Canadian True Crime - Q&A

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

Hi everyone! It's been 2.5 years since I did a Q&A, and I know you have questions, so I thought I'd answer them. Enjoy! New podcast recommendationOne Strange ThingThanks for supporting my sponsors!See the special offer codes hereAccess the Extended Q&AAlso get ad-free episodes, Chats with Kristi after show, bonus episodes, and more Learn more APPROXIMATE IMESTAMPS:2:00 – How did I get into true crime and why5:00 – Decision to start a podcast13:00 – Things I’ve learned from podcasting14:30 – Best part about podcasting16:45 – Hardest part about podcasting17:30 – Where will CTC be in 5 years?19:20 – Covid-1922:30 – True crime documentaries24:30 – Cases I really want to cover but haven’t had a chance to yetAD BREAK30:00 – Cases I’ll NEVER cover33:00 – Lingering questions from cases I’ve covered36:00 – Most shocking and infuriating cases37:00 – Do I contact families of victims in my episodes?43:30 – Why I moved to Canada49:00 – Strangest thing about Canada53:30 – Favourite part about Canada56:00 – How did I decide what part of Canada to live in?57:00 – Mental health / depression / anxiety update – what’s been helping me?See you soon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi there, I hope you're well. It's been over two and a half years since I last did a Q&A and lots of questions have been asked so I thought it might be time to do another one in the lead up to when I come back with my next episode on October the 1st. In this Q&A I cover topics like how I got into true crime, a whole bunch of podcasting questions including the best parts and the hardest parts and my future plans, favourite true crime documentaries, a whole bunch of questions about cases and a whole lot more. To see the full list of questions, along with approximate time stamps for each one, give

or take a few minutes, check the show notes. And just before I get started, if you're looking for an intriguing and unique new podcast to listen to, my friend Laura from the full line has just released the first episode of One Strange Thing. It's amazing. Here's a quick promo and then we'll get straight into the Q&A. We all enjoy a little mystery. And on the new podcast One Strange Thing, that's just what you'll get.

Every other week, One Strange Thing presents forgotten stories from America's news archives. They all have something in common, a single element that can't quite be explained. I'm Laura Norton, join me on One Strange Thing and you'll hear about bizarre events that unfolded in our country's local newspapers, but never made it much further than that. No matter the place or the people, One Strange Thing brings you stories that are very real and just a little otherworldly. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. The first question comes from Anne and she says,

What case or incident started you on your path of loving true crime? I discovered true crime kind of by accident. I was 21 and I randomly discovered the website crimelibrary.com. Lots of people will remember it from the late 90s and the early 2000s when it was in its heyday, but basically it's a series of long form essays or was a series, should I say, on various murders. So most commonly the big name serial killers like Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Nielsen, Ted Kemper, etc.

But also it had some super shocking stories there too and it was there that I learnt first about the three cases that really, really stuck with me. One was Paul Bernardo and Carla Hamalka obviously. I just couldn't believe that case. It was just out of this world that she would do that to her own sister and don't even get me started on him. I just couldn't fathom it really and two others that I couldn't really fathom was the murder of Anita Cobby in Australia and this case was covered expertly by case files.

So go and check that one out if you haven't. And the other one was the murder of James Bolger in the UK that the little toddler that was taken off by the two teenagers. I could never listen to a podcast on that so I can't tell you where you can go to listen to an episode about that. It's such a horrendous case especially if you're a parent. It affected me back when I was in my early 20s and I wasn't even a parent then so there is no way I can't even fathom what those kids were thinking.

And since then I've kind of been obsessed with learning all about the whys like why do people do things like this because I can't fathom it. I guess that's what started my interest in true crime. Not a particular case but just discovering this website which is no longer online. Alistair asks, I often wonder what draws you and others to true crime stories. It is fascinating of course but do you have any other thoughts? Is it a longing to understand the human condition? Yes absolutely and this is why I prefer to cover solved cases to unsolved ones.

I like to know the whys, the who's, the backgrounds, the motives, just about all the different kinds of people in this world and what signs and behavioural traits we might be able to recognise in people in our lives and also in the lives of our loved ones. So I just want to know why people do the things they do and sometimes there is no reason but it does serve us well to know that there are these kinds of people out there and to be able to recognise the signs and the symptoms of these kinds of people. So that is why I'm interested in true crime because I want to know what things I should be looking out for and what things I should tell my children to look out for.

Next question. David asks, what drew you to become a podcaster? Well as many of you know I started out as a podcast listener. A rabid podcast listener after a work friend of mine told me I had to listen to this podcast serial and I'm like eh whatever and then she literally grabbed my phone and downloaded the Stitcher podcast app and then I'm like fine if she feels this strongly about it then I'll just give it a go. So that afternoon on the train home I listened to my first episode of Serial and then I was

hooked. But that was in 2015 when there weren't anywhere near as many true crime podcasts as there are now. So for the next 18 months or so I just kind of consumed all of the true crime content that I could find and I joined all the Facebook groups that were discussing true crime podcasts. There was a lot of marketing and promotion going on, both of listeners recommending other podcasts, new podcasters recommending their episodes and it was there that I soon found this amazing community of podcasters and listeners.

