About Us
The People Behind the Programs
Shielded Training Solutions was built by career law enforcement professionals who have spent decades in the field. The programs we deliver are not adapted from academic frameworks. They are built from experience.
Our Team
Instructors Who Have Stood Where Your People Stand.
Ryan Leef
Co-Founder & President of Training
Ryan Leef brings more than 30 years of frontline law enforcement, corrections, and RCMP experience to Shielded Training Solutions. He is the creator and sole author of Situation Mastery, a registered trademark curriculum used by corrections services, territorial agencies, hospital security, and government institutional teams across Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Ryan has served as a corrections officer, RCMP officer, and professional trainer. He has delivered training programs to agencies across Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and federally. Every one of them inbound, on the strength of his reputation and the outcomes his programs produce.
His programs are recognized for their flexible application and an instruction style that keeps staff and students genuinely engaged. An accomplished athlete who still competes on the international stage, Ryan brings a competitor's focus and persistence to every room he enters. He also designs and delivers agency-specific programs including recruit courses, Correctional Officer Development Training, Hospital Behavioural Health Worker, and Community Safety Officer programs.
He is a certified Situation Mastery Instructor Trainer, allowing the program to scale beyond his direct delivery. Shielded Training Solutions is Ryan's decision to formalize what he has been building for three decades and make it available to more agencies, more teams, and more of the people who need it.
Certifications
- Certified Situation Mastery Instructor Trainer
- Jim Wagner Reality Based Personal Protection Instructor
- Certified Use of Force and Arrest and Control Instructor
Greg McHale
Co-Founder & President
Greg McHale is the President of Shielded Training Solutions and a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer with extensive experience in law enforcement, investigations, regulatory enforcement, and public safety.
Throughout his career, Greg has served as an RCMP officer, Parks Officer, Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Investigator, and Conservation Officer. His diverse enforcement background has provided him with specialized expertise in investigations, intelligence gathering, compliance enforcement, risk management, and operational leadership.
Greg is a registered member of Batchewana First Nation. His Indigenous heritage shapes his approach to community-based training and informs the work Shielded Training Solutions does with First Nations enforcement agencies and Indigenous-serving institutions across Canada.
Drawing on decades of frontline and investigative experience, Greg delivers practical, reality based training for law enforcement agencies, security professionals, Indigenous communities, regulatory organizations, and public sector clients. His training focuses on officer safety, legal authorities, investigative techniques, professional conduct, and effective decision making in dynamic environments.
Under Greg's leadership, Shielded Training Solutions is committed to providing professional, experience driven training that prepares personnel to meet the complex challenges of today's enforcement and security landscape.
Background
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Officer
- Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Investigator
- Parks Officer
- Conservation Officer
Jim Fry
Instructor
Jim Fry brings 37 years of experience in regulatory enforcement, oversight, and policy development to Shielded Training Solutions. His background includes 25 years as a Conservation Officer and 12 years leading a team of investigators with the Department of the Environment.
Jim spent seven years as a full-time instructor at the provincial training centre in Ontario. A subject matter expert in the use of force, he developed the train-the-trainer program for Use of Force and associated policies, as well as the use of force model for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
He has delivered training to parks personnel in Ontario and the Northwest Territories, Conservation Officers, Transportation Services, Environmental Protection Officers, Queen Street Mental Health Centre, and police agencies across Ontario.
Certifications
- Situation Mastery Instructor
- Tactical Communications
- Collapsible, Straight, and Side-Handle Baton
- Pepper Spray (OC Spray)
- Firearms Instructor
- Surveillance and Special Investigations
- Pressure Point Control Tactics Instructor
- Professional Instructional Training Techniques
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Richard Christiansen
Instructor
Richard Christiansen brings 34 years of regional, national, and international field experience as a Federal Fishery Officer. He served for 18 years as a departmental Use of Force Trainer and Lead Firearms Instructor, and for 15 years as a Lead Reality-Based Training (RBT) Instructor.
Richard has designed and delivered training for recruits, Fishery Officers, and Canadian Coast Guard ship crews. He co-developed a new firearms training program for Fishery Officers in the Pacific Region and led the development of supplemental firearm drills for annual recertification.
He also developed a Wildlife Control training program, co-developed the accompanying Wildlife Control policy for the Pacific Region, and developed the rifle training component and course of fire for Canadian Coast Guard Arctic ship crews.
Certifications & Training Experience
- Departmental Use of Force Trainer and Lead Firearms Instructor — 18 years
- Lead Reality-Based Training (RBT) Instructor — 15 years
- Certified Water-Based Defensive Tactics Instructor
- Certified Low-Light Use of Force Instructor
- Field Trainer for New Recruits
Our Approach
We measure success by what happens in your workplace after the program ends. That is what it means to be a partner in service rather than a proprietor of a product. We are not here to deliver a program, collect a fee, and move on. We are here to understand your environment, your people, and your specific challenges — and build something that performs in your context.
That mindset comes from where we are from. Shielded Training Solutions is a northern company, built by people with deep ties to the communities and institutions they have served. We bring a grass-roots, community-minded approach to every engagement — personally invested in the outcomes your team achieves. We see the challenges you face as opportunities to find better ways forward. And we are on a continuous course of learning alongside the organizations we work with.
Client Experiences
Stories from Training
Indigenous Ownership
A Company Built from Northern Roots
Shielded Training Solutions is a majority Indigenous-owned Canadian company. Our President and majority owner, Greg McHale, is a registered member of Batchewana First Nation. We are registered with the federal Indigenous Business Directory and eligible for PSIB set-aside procurement. We are not a company that added an Indigenous partner to access procurement preferences. We are a company built by northern Canadians with deep ties to the communities and institutions we serve.
Procurement Information →Ready to Get Started
Bring Shielded Training Solutions to Your Team
We work with government agencies, healthcare institutions, corrections services, private aviation and transportation companies, and any organization whose people face difficult situations on the job. Tell us what your team needs.