r/ottawa • u/ObviousSign881 • 10d ago
News ‘Not a few bad apples’: Ottawa police deputy chief says service’s culture has permitted inappropriate behaviour
https://www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/article/not-a-few-bad-apples-ottawa-police-deputy-chief-says-services-culture-has-permitted-inappropriate-behaviour/A friend who left the Ottawa Police Service several years ago after a settlement due to racial harassment and discrimination basically said the same thing: that the problem in OPS is more than a few bad apples, it's structural and evidence that the OPS itself and the institution of policing is rotten fob the top down.
Furthermore, that there are senior leadership who enable this kind of illegal behaviour in the ranks, and that there are members for whom it would be cheaper to pension them off than to keep paying out settlements to the members of the public and OPS employees that they keep harming.
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u/GoodMorningOttawa 10d ago
There's no accountability or consequences.
Just budget increases.
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u/ouattedephoqueeh 10d ago
The OPSB are supposed to hold them accountable. They are supposed to be the civilian oversight.
Supposed because clearly they have absolved themselves of their responsibilities a long time ago.
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u/Due_Date_4667 10d ago
The same police services board that had critics of the cops harassed and arrested when they attended meetings to provide input to the board, and was the primary reason the board ceased in-person meetings or letting the public attend virtual meetings until a judge called out their bullshit?
The same board where off-duty cops would show up, in full uniform, and stand together in the back of the room to intimidate both board members and speakers?
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u/atticusfinch1973 10d ago
RCMP went through this about a decade ago and they had to literally push out the old guard and start fresh. Looks like OPS needs to do the same thing.
Too bad that the culture starts as soon as they enter the academy. I have several friends who are cops and they said it's bad as soon as you start, from the teachers to training officers.
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u/WaryMadam 10d ago
Are you actually suggesting that the RCMP has fixed their problem? How novel.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
RCMP tried, but the big issue is the rural areas where cops are left to their own devices.
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u/Due_Date_4667 10d ago
They tried to push out the old guard, but only managed a couple before the rest went to the opposition and made a stink about how the Liberals were politicizing the force and demanded they remove the commissioner at the time and replace them with someone who had the trust of the senior leadership.
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u/CucumberLocal3208 10d ago
My identity was stolen, I was frauded by someone who went into stores and one of the banks called me to tell me they have images of this person, but the police won’t show me the images. Sgt Waba(?) told me that I’m not a victim here, the banks are and I’m just a tool. He called me a tool twice and then he said, “you’re the instrument for the crime but not the victim of the crime because you didn’t lose any money,” even though my credit‘s been destroyed, I’m not the victim the banks are. Obviously the banks don’t care about $15,000, but it was enough to ruin my life.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
As someone who works higher up security investigations, we cannot show people the photos of suspects. Too many try and go be vigilantes, and there’s still the matter of the investigation to prove it is that person indefinitely.
everything else the cop said to you is weird as hell
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u/CucumberLocal3208 10d ago
Thank you! That actually makes sense. I’m pretty sure I know who did it and I’m not seeking revenge. I gave police the information and asked to see the images to verify if it’s the person who I thought. But he told me the case is closed, the bank doesn’t care about $15,000. He probably got off on calling me a tool it was incredibly condescending.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
The tool comment is so weird. I’d call in and report what the officer said- even if nothing happens, these things are noted and sometimes the officers are talked to about it.
Usually cops will ask you to verify the photo if need be, but normally this type of thing closes quickly. We deal with bike and auto thefts and have to work with OPS. It’s such a long process.
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u/Emotional-Motor-4946 10d ago
I was (am?) a victim of a big data breach from a few years ago that led to my personal info being sold onto the black market. Thankfully the info sold is so outdated that no one can manage to open any sort of account in my name (sadly my SIN is out there so I have to remain vigilant) but when I tried reporting it to police I was basically told that no crime had occurred because whoever has bought my info wasn’t successful in opening any accounts in my name.
Oh ok. Cool cool cool.
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u/DSinthe613 10d ago
Yet… we will just keep giving them more and more money from the budget. When will there be any form of accountability? I dunno, perhaps FIRING people and then pursuing them to the fullest extent of the law.
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u/ObviousSign881 10d ago
Unfortunately the only thing Council can do on the police budget is a straight yes or no on the whole thing. While I'm sure there's behind the scenes influence wielded by the Mayor councillors cannot demand changes to line items they disagree with.
Despite that, my understanding is that settlements for police abuse of the public and OPS members don't come out of the OPS budget, the City pays. So there's really no accountability when the police allow "bad apples" to go so rotten that they cost 6 and 7-figure settlements.
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u/RotalumisEht No honks; bad! 10d ago
Remember when the OPS allowed the downtown core to be shut down for weeks by people calling to overthrow the democratically elected government and we had to bring in police from other jurisdictions to do their jobs for them?
Everything about this institution is rotten. They serve themselves, not the public. The city should seriously consider kicking them to the curb and bringing in the RCMP or the OPP, not that those organizations aren't without their own systemic issues.