After a while I noticed that there were podcasts covering a lot of crimes from Australia and the US and the UK but very little from Canada. There was someone know something and that was a long form covering an unsolved case per season and not always a Canadian case. And then of course there was my pal from Nighttime who covers weird Canadian stories but only some of them are actual crime stories. But nobody I saw was covering exclusively Canadian cases in an anthology style like case by case and I just started noticing that listeners on Facebook were asking for other podcasts

to start covering Canadian cases. So I guess that kind of planted a seed in the back of my mind that there was a market for this. Now I'm just going to be a little bit honest here. At the time I was feeling a little bit dissatisfied with my life. I had just returned back to work after having my second child and I was kind of going through a transition period I guess where I was trying to figure out who I was as the mother of two young kids.

It's kind of a little bit hard to explain but those of you who are mothers will know how I feel. I felt like I'd kind of been absorbed into the kids and then when I went back to work I felt really lost like I didn't know who I was anymore like I lost my identity I guess. And I've always loved to watch TV and when I went back to work I'd been watching a lot of TV at night obviously once the kids were in bed but after a couple of months of that I was kind of starting to get a little bit bored and despite commuting to Toronto during the day for work getting home at 5.30 and then go go go go go till the kids were in

bed. I felt like I wasn't being productive with the two whole hours that I had to myself each night but what to do about it. I was happy in my full time job in marketing and communication so finding another job wasn't the answer but then an idea kind of started brewing in my head. I'd been listening to a lot of case file, they walk among us and fell in true crime. There are all shows that have one narrator, no banter, feeling neutral, no nonsense, retelling of crime stories with some ambient background music, kind of an immersive experience and

those are the podcasts that I really really liked and I kind of thought to myself what if I did one of those just like that but for Canadian cases but I'm not really the kind of person that is impulsive and takes action until I've like really seriously thought it out so I kind of sat on the idea for like 4 months before I actually decided to do something about it and when I did I didn't make a decision right I'm going to start a podcast, I'm pretty, I'm not going to say lazy because I'm kind of a workaholic but I guess when it comes to executing ideas and that kind of entrepreneurial spirit I've never had that so I kind of decided that well instead of trying to make a podcast I'm going to just figure out what steps I

need to go through to create an episode and if I ever get there then we'll see what happens and I seriously doubted that I would actually get there so I just kind of started by deciding that the first part of the whole process would be writing a script and that I knew I could do because I have 20 years of experience in marketing and communication so writing is a big part of my full-time job so I kind of thought to myself let's see if we can do that. I researched and wrote the Paul and Carla part one script and there's so many things that I would change about that now if I could go back but all of a sudden I just kind of felt like this fire inside of me and I got so much satisfaction out of researching and

writing this kind of not so much a deep dive because there's several books that are a deep dive but just kind of a roundup of the case. I loved the writing and I loved the research but what I realized most of all was that I loved the challenge of trying to decide how to structure the story so when I'd finished writing and researching the script I kind of thought well okay so I've completed that step what would the next step be in making a podcast and obviously it was to record it and this I had absolutely no idea what I was doing no experience in broadcasting or audio or anything I basically had to learn everything from the get-go so my husband had an old laptop lying around here's an IT don't ask there's computer

shit everywhere. We downloaded this free editing software called Audacity and I decided that the only place that I could record would be my closet because there I could sneak away from my kids so that was my reason but as it turns out recording in the closet has great properties for reducing echo like the clothes hanging in the closet really dampen the sound so it really was fortuitous and worked out very well. At the beginning I kind of got a cheap microphone it's called a blue snowball it was about $50 and I balanced it on the laundry basket while I sat with my legs crossed in front of me in the closet and believe me it was just as uncomfortable as it sounds so I recorded the episode and I didn't tell

anyone except my husband and a few close friends in fact I didn't even know if I would end up with the actual podcast at the end of it but my goal was to go through the process of researching writing recording editing and producing a complete podcast episode just to say that I'd figured it out and I could do it and working in marketing and communications I think a podcasting skill set especially in kind of this day and age would be a valuable skill set to have so I thought you know it's a win-win there and so step by step I just did it. I finished the episode the Bernardo and Hamulka one that fire was lit inside me and I just wanted to keep doing more so what I really found is that it's not just a passion

for true crime it evolved into a passion for the process of creating a podcast episode so I'm really happy to have found that. Zoe asks what has been one or some of your favorite things you've learned while creating and growing your own podcast? So I'd have to say I didn't expect to find a community. I did everything myself when I was creating the first episodes and I didn't reach out to anyone for advice or help and I'm not at all saying that's a bad thing but it's just the way I work. I'm independent and I like to figure things out for myself but after I released the first episode I kind of felt welcomed into a community of other new true crime podcasters and then we all

just kind of promoted each other's shows and I have to say that this is vital when it comes to independent podcasts like mine who don't have the backing of a network or a host to either bring celebrity or an established audience so for those of us that start off with absolutely nothing being in a community with others who are in the same boat is essential and us independents do not view each other as competition at all. I always use the phrase a rising tide lifts all boats which basically means that as the podcast space continues to grow and more and more listeners discover podcasts we can all help each other out with exposure because it's kind of naive to think that someone will only want to listen to your

podcast at all times and even if they did I could not produce enough episodes to keep them listening to my podcast so why not promote other podcasts and we all promote each other. Caitlyn asks what is the best part of being a podcaster? Well at the start I really enjoyed the process of creating each episode but over time like I said that's kind of developed into a real interest in the podcasting industry as a whole so even though the tasks required to be a podcaster aren't all strawberries and rainbows I do feel that this is where my passion lies and it's kind of something that I've never thought that I'd have. I mean don't get me wrong I've had some amazing jobs and I've worked for some amazing companies over the years

