Canadian Security Honours and Advance: Women in Security celebrate mentorship and career journeys

Canadian Security hosted the eighth annual Canadian Security Honours gala and second annual Advance: Women in Security Breakfast on Oct. 9, bringing the security industry together to connect with friends and colleagues, share knowledge and best practices, and celebrate award recipients.

Doors opened at 8:30 a.m. and breakfast was served before the Women in Security keynote session provided by Floria Chiu, director of integrated security solutions at ECAM Canada and Param Dhillon, founder of Whitefield Consulting. In a session titled Self Management: Sharing Real-Life Challenges & Self-Management Experiences, they offered advice and tools for self-management, including some inspiration from the practice of yoga. Chiu shared stories from her personal and professional life and how those have intertwined and sometimes clashed. She also offered some wisdom on how to better keep those in balance (lesson one: remember to breathe).

Chiu and Dhillon also served as mentors for a dedicated mentoring session immediately following their presentation. They were joined by Antoinette Modica, COO at Toronto-based integrator Met-Scan Canada (SP&T News’ Integrator of the Year for 2024). Attendees were encouraged to spend time with each mentor and network with their peers in order to take advantage of the collective experience in the room.

A Canadian Security Top 10 Under 40 panel discussion was next on the agenda. Each spring, Canadian Security organizes a list of Top 10 security professionals under the age of 40 — four of this year’s recipients participated in the panel: Amanda Anderson, manager, investigations & training, security and emergency management, Mohawk College; Amanda McFarling, manager, corporate security & investigations, Symcor; Farzia Khan, senior manager, information security, TD; and Abdul Popalzay, national operations manager, Synergy Protection Group.

Together they answered questions such as: “How would you try to convince someone who hasn’t worked in security that it’s an industry worth exploring?” and  “What do security professionals need to do today in order to be considered for promotions or higher level managerial positions?”

Sharing their experiences, they offered perspectives on what’s working well in the industry today, and where it could stand some improvement.

The Canadian Security Honours lunchtime keynote address was provided by Dean Correia, emeritus faculty, business continuity lead, Security Executive Council (SEC). Correia presented some of the SEC’s latest research in a session called “The Multi-Billion Dollar Cost of Workplace Incivility.” Correia spoke about some of the global trends in manners, micro-aggressions, harassment and discrimination, and how human behaviour affects security professionals today.

The event concluded with award presentations:

• Security Director of the Year: Barry Pitcher, Commissionaires Nova Scotia
• Emerging Leader: Kelly Onu, EY
• Community Leader: Grant Lecky, Security Partners’ Forum
• Community Leader (Honourable Mention): AlaaAldin (Aladdin) AlRadhi, Humber College, Sheridan College
• Lifetime Achievement: Brad Stewart, Waterloo Regional Health Network

Advance: Women in Security is sponsored by GardaWorld. Canadian Security Honours is sponsored by Wesco, GardaWorld, IDN-Canada, Paragon Security and Commissionaires Canada. The Security Director of the Year award is sponsored by Wesco.

Canadian Security’s Top 10 Under 40 will open for 2026 nominations in December. Canadian Security Honours award categories will open again for nominations in spring 2026.