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Michael has been a professional Firefighter with the Ottawa Fire Service since 2008 and joined the Faculty Team at Algonquin College in 2016, teaching Firefighter skills, HAZMAT and Medical Responder. He is certified in NFPA 1001 Firefighter I and II, NFPA 472 / 1072 HAZMAT Technician, NFPA 1021 Fire Officer 1, NFPA 1521 Safety Officer, NFPA 1041 Fire Instructor 1, OFM Pump Operator, IMS 100 and 200 and OEM Basic Emergency Management.
Mike is active in the service, specializing in HAZMAT and CBRNe, teaching nationally to First Responders in Ottawa and DRDC Suffield, and continues to support research as well internationally to DFAIT designated countries. Most recently he became an R2MR Instructor for mental health in emergency services.
Michael has been a career reservist with the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada as an Infantry Soldier from 1988 to 1993 and then
28 (O) FD AMB as a Med A, since 1999 to his retirement in 2021.
He is an Alumni of Humber College’s Pre-entry FIRE 1 and Pre-entry Fire 2 programs, as well as the Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Assistant programs.
Prior to coming to Ottawa, Michael worked as a Physiotherapy / Occupational Therapy Assistant (PTA/OTA) at the Wellesley Hospital as a part of the Burn and HIV/General Medicine Rehabilitation teams.
While studying Mechanical Engineering after high school, Paul joined the local Fire Department as a Volunteer Civil Defence Firefighter. He served at this Fire Department, just South of Johannesburg in South Africa for eight years, during which time the area was under constant threat of terrorist attacks.
After immigrating to Canada Paul once again a volunteered as a firefighter. He attended completed his NFPA certification at the Fire School in Waverly Nova Scotia. He was subsequently promoted to Captain and received annual awards for being a Top Ten Responder. After transferring to Ottawa Paul joined a Volunteer Fire Station which is also a Water Rescue Unit, where he became their Medical Instructor. After a couple of years he started organizing Multiple Casualty Scenarios that eventually included units from Ottawa Paramedics and Ottawa Police. In 2012 Paul was awarded the Station 92 Fire Fighter of the Year Award and in 2013, received the District 9 Larry O’ Reilly award.
Paul has been teaching The EMR portion of the Pre Service Firefighter Education & Training program at Algonquin College since 2015. He also assists with training the new recruits The First Responder Level in the Rural Division of Ottawa Fire. In 2019 he became a Red Cross EMR Instructor Trainer, and is also International Trauma Life Support (Advanced) certified as well as a certified Swift Water Rescue Tech, Ice Rescue Tech and Swift Water Boat Rescue Tech.
Throughout his career as a volunteer and rural Firefighter, Paul has been trained by many firefighters, senior firefighters, officers and fire chiefs and looks forward to passing this knowledge on to new aspiring student Firefighters.
Jeffrey McIntyre is a full-time Firefighter with the City of Cornwall where he has been working since 2006. He has also been a Volunteer Firefighter with the Township of North Stormont for 20 years. Jeff graduated from the Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training program in 2004 at Algonquin College and has been instructing at the college since 2018. Jeff has certifications in NFPA 1001 Firefighter 1 and 2, NFPA 1041 Instructor 1 and 2, NFPA Fire Officer 1 and 2, NFPA 1521 Safety Officer, NFPA 472 Haz/Mat Technician, Red Cross First Responder Instructor, and IMS 100.
Jeffrey Bergin is a full time Professor and Lead of the fitness program through Levels 1-3 for Police Foundations. Jeff has a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with a major in Physical education from McGill University. He is also certified in all of the Police fitness testing protocols. Jeff is a Registered Health and Fitness Practitioner (RHEP) with the Ontario Fitness Council as well as a Certified Exercise Practitioner (CEP) with the Health and Fitness Federation of Canada. Jeff is also a current certified member of Police Fitness Personnel of Ontario.
In 2022, Jeff won the Dianne Bloor Award for Part-Time Teacher of the Year before becoming full time the following year. His main philosophy of teaching is continuous/repetitive testing, which allows students the opportunity to slowly develop their skills in all of the Police fitness protocols.
Karen Barsoski-Murdoch has been an Instructor with Algonquin College in the Pre-Service Firefighter Education and Training program since 2006. A full-time Firefighter with the Department of National Defence as an acting Deputy Platoon Chief and a Volunteer Captain and Fire Prevention Officer with the McNab Breaside Fire Department, Karen brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our program.
Karen specializes in Auto Extrication and Heavy Rescue, along with Firefighter survival and self rescue. She is also NFPA certified as an Airport Firefighter, Wildland Firefighter and EMR Trainer Instructor.