including the one that I just left but I can't say that any of my daily tasks kind of fulfilled a burning passion if you know what I mean and the thing that I like right now about podcasting is that for the first time in my life I'm the boss and I don't mean being the boss of actual people I just mean being the boss of how I spend my day and how I spend my time and how I prioritize the work that I have to do so I don't have to do anything unless it's vital to the podcast. Caitlyn also asks what's the hardest part of being a podcaster more specifically type of podcast you do? Well in general dealing with the criticism can be tough regardless of whether it's justified or just at an advanced level of nitpickiness or personal opinion or just plain

mean. People often say that you develop a thick skin and that it gets easier but I haven't really found that. What I have found is that the less I check my reviews the less upset I get about reading the bad ones and another thing is I've had to accept that not everyone will like me or my voice or my style and not everyone will like my podcast. I have actually made concerted efforts in the past to join please everyone but I finally realized that it's literally not possible so there is some kind of peace in accepting that no matter what I do there will always be people that don't like it or don't like me. So I just accept that as a fact and then I move on and honestly and honestly this has been really helpful not only in podcasting but also in the real world

as well and the rest of the question is about the hardest part of podcasting specifically about being in the true crime genre. Now I'm not going to say that it's difficult covering the subject matter I've been into crime stories for a long time and I'm kind of desensitized now and it also sounds kind of silly to say that it's hard to cover these cases when people had to live through them so I would say that the area of podcasting that is the hardest is just dealing with with the criticism I guess even even if it's warranted it's still hard to hear. Nancy says where do you see yourself and the podcast in say five years what is the big plan or the things that you can let us in on anyway. So with my podcast in five years that is so so hard as you know I quit my day job

earlier this year right when COVID-19 quarantine started here in Canada great timing but before that I spoke to a couple of my other friends in true crime podcasting who had been able to quit their jobs and I asked them what their plans were for the future because it's really hard to leave a stable job with benefits and a pension plan for what is basically the unknown. When it comes to whether Canadian true crime will still be here the way it is now in five years who knows I would love to say yes but it's really really hard to know what's going to happen I do know that I will likely still be in the podcasting industry because I have such a passion for this industry and I keep a list of ideas for new projects and things that I want to do in podcasting

outside of Canadian true crime but I need the time and the space and obviously the mental clarity to be able to explore these kinds of ideas and right now in the middle of a pandemic while my kids are at home that is not happening but fingers crossed for next year or maybe the year after oh god so David asks how are you and your family going with COVID yes that is a very timely question we are a family of introvert homebodies so being at home isn't something that really affects us in a negative way so that part of things has been okay and the kids have actually been pretty happy during COVID-19 bored yes and online school was a bit of a disaster but they are happy or I should say they're happier than they were when they were going to school before

but I think the reason for that is that our life before this was crazy you know I said before the kids and I were out of the house by 7am and I didn't get home from work until 5 30 and then it was just crazy time until the kids went to bed so they have been much much happier since that rigid routine was taken away but me and my husband not so much as you know we're here in Canada my husband is Australian too and all of our family is in Australia and New Zealand and obviously we knew that we wouldn't have access to any kind of support when we chose to move to Canada and contribute to the population now I knew that we would both be working and would rely on paid child care when the kids were young and before and after school care when they're the age that they need to be

to go to school that was going to be our village of paid professionals but it's a different proposition to have your kids with you 24 seven for an extended period of time it's something that nobody could ever have planned for and it's been hard with no help and no support so it's now been five almost six months with more to come and we're not in a bubble with other people that's kind of sad but what makes it even sadder is that this year was our trip home to Australia which we try to do every two to three years and in fact we were supposed to be there in August but obviously that was cancelled and the last time we were able to get home was in 2017 so three years ago and I don't even know if we'll be able to reschedule for next year so that's really really hard

so I guess what I'm trying to say is when your village consists of paid professionals and the entire thing was whipped out from under you and you'll find yourself trying to be a full time parent and a full-time worker while also dealing with a global pandemic and an uncertain short-term and long-term future and a number of social justice uprisings and political issues that keep you constantly worrying and assessing your situation and your future when all of that is happening it's kind of hard to focus on the day today so that was a bit of a long conversation about how we're going with COVID the short answer is that we are surviving but I would not say that we're over the moon about this situation but who is nobody is we're all in the same boat here

