Working the Blue Lines

Jean-Michel "JM" Blais spent 31 years in policing as a senior executive with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the United Nations, and as chief of Halifax Regional Police. He has worked throughout Canada and was posted in four different provinces. He spent almost two years in Haiti, working as a frontline police officer and senior executive. Of Franco-Ontarian background, from Sudbury, JM grew up in Montréal and Toronto. He obtained his undergraduate degree from McGill University in Montréal and his law degree from Université Laval in Québec City. Since 2005, JM has officiated minor hockey as a Hockey Canada Level III official. He initiated both his youngest daughter and son into the world of officiating; both have since surpassed their father in the levels they have officiated. He still regularly officiates out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he resides with his wife and two dogs. JM has published several works on international and national police-related topics and lectured extensively on leadership and modern police management, including mental health and wellness. He has a TEDx talk to his credit. Working the Blue Lines: Lessons in Leadership from Hockey and Policing is his first published book. He is also one of the co-authors of a novel, Less Than Innocent, which Moose House will publish in the fall of 2022.