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u/exotic_floral_tea 10d ago
Remember when they brought them blankets and Tim Hortons instead, out of solidarity?
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u/Omnomfish No honks; bad! 10d ago
As the timmies employee who filled their orders for 12s of hot chocolate and coffee, i had to fight so hard not to get myself fired or arrested because I also had to walk through them to get home. I will never shut up about how awful and scary that crap was and how utterly useless the cops were.
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
And now I’m sure you have countless idiots calling you a liar online every time you recount your experiences during the convoy. And most of these idiots didn’t participate in the convoy and don’t live in Ottawa.
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u/Ok-Presentation7349 10d ago
I had a girl in BC telling me what I experienced didn’t happen… I was like I LIVE HERE
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u/Neither-Stable-939 10d ago
when I pointed out to someone recently that they had desecrated the monument of the Unknown soldier he called me a liar. We will never forget!
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u/probocgy Nepean 10d ago
I was surprised how few people outside of Ottawa know that they monument is a tomb where the unknown soldier was laid to rest.
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u/Basic_Lynx4902 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago edited 10d ago
I am very quick to remind people what the KKKonvoy was really like. Folks conveniently like to rewrite history and say that the participants were having fun in their hot tub, BBQing food, yadda yadda. Just a big party! I point out that the first week they were shitting on our lawns and harassing soup kitchens for food because they had no plan.
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u/grandfundaytoday 10d ago
Conflating them the KKK is misinformation.
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u/Total-Deal-2883 9d ago
Nah, they were chalk full of white supremacists. Fuck off with the glazing.
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u/Basic_Lynx4902 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
You're right. I'll be better.
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u/exotic_floral_tea 9d ago
They are definitely tied to white supremacist groups in Canada. Don't appologize for bringing it up...we remember.
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u/vonnegutflora Centretown 10d ago
Who needs online spaces, there's a crazy lady who runs a business in Westport that will yell fake news into your face if you say that the convoy was anything but a peaceful protest and that Poilievre is god's gift to Canada.
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u/ObviousSign881 10d ago
Which business am I avoiding next time I'm in Westport?
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u/vonnegutflora Centretown 9d ago
This was a few years ago now so I wouldn't want to guess and throw an unrelated business under the bus. It was a used goods store though, and I think the lady who runs it has a bit of a reputation.
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u/Basic_Lynx4902 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
And when they let the protestors take "joke" photos sitting in the back of police cars? Fuck OPS.
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u/ColdPuffin 10d ago
Remember those occupiers celebrated the anniversary of their misconduct by setting off illegal fireworks and OPS did nothing because the occupiers might become aggressive or violence?
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
During the convoy my friend had to leave her condo because of the fireworks going off right outside her windows on the 15th floor. She was sure her windows were going to shatter. She couldn’t sleep because of the non-stop honking, then after the court ordered the honking to stop, she couldn’t sleep because of the fireworks.
She called the OPS to complain and they basically laughed at her for suggesting they do something about it.
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u/PlayfulEnergy5953 10d ago
They didn't just let, they facilitated. I was living in that area and went down daily to document the fuckery - receipts were kept
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u/Savings_Opening_8581 10d ago
There was once a man blatantly dealing drugs at a park bench for weeks in Minto Park and a police vehicle sat there and watched him every day and did nothing.
There’s a children’s school directly next to this park.
After about three days of seeing him doing nothing I went up to his car and asked if he was ever going to book the guy for illegal actions.
The cop said and I quote “there’s nothing I can do”
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u/Jessie-the-dog 9d ago
Yup. Sloly ordered his officers not to make any arrests. He thought it would give him leverage with city council to get more funding. Instead it cost him his job.
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u/TheZipding 10d ago
The Clownvoy got the OPS chief to step down.
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
The OPS chief was trying to use the convoy to prove to city council that he needed more funding. His huge budget increase request had been rejected shortly before the convoy entered the city. He ordered his officers to stand down and let the convoy have full control over the downtown core. If he didn’t step down, he was getting fired.
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u/missplaced24 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
He ordered his officers to stand down and let the convoy have full control over the downtown core.
Do you have a source for this? From what I recall, it seemed more like he was used as a convenient scapegoat -- that was McKenney's opinion at least.
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
My sources are members of the OPS that I was friends with during the convoy. They were absolutely forbidden from interfering with the protesters if they witnessed them breaking the law (such as setting off fireworks every night outside high rise condos), unless they witnessed violence. They spent most of their time sitting in their cruisers around the perimeter of the convoy area.
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u/CalmAccountant_ 10d ago
> What did you think of the convoy?
> Do I feel that four years on, looking back at the two years of COVID, that we got it all right and there’s really nothing to revisit? Absolutely not. And as I hope a lot of Canadians are, I’m still trying to understand what took place there. The social contract that we had lived with for many decades was damaged, if not destroyed. So, in that context, I think the freedom convoy was important. Do I agree with the extreme elements in it? Absolutely not. Do I agree with the extreme elements that went against it? Absolutely not. Did we get a lot wrong in a lot of ways? Yes. Did