Lyman asks okay hopefully you haven't been asked this before or at least not recently would you list a few of your favorite true crime documentaries in the visual form so TV, movie, streaming series definitely haven't been asked this question recently so these days I don't consume a lot of true crime documentaries I just find that when it's time to watch TV so rare these days I really just need escapism so I actually switched to crime shows with fictional story lines and characters and I love the British ones Broadchurch and Scott and Bailey I also love The Sinner with Bill Pullman and also Unbelievable with Tony Collette and Merritt Weaver when it comes to true crime documentaries there is one YouTube channel where I never ever miss

a single video that they upload and it's called JCS criminal psychology or it used to be called Jim Can't Swim or JCS I don't know it's hard but they don't just tell a crime story it's what I believe to be a small group of psychologists and they put together like an analysis of the case including interrogation videos and pointing out techniques and nuances and responses and what kind of psychology factors might be at play and that kind of thing so they analyze the interrogation videos of Russell Williams and Michael Rafferty who murdered Tory Stafford along with Terry Lynn McClintic and lots lots lots more you'll find them under Jim Can't Swim or JCS criminal psychology on YouTube it's really really really good stuff and that's really it I think the last true crime

documentary I watched was abducted in plain sight which was quite a while ago I haven't even watched Tiger King I don't even know who this Carol Baskin woman is and quite frankly I'm not sure that I want to so Zoe asks what are some major cases that have been on your list for a long time but you haven't had the chance to cover them yet for whatever reason especially crimes that you know would be a multi-parter Zoe I fell seen so I wanted to tell you a bit about my process before I answer this so listeners submit cases via my form at canadiantruecrime.ca slash submit and from there I make a short list of different cases with different motives from different timelines and from different areas of Canada and I use researchers for most of the

cases that I do now so that I can focus on the things that I really enjoy like the story structure and the kind of fine writing and I never assign a case to a particular researcher I go through my cases I see what I have and then I give them five or so to choose from and I think it's easier to research a case that really peaks your interest rather than one that you were assigned and might not be as interested in so a lot of what ends up being episodes is what the researchers have chosen from the short list that I give them that said there are a few exceptions I do want to cover Bruce MacArthur the Toronto serial killer one day but I just haven't been ready yet and I know that it's going to be intense it's going to be complex and it is definitely going to be a multi-parter

and I just haven't had the mental fortitude to cover it yet and also I just found out that the journalist Justin Ling is about to release a book on the case now if you don't know Justin covered this case as the host of Uncover two cbc podcasts uncover in the series called The Village and his book is called Missing from the Village the story of serial killer Bruce MacArthur the search for justice and the system that failed Toronto's queer community it's being published by Penguin Random House Canada so definitely look out for that book but yeah with that book coming out I think I'll use it as an excuse to wait even longer to cover Bruce MacArthur I don't want to step on anybody's toes with that case so you might also be asking why did I cover cases like Richard

Oland and Ezekiel Stefan both three parters this year well the simple truth is that I didn't know that they would be so involved and so confusing until I dug in so far that there was no turning back so sadly I've never been able to catch up on my work to a point where I don't get into these situations it's sad but it's true I've just had to prioritize flying by the seat of my pants to trying it takes a long time to figure out exactly what the intricacies of the case are until you really spend some time diving into the details but at least with the Bruce MacArthur case I know what I'm up against so yeah I can be prepared there are also a lot of Toronto cases that I have on my list because I followed closely because I live in the area but I have to kind of put them all back

because I can't cover Toronto cases so closely together so some examples of those are the crossbow killer the webcam murder and the Mississauga bathtub murders sorry about all the ridiculous names but these are what these cases are known as hopefully I'll do them one day but I'll have to space them out sorry guys I need to take a quick break to keep the lights on after the break I'll be telling you more about cases I'll never cover cases that have shocked and infuriated me contacting the families of the cases that I cover the best and worst parts of Canada and a mental health update back in just a second thanks for your patience do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level square space makes it easy for anyone to create an engaging web

presence grow a brand and sell anything from your products to the content you create and even your time when I launched this passion project six years ago I needed some kind of online hub to manage all the non-podcasting tasks that come with podcasting I chose square space because it's an all-in-one platform that seamlessly helps me achieve multiple goals it's important to have a website that looks good and I was inspired by square spaces wide selection of clean and modern templates they can be easily customized with pre-built layouts and flexible design tools to fit your needs and you can even browse the category of your business to see examples of what others have done I use the built-in blogging tools to create a new page for each episode and

there are so many intuitive options from embedding an audio player so listeners can stream episodes to scheduling posts to be published on a certain date an easily moderated comment section and automatically displaying recent episodes on the homepage every square space website and online store includes SEO tools to help you maximize your visibility in search engines and I love the powerful insights I can get from the analytics tools helping me better understand who's visiting the site where they came from and how they're interacting with it do you have a passion project or business idea or something to sell go to squarespace.com slash ctc for a free trial and when you're ready to launch use offer code ctc to save 10% off your first purchase of a

website or domain that's squarespace.com slash ctc with offer code ctc and get your passion project off the ground today. Elliot is asking what is one case you will never ever do no matter how many times people ask so I have a form on my website for people to submit case suggestions at canadiantruecrime.ca and I used to have a list of cases there that I won't ever cover now at the time I felt that certain cases had been covered extremely well by other podcasts and I likely couldn't add anything to that so I put a list of these on this page as cases that I will never cover one of these cases is kimberley proctor from BC because at the time dark poutine covered this but now it's been at

least two years since that episode so I think I will end up covering this one although again no one has started researching it yet another case like this is the Richardson family murders I actually was going to cover this case early on but then I heard court junkies excellent coverage and decided to leave that case be but I might change my mind on this one later on another case is the monster of mirror machine Ellen Leger my pal Jordan the eclectic and well eccentric host of night time covered this in a multi-part series but that was at least three years ago now and his style is a bit different to me so I might add this one to my list later on who knows sorry Jordan if you're listening originally I also said that I wouldn't cover Russell Williams because I'd

