Corporal Stephen Conohan

      Corporal Stephen Conohan grew up at 93 Kitchener Street in Whitney Pier. His mother Rose Binns-Conohan grew up just a block away on French Street. Affectionately known as Gigi, Corporal Conohan attended Jamieson Elementary and Whitney Pier Memorial Jr. High before moving with his family to Ashby for his high school years at Sydney Academy. Stephen played hockey, basketball and later football as the middle linebacker for the UCCB Capers. At UCCB he completed his BA in Community Studies. In 1992 he joined the RCMP and went on to Montreal, where he entered into an intensive French immersion program, then to Regina, to the RCMP Academy for six months where he excelled at running and swimming and was recognized for his solo performances in the RCMP recruit choir. He was then off to his first posting in rural Newfoundland; the province where he would spend the rest of his career. His first file as a new mountie was a traffic stop that resulted in the person being arrested for drug possession, this was foreshadowing at its best. Over the next few years he became quite adept at drug investigations. In 1997 he was awarded a Commanding Officer's Commendation for his work in the area of Drug Enforcement, the first of four such Commendations. Over the eighteen month period preceding the receipt of the award he had made more drug seizures than any other officer in Eastern Canada, the Newfoundland Minister of Health Awarded him a Certificate of Appreciation for his dedication to drug prevention strategies in the province. In 1998 he left uniformed duty and went into plainclothes duties in the drug section.             

Stephen Conohan was selected to be a member of the RCMP's Colour of Pride in 1998 which was a group of seven full time serving RCMP officers that sang and performed in Arts and Culture Centers across Canada. The highlight of this was his being able to record a CD, singing on Breakfast Television and performing onstage at the Rebecca Cohn in Halifax and the Savoy theatre in Glace Bay where his family came to see him. After performing he returned to drug enforcement where he remained for the next ten years.  He is recognized by the Provincial and Supreme Courts of Newfoundland and Labrador as an expert in thirteen different types of drugs in addition, the packaging, distribution and expediting of illicit drug funds. In 2007 he was invited to Ontario and helped dismantle Canada's largest commercial methamphetamine lab worth an estimated $40 million dollars.           

In 2007 he was invited to go to Pakistan, but before he went Cpl. Conohan, who was a beaver leader in his hometown of Paradise, Newfoundland, had his beaver group gather school supplies for kids in Pakistan and hand delivered enough supplies to the Pakistan Boy Scouts for thirty kids to enjoy for a year.  He traveled throughout Pakistan and lectured in Karachi, Islamabad and finally Peshawar; an Al-Qaeda stronghold on clandestine drug labs and international precursor smuggling. In 2008 he was selected to instruct in Bogotá, Columbia. He went to Bogotá and spent the first part of the trip at the national police training academy with the Jungle Commandos whose responsibility is rappelling into the jungle to dismantle secreted cocaine labs and destroy them. Cpl. Conohan is becoming known in international circles as an expert in Clandestine Drug Laboratories. He is now an instructor at the Canadian Police College due to his experiences in this field.  

Like all good Cape Bretoners he never gave up his love of singing. In 2004 Corporal Conohan sang the National Anthem to open up the CFL season at Toronto's Skydome which was televised and later that same year performed the National Anthem for a Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Ottawa Senators NHL game dressed in red serge. He credits great coworkers and his upbringing in Sydney, specifically in Whitney Pier as being a major influence in his life. Upon reflection he misses sitting on his front step listening to Hubba Paris and his band Spyder practicing in the basement across the street on summer nights. He grew up with friends involved in Ukrainian dancing and loves the multiculturalism that is Whitney Pier. "From a childhood spent blueberry picking and swimming at polar bear beach contrasted with my recent overseas experience, I've learned to appreciate some things that we often take for granted and realize how very blessed we are. I have the love of my family and a beautiful wife. Our children Noah and Katie help keep me grounded and make me appreciate life."