Along with her professional accomplishments, she is very involved in her community and volunteers on a number of Executive Committees and was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2013 for Dedication to her trade and commitment to her community.
Jonathan McLaren has been an instructor in the Pre-Service Firefighter Program since 2015. Jonathan has almost 20 years of firefighting experience including structural, wild-lands and aircraft suppression. He has a wide array of firefighting knowledge concerning fire suppression in both urban and rural environments, fire prevention, fire education and hazardous materials safety management. Jonathan is highly trained in first response and emergency scene management.
Jonathan is a graduate of the Pre-Service Firefighting Program at Humber College. Presently Jonathan is employed with the City of Ottawa Fire Service as a Firefighter and a Hazardous Material Technician. Jonathan has also served his community of Whitewater Region as a firefighter and has held various leadership positions throughout the fire service including Trainer Facilitator, Station Captain, Deputy Chief and now serves as Fire Chief of the Department.
Jonathan has several fire related certifications including: Fire Officer 1, 2 and 3; Incident Safety Officer; Fire Instructor 1 and 2; and Hazardous Materials Technician.
Réjean Bérubé is a full-time Firefighter with the City of Gatineau Fire Department where he has worked since 2003. He also serves as a part-time Firefighter/Instructor with the Pontiac, Quebec Fire Department. He is a graduate of structural firefighting at the IPIQ Fire College in Quebec and Fire Sciences Program at Cégep Montmorency, located in Laval. He has certifications as a Firefighter 1 and 2, Fire Officer and Fire Instructor, and is fluently bilingual (English and French)
Réjean has been teaching at Algonquin College since 2014 and is very passionate about instilling a sense of pride and professionalism in his students.
An alumnus from Algonquin’s Business Administration program, Wally attended Ottawa University to further hone his skills and started his career as an auditor with the Federal Government. Some time later he realized this was not his path and joined the Ottawa Police in 1988.
The most reliable schedule for his young family was with the Patrol section on which he served for 15 years. The energy and positivity of having co-workers who shared the same mindset and philosophy in helping the public was rewarding. He worked in urban Ottawa for 11 years followed by four years in rural Ottawa with the rebranded Ottawa Carleton Regional Police.
From there Wally became a Reconstructionist in the Investigations department, with the bulk of the work involving fatal motor vehicle collisions and the rest involving industrial accidents and suspicious deaths.
The desire to help and train others started early. He mentored or coached six new recruits and later as a Sargent did the same for other investigators and Patrol officers. The teaching bug burgeoned and Wally became an instructor for various Reconstruction, Investigative and Supervisory courses with the Ottawa Police and Reconstruction and Investigations at the OPP Academy in Orillia.
Wally was the co-author of a Motorcycle Reconstruction course that was attended by police officers from BC to Newfoundland.
Wally finished off his last three years back where it all started, on Patrol as an non-commissioned officer and retired on Jan 31st, 2021. In his own words, “Working with the new constables was a thrill as their thirst to learn is insatiable and the youthful and positive perspective on life is a complete recharge and buzz. We have so much to offer for each other, we never finish learning and developing.”
Wally has been a part-time teacher at Algonquin College for the last 4+ years and instantly knew this was what he was destined for after retiring. “I honestly do believe we learn from each other and become stronger for it. Dreams do come true.”
Laurèl Craib-Laurin is a fluently bilingual, highly motivated and experienced government relations specialist. Having worked on Parliament Hill for 13 years in the political arena, Laurèl’s knowledge of the workings and tactics of government are extensive and profound. After leaving federal politics, Laurèl made the jump into advocacy and government relations. First to a tier one lobby firm, and then onto Engineers Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Global Automakers of Canada, the Canadian Association of Optometrists and president and owner of Agora Consulting. She has developed and delivered specialized advocacy training workshops across the country, offered strategic advice to a wide variety of councils, as well as participated in operational planning for large and small NGOs. As well as having served as the staff leads on Political Action Committees, and Ethics Committees, Laurèl currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Community Addiction Peers Support Association, as well as the Lead Advocacy Advisor to the Ottawa Festivals Board and CEO. Other volunteer activities include co-chair of the Bell Walk for Kids, Committee Member at Brain Injury Association of Canada, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, and the Relay for Life Ottawa.Laurèl has held a part time position as professor, for over 16 years, at Algonquin College in Ottawa. She has taught courses such as; Politics and Public Administration, Diversity, Aboriginal Justice and Youth in Conflict with the Law.Laurèl attended the University of Ottawa and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, she attended John Abbott College where she pursued studies in Police Technology, and at Dawson College at the faculty of Sociology. Laurèl has a deep passion for the outdoors, where she loves camping, hiking, canoeing, gardening and swimming.