followed the case in the news at the time and as a massive case it had already been covered by many other podcasts but then I realized that sometimes my niche is shining a light on the victims of well-known killers so I became interested in their stories so that's why I changed my mind on that one now there are two cases that are still on my will never cover list and I doubt very much that I will change my mind on this the first one is Luca Magnotta which will surprise nobody who has been listening to this show for a while I feel like everyone's heard my reason before but we know that his motivation for that heinous crime that he committed was to get famous he had tried on several reality shows before and he'd failed and so he tried to become infamous instead I really

really feel for the man that he murdered John Lynn but I just don't really like the thought of doing something that might please Luca Magnotta if he ever found out about it now the other case is the murder of Timothy McLean by Vincent Lee the Greyhound bus beheading case this case is shocking it's so so heinous and because of that it's being covered by a lot of podcasts and I felt like there was really nothing that I could contribute and arguably the definitive coverage of this case was very recently on the crime beat podcast and Nancy Hicks included it as the third part of a series on the Brentwood 5 massacre which is the Calgary massacre that I also covered now Nancy Hicks obviously incorporated the story of the murder of Timothy McLean on the Greyhound bus

because both Vince Lee and Matthew DeGrood from the Calgary murders were both found not criminally responsible so it's an excellent series if you haven't heard it yet Nancy is an investigative journalist who covered the case when it happened so she's able to tell you the story in a much more personal way than someone like me who goes mostly by court documents and trial reporting and she tells the story with interviews with the family members so that's crime beat check it out if you haven't already it's really good Elliot also asks what are some of your lingering questions from cases that you've covered Allora Wells from the last case that I covered in Toronto the transgender homeless woman whose body was found how did she die it just sucks that they weren't

able to figure that out through autopsy and I do believe that it is highly likely that she fell off the bridge but why was her body moved there's just a couple of lingering questions there about that case but I don't believe that there was foul play involved although that's just an opinion the next case with lingering questions Ezekiel Stefan I mean I would love to know the truth in their motives and do they secretly feel guilty but they are continuing to fight publicly because that is what they have to do to keep themselves from going to jail I wonder again just my opinion Richard Oland that's the case from New Brunswick you know the moosehead brewery case with Dennis Oland the son why was there no blood spatter on Dennis's clothes other than those five tiny spots

of DNA like if Dennis had been responsible for the murder surely he would have had more blood on him and if he was wearing something like a hazmat suit where did he put it he wasn't captured carrying anything like that out and in fact he had no blood on his bag or his car or anything his shoes it's a puzzling case and why did whoever murdered Richard take off with his phone like what was on that phone if only those printing press guys had paid better attention to the time we might have known for sure whether it was Dennis Oland or not and lastly I'm gonna say Dylan Millard I would love to see some kind of psychological report on him I wonder if he has been diagnosed with any personality disorders or negative cluster B or A personality traits like

narcissistic personality disorder that type of thing I find him to be a very interesting and also terrifying personality so kind of similar in a way to Russell Williams you know how are these people able to keep up a certain public face and then be so cold and calculating and lacking in empathy behind it all it's just really fascinating to me David asks I wonder what have been the cases that have shocked you the most thus far and why so I'm just going to say one case and that is Jane Hirschman that was the two-part domestic violence case and just so desperately sad and one of my researchers Hayley who researched that case had to take several breaks as she was researching just because the details were too horrific to

even comprehend and many of them were really humiliating to the victim which I try and avoid if I possibly can so the details that I chose to include in that story what I knew the tip of the iceberg in that case it's all in the book on the case but that was very shocking that one so Dala also asks which story made you the angriest and I have to say Alora Wells the last one that I covered she was failed on so many different levels and again I was working with her sister so hearing about things from the family side always kind of makes things that much more real so Helen wants to know if or how I engage victims or families in my research she says do you always contact them to let them know you're doing an episode and have you ever received a negative

response so this is a very good question and my answer has changed over the years so when I started out in the closet I didn't contact families because basically I had incredible imposter syndrome which is basically I thought what is someone who has no experience in podcasting and no qualifications applicable to anything in the crime field doing approaching families who've suffered such loss I felt like I had no place contacting them but then I chose a case at around episode 10 and it was a domestic homicide case and I did all the research for it and I saw that the media had focused more on the perpetrator rather than the victim and I didn't know much about the victim and I saw her brother in the media raising awareness about domestic violence

so I thought if there's any time or any reason to reach out to the family members of a victim this is it because I want to know more about her and I can see that the family is interested in raising awareness for domestic violence and domestic homicide so the way that us amateur true crime podcasters can try and track down family members of victims because we aren't private investigators is through good old google and social media so I found the brother on facebook and I sent him a message I told him that I was sorry for his sister's loss and I was going to cover her murder for the podcast and I wanted to know if he'd be interested in telling me a little bit more about her but unfortunately things had changed in the two years since I read

quotes from him in the media and when I contacted him now I won't go into details for his privacy reasons because I did not end up covering this case but needless to say he told me that he didn't want to participate and would prefer that I didn't cover the story at all and he said in a really nice way that my contact had actually dredged everything up all over again for him so obviously I felt terrible like already I felt like what am I doing contacting these people and finally I found what I thought was a good reason and someone that had been in the media talking about it it just did not work out so I kind of decided never to put someone in that position again and my reasoning was that I'm not raising awareness for an unsolved case or a missing person

