?

24:00 - Churchill invented SOF?

30:28 - The myth that SOF is more expensive than conventional forces

32:57 - Why do SOF operators need to look different?

32:25 - SOF want to look special

43:30 - Canadian SAS?

47:20 - Canadian Airborne Regiment

49:30 - First Special Service Force

53:00 - JTF2

57:10 - From RCMP SERT teams to JTF2

1:05 - General Hillier stands up CANSOFCOM

1:14:07 - Prototypical SOF operator? 

1:16:40 - Canadian SOF culture and keeping a low profile

1:21:52 - Unleash the Dogs of War, new book published by Double Dagger

Under Reserve thanks Colonel Horn for his time, and his service.

John Williams worked for the Correctional Service of Canada for over 30 years. His service included time at the notorious BC Penitentiary and the Kent Institution - both maximum security prisons.

In 2020 John wrote Life on the Inside: One Correctional Officer's Story where he provides readers with a frank look at the highs and lows of working a federal corrections officer. His account of a career spent walking the "high fives" is at times graphic, but it's not sensational. John makes it clear that maximum security prisons are not a place where you'd want to spend any time as an inmate, but he doesn't describe these institutions as terrible places to work.

The work was taxing, and the threat of violence was always present - but like so many men and women who serve in uniform John found strength and sense of community with his colleagues.

Show Notes:

• 4:20 – Discharged from the Navy. No what do I do?
• 6:20 – The jail in New Westminster was hiring
• 10:00 – BC Pen housed the worst of the worst
• 16:00 – Advice from an old con
• 18:00 – Shawshank Redemption
• 22:50 – Why do stabbings happen in prison?
• 25:25 – Gangs in prison
• 29:33 – Prostitution in prison
• 34:15 – Drug dogs
• 40:40 – Sexual pressure on inmates leads to suicide
• 44:50 – Female correctional officers
• 49:40 – What’s the hole?
• 52:40 – Protective custody
• 56:15 – Guards ever get star struck?

If you enjoyed our conversation, and want to read the book, you can find it here.

Under Reserve thanks John for his time, and his service.

Dr. Scott Blandford is an Assistant Professor at Wilfred Laurier University. He is an instructor and program coordinator for undergraduate and graduate studies in policing and public safety.

Prior to his career in academia Scott was a police officer for 30 years with he London Police Service in Ontario. He retired at the rank of sergeant.

The current focus of Scott's research and writing is the selection, and educational requirements for new police officers. In this episode we explore Scott's views on whether it should be mandatory (as opposed to merely preferred) for police officers in Canada to have post-secondary education at the college or university level, and if policing can be described as a profession.

Under Reserve thanks Dr. Blandford for his time, and his service.

Show Notes:

• 3:24 – Getting a start in policing. Applied to RCMP at 18.
• 12:00 – London, Ontario
• 13:15 – door stop conversation on domestic call
• 15:40 – educational qualifications to be a police officer
• 17:15 – education beyond high school de facto requirement to be police officer
• 25:15 – cultural resistance to police hiring candidates with university education
• 28:04 – police promote to rank rather than to position
• 31:40 – a service that acts professionally vs. a professional service. Policing in Canada is not a profession.
• 43:40 – police officers aren’t paid to lose
• 45:50 – militarization of police
• 50:10 – less-lethal force
• 54:30 – would you do it all over again?