Integrated Investigative Bureau

 

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 200 King Street West
Date: Aug 2014

  The Listener was a Canadian TV show about a paramedic named Toby (Craig Olejnik) who has telepathic powers and uses them to help solve crimes.  During its five season run it filmed at numerous locations around Toronto.  We figured out where the main locations from the show exist in real life.  During the introduction, you see Toby with people passing around him.  Toby is always bombarded by the voices and visions he picks up from those nearby.  This shot was filmed at Yonge-Dundas Square. We attempted to give our picture the blurry, cyan look it has on the show.  We will have to return one evening to get closer to the actual effect.
  The Sick Kids Hospital at the corner of University Ave. and Gerrard Street was used for exterior shots of the fictional St. Luke's Hospital from the show.  The show used the older ambulance bay which is at the western end of Gerrard Street.  You can see various shots of this location throughout the first two seasons.  At the very end of the pilot episode you can see Toby walking away from the ambulance bay and then turning and heading north on University Avenue at the intersection below.

   In season 2, Toby is introduced to the IIB.  IIB stands for Integrated Investigative Bureau and is a special police division.  Sgt. McCluskey (Lauren Lee Smith) starts to realize Toby has a special gift for reading what people are thinking.  Toby starts to help the IIB fight crime while still working as a paramedic.  We always found it amusing when they would arrive at a crime scene and pull out their badges and state "We are with the IIB" as if everyone would know what that means. "You you be what?"  As time goes on Toby gets more involved with the IIB and eventually starts working with them full time leaving his paramedic career behind.

  The IIB offices are shown as two different locations.  When we first see the IIB in season 2 it is shown as this building at 36 Toronto Street which houses a Canada Post Office. Its distinctive front is the one facing Adelaide Street East.

  At other times the building is shown as one of these twin buildings at University Ave. and King Street West.  These buildings are the head offices of Sun Life Financial and are located at 150 King Street West and 200 King Street West.  The building on the west side of University is the one Toby is seen entering on the show.  The archways over the door make the entrance look like a big number 4 (this can be seen in the last photo of this post).

 

  In later episodes The Listener incorporated more aerial shots of Toronto when it started a scene.  Our guess is they started using the Sun Life buildings as they work better for this type of shot.  The Toronto Street building looks great from street level but is not very impressive from above.  The Sun Life buildings also have interesting neighbours on King Street.  The office on the eastern side of University has a bronze sculpture called Sun Life after the building's tenant. The western side has a wavy building housing Canadian Blood Services, St Andrew's Church and Roy Thompson Hall all in a row.

 

We have incorporated all of these locations into the Map of our World. While Toby might be able to read our minds and see where we have been, you will have to search the map locations below.

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Map of Our World
Yonge-Dundas Square , St. Luke's Hospital , Integrated Investigative Bureau (King Street West) , Integrated Investigative Bureau (Toronto St.)
Sun Life

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Post # 90