and I already know all the facts by the time I cover a case it's generally been through the court system and I have the court documents I have trial reporting long-form journalism documentary basically I already have the facts that I need to tell the story and at this point I had started to get quite a following for the podcast things had started to snowball so I just kind of resolved to keep the families of the victims in mind with everything I did and try to honor the victims that I covered as much as I possibly could in the meantime I did hear back from people who were either directly involved in cases or close to cases like for example Rodney Stafford Victoria Stafford's father and luckily it was all good feedback so just looking at the cases that I've

covered the first case where I worked with a family was episode 38 that was Daniel Levec who was the 20 year old musician from Victoria BC who was murdered by his so-called friend who was in effect scamming him but I didn't actually contact the family myself they contacted me to see if we could work together so that I guess was the reason why I started working with that family and that gave me a lot of confidence so Jordan from night time and I as you remember we collaborated on that together and it was through this that I realized that I can actually offer family something I can help them to tell the story that they wanted to tell and I can include details about their loved one that might not have made it to mainstream media so that in effect gave me a little confidence

and kind of helped my imposter syndrome a little bit although I definitely haven't gone into a phase where I'm contacting everybody there is nuance to it so now I would say that I do contact families if I can find their contact details online but there is some nuance to consider when I'm making the decision so some considerations are has anyone been in the media talking about the case so a family member a spokesperson they might be a good person to track down especially if they've been trying to raise awareness for a certain issue often families will decline to speak to the media and obviously in that case I would not contact them also if it's an older case and there hasn't been any media reporting on it for quite a few years then I will not contact the family

because enough time has passed and I don't want to bother them there are other considerations but overall the answer is yes I do contact the families of the victims that I cover if I feel it's appropriate and I can find someone to contact the next question is from Dana or Dana sorry not sure how it's pronounced what made you decide to move to Canada from Australia and did you find that there was an adjustment period when you moved here so moving to Canada was my husband's idea it had never been on my radar until I met my husband and it's always been a dream of his since he discovered the NHL when he was a teenager so he quickly decided that the Australian sports of you know football and swimming and whatever weren't for him and he wanted to one day move to Canada

because he's really into ice hockey so I met him at work and we were like the gym and pam of the office and he told me that he wanted to move to Canada within five years so we got together like eight or nine months after we started working together and I guess because I already knew that he wanted to move to Canada I kind of adopted it as my plan too I don't ever remember sitting down and thinking okay should I move to Canada or not I just kind of decided that I would go with him so we got married in 2009 and then three months later we arrived in Toronto with nothing but two suitcases one box and bright-eyed ambition so that's where we get to the adjustment period and yes absolutely there was so it's funny I never stopped to think about what it would be like once we got

to Toronto because before then everything was so focused on packing up our lives in Brisbane Australia and getting to Toronto so we never actually thought about what would happen like once we got there other than like we need to look for a job and a place to live so it was a big culture shock despite the fact that both countries are fairly similar on the surface everything works so differently from like setting up bank accounts to buying a car or a house renting is different renting a house getting a health care card visiting a doctor everything is different and in the middle of that we were trying to look for jobs too so it wasn't because of financial reasons like we came over with savings we'd been saving for about two years before we came

just so that we wouldn't completely stress out once we got there we could take our time but this was 2009 so it was in the middle of the global financial crisis and we didn't realise until we got to Toronto but the job market was pretty tough especially for people like me who work in intermediate level marketing positions luckily my husband is in IT and was able to find a job within two months but I had a lot of issues with recruiters and honestly it was awful they would look at me with pity in their eyes and they told me that even though I had 10 years of progressive work experience in that field in Australia and I was qualified I didn't have any Canadian experience so they didn't trust me and my best bet would be to start from entry level

again or offer to work for free to prove my abilities and it wasn't just me that they were saying this to I was on the networking trail with a bunch of other immigrants and most of them were people of colour and they were all being told the same thing too and what I realised was that it was kind of a catchall for Canadian recruiters who were just sick of immigrants coming over and trying to get jobs and they would just use this you don't have Canadian experience thing as an excuse so anyway months went by where I was at home during the day by myself with no purpose other than looking for a job and getting constant rejections that I could not understand from these recruiters so needless to say it took a major toll on my mental health and I was having like

a lot of anxiety attacks so as I was approaching the four month mark after we moved to Canada I started thinking like I can't deal with this much longer this Canadian experience thing is absolute bullshit and the job hunt and the continuous rejections and demeaning comments had really kind of chipped away at my professional self-esteem and I knew that I had value in Australia I mean I just come from working at one of Brisbane's largest universities so I told my husband that if things were still like this in two months so after for full six months in Canada I was ready to move back to Australia like I don't have to put up with this shit but then I found two super nice recruiters who gave me a big confidence boost and they saw past the whole

Canadian experience thing and one of them ended up getting me my first job in Canada which I ended up staying in for 10 years with that company that was the company that I just resigned from earlier this year and I have to tell you there is no difference between working in an Australian office and working in a Canadian office and the thing that I love the most about my company is that they did employ a lot of new immigrants to Canada who hadn't gotten a job here yet and I have to tell you I worked with so many people of colour from different cultures and people assimilate just fine there is nothing about Canadian culture that's so prestigious that recruiters should be using that as an excuse like I said that was 10 years ago I sure as hell hope

that they're not doing that anymore but I wouldn't be surprised if they still are it's sad so all this to say yes it was an adjustment and I'm so so so glad to be here and my husband and I are so happy to be Canadian citizens we got Canadian kids a Canadian dog we've kind of made a success out of this move but I'm not sure I could go through all of that again I have no plans to move country again it's just so hard so unless something unforeseen happens we plan on staying here forever Caitlyn asks what is the strangest thing about Canada that you still can't get over all this time later I mean there's a few things the first one is milk bags I used to think that milk bags were a Canadian thing but I found out that Ontario the province that I live in is one of the main

provinces or territories in Canada that uses milk bags and for those of you that don't understand what I'm talking about we buy milk in bags here so you buy a big plastic bag and inside it are three smaller bags that are full of milk so each of the smaller bags is about a litre I think so you have to open the big bag and then you have to pull out one of the little bags and then you know it kind of slips and slides all over the place and then like jimmy it into a jug a plastic jug and then like cut the end and then you kind of pour it out so there's a plastic bag of milk sitting in a plastic jug and then you pour it and hope that the milk doesn't go everywhere and I know that they have two litre cartons of milk here in Ontario but they're pretty expensive and

so we just keep buying these milk bags and I still hate them 11 years later I'm like why the hell is milk being sold in plastic bags it's the weirdest thing and I would love to know the story behind it so if anyone knows feel free to reach out the second thing that is strange about Canada that I can't get over is why do Canadians always have to put the maple leaf on everything even on brands that originate from other countries like McDonald's Canada has to put a tiny maple leaf in the middle of the giant M it's like we get it we're in Canada at McDonald's I just it's not like Australia puts like a little kangaroo in the M of the McDonald's or like New Zealand puts a kiwi I don't understand I think it's the only country that has some kind of addition to the logo

and yeah you come here and all you see is just maple leaves everywhere like walls have maple leaves like so many businesses have incorporated a maple leaf into their logo including me so yeah I don't really have any excuse about that but I've I've found businesses that really have nothing to do with Canada incorporating the maple leaf into their logo like a fencing company you know it's it's just so strange and the last thing is the national Canadian drink which is called the Caesar and like people who are not from Canada are just going to be like what the hell is this thing so it's basically it looks like tomato juice but it's clamato juice which I believe is like a cross between tomato juice and clam juice so it's like a fishy tomato drink and then you drink it with

like celery sticking out and spicy salt on the rim of the glass and then they put like some kind of alcohol in it I mean yeah no I just don't get it I think it's like the equivalent of Vegemite to Canadians is what a Caesar would be like to me. Caitlyn also asks what's your favorite part about Canada well obviously it's Tim Horns I'm just kidding look I know it's a Canadian institution and the place is serviceable the dark roast is acceptable at least when you're in desperate need of a morning coffee and the donuts are good and cheap I had one at the bottom of my work building in Toronto and I swear I was down there every single day and if we're talking about my favorite part of Canadian culture it's kind of weird because it's now been 11 years since we moved here and I'm

finding that my knowledge of Australian culture is becoming outdated now if we're talking about kind of a comparison but one thing that is my favorite thing about Canada when compared to Australia is the way that the changing of the seasons here in Canada impacts our culture and the look of things the decor and the things that we do so as a comparison between Brisbane Australia where I'm from and here in the Greater Toronto area of Canada where we live there was a massive difference I don't ever remember much change between the seasons in Brisbane other than it was hot in summer and cold in winter but here like when it's spring everyone's planting new flowers in their gardens all the trees are blossoming it's nice and warm and then it's summer which is my

least favorite season but we're getting out and about and enjoying the weather and the greenery because we know that it's not going to last and we're enjoying not having to shovel our driveways when it snows and then it comes fall or autumn and the leaves on the trees start changing to the most beautiful shades of red and orange and that's when culturally we all get our pumpkins out we go to pumpkin farms and then we can start wearing boots and cardigans and trench coats and then all of a sudden it's Halloween and Halloween wasn't a big deal when we left Australia in fact I think I got one fake trick or treat but that's it but I think things are starting to change because Australia has always followed American culture so from what I see on Facebook from my old friends

it seems like kids are going trick or treating and getting dressed up now so here in Canada that's a big thing unfortunately I don't think we'll be trick or treating this year I don't know what's going to happen with that but after that there's winter and here in Canada that inspires both dread and wonder so the dread is obviously the shoveling of the driveway and the snow storms which happen when you have to go somewhere and then there's the old yucky snow by the side of the road that ends up all black with cigarette butts and garbage which I like to call the dark side of snow but the amazing part is when the snow has just come down and I'm watching my dog Bruce rolling around in the fresh soft snow and I'm seeing the kids throwing the snow at each other it's just four

completely separate seasons with different activities and it's really great and we've loved going hiking since COVID-19 happened and quite honestly we can go to the same trail four times a year in the middle of each season and the trail will look completely different every single time so to me that is pretty amazing. Athena asks how did you decide which part of Canada to live in so it was either Vancouver or Toronto and the year before that we actually moved here so 2008 we traveled over here to kind of check the place out because my husband had never been to Canada so he wanted to move to a place that he had never been to just based on a feeling so we decided to go there and check it out and we turned it into kind of a holiday Australians love to do these holidays where they take off for

like six weeks and they do like America and Canada and Europe and you get all this time off work it's what we have to do because Australia is an island and to go anywhere you're looking at at least two days of travel and transit time so you really got to make the most of it so we decided that while the scenery in Vancouver was far superior to Toronto sorry Toronto we decided that we would rather deal with the snow in Toronto than the rain in Vancouver and we live on the west of Toronto which is about 45 minutes to drive into the city and it's only about an hour to Niagara Falls the other way so it's very very convenient Julie how's your mental health I received quite a few comments after my last intro thank you all so much I mentioned my mental health struggles right now

and I wanted to spread the message that if you're feeling the same you're not alone and I wanted to encourage everyone to consider getting help and taking care of ourselves a bit better so many of you reached out to me and said that the intro resonated with you and I'm so glad to hear that so to update as I said in the last intro I've been seeing a therapist and I've now had a few one-hour sessions with my online therapist and she's confirmed that many people are feeling the same way right now I am telling you guys this mental health situation is going to be big and it's not going away anytime soon so I guess what I realized was that in order to move forward and to be highly productive again because I was feeling very bogged down I needed to accept that

this is the way that life is now and try and make the best of it now I've never had therapy before in my life I've always just kind of relied on medication to help and it always has but sometimes it's not just a chemical imbalance that needs to be corrected it's an actual pandemic this is a pandemic and if you're not feeling anxious or a bit depressed then you're one of the lucky ones I guess but my counselor has been super helpful and one of the ways that she has helped has been with motivation so I've been really stressed about what's going on in the world not just with COVID but with everything else and it's been hard to kind of harness my thoughts and to focus and to concentrate my brain was basically all over the place so she gave me a couple of strategies to help with

motivation that I thought might be helpful for those of you who might be feeling the same so she told me that it's a myth that you just need to wait for motivation to hit you you actually have to activate it so what she said to me was you just have to like acknowledge that yep I'm feeling unmotivated and flat but I'm going to write a list of things that I have to do today and even though I'm not feeling it I'm just going to do it and then set aside one to three hours to focus and then she told me to set up your work environment like set yourself up for success in every way possible so get a tea or a coffee make sure there's water I am recording out of the basement still but I'm doing the writing and researching part in my bedroom which is usually dark because

I'm pretty lazy with making beds or opening the blinds so now I'm making sure that those blinds are open and I've always got headphones on obviously so my counselor said instead of trying to find the right playlist to listen to try out white noise yeah like you put on for your baby so it could be like the sound of a fan or rain on the rooftops and they have all kinds of white noise tracks on Spotify or YouTube just look up white noise right now what is really helping me to focus is listening to the sounds of nature so like creeks rivers and forests it really helps me focus and just kind of get into the moment of a task and then the next thing is to log out of all my social medias so there's no distractions and make sure that the current tab I'm working on is full

screen so I'm not tempted by the 40 or 50 other tabs that I inevitably always have open in fact it could be more than that don't judge and of course silence my phone mine isn't even in the room with me don't check your emails and if you work outside of the home office situation I'm sorry I can't give you specific examples there because I just don't know but it's the same sort of thing you have to consciously set up your work environment for success so yeah the advice I'm giving you is basically just the Nike slogan just do it it's not groundbreaking and it just sounds like common sense I know but honestly I've been needing to do something anything that might have a positive effect on my mental health and get me working again and being productive and I thought there's no harm

here I'm open to anything so if you've been lacking in motivation may as well give this a go the steps are write a list of your tasks and set aside a few hours to focus and set up your work environment lighting water snacks white noise whatever you need log out of socials full screen your tab get rid of your phone for a while just can't hurt to give it a try Sarah asks I'm just wondering if you found a way to lower your anxiety so the depression and the lack of motivation is one thing but the anxiety is another and at the moment it's always there because I'm finding every week sometimes every day there is something new some new development that keeps me up at night from the pandemic to all the protests to right now it's all about back

to school issues so what I do find gives me a temporary boost to my mood is being out in nature and this is quite a thing for me to say because I've always been an indoor girl I don't like being in the sun much I burn very easily and I've never tanned and extended exposure to direct sunlight really gives me a headache so traditionally I have not been drawn to outside activities unless it was something that I had to do for the kids so what me and my family have been doing is going on weekly hikes to these conservation areas here in Holton where we live and we've been hiking through forests and around lakes and up to lookouts and it's been amazing to just get out of all the bullshit and appreciate all that nature has to offer you know calming creeks gorgeous waterfalls and then

being in a forest the trees provide the right amount of shade while also letting some sunlight in which gives me that boost of vitamin d which also helps mental health I've also been doing yoga which is not only great for physical health but it also kind of incorporates meditation and visualization at the end so that really helps to get you in a good mindset but a big issue for me and I'm sure for many of you is lack of sleep whether it be like me where it's taking hours to get to sleep or those of you who wake up and can't get back to sleep this is a huge issue right now with everything we have going on and all of the things that are on our minds so I did find this is so stupid I cut off caffeine from about 5 p.m and that made a big difference so no more

after dinner coffee or strong tea it's just herbal teas at night and that's really kind of helped well that's about it guys if you're a patron or a subscriber there's an extended version of this Q&A where I answer every single one of your questions for those interested you can visit canadiantruecrime.ca slash support to see the options so as promised I'll be back on October the 1st with the first episode of the next season and it's a doozy thank you all so much for your support and your patience I'll see you in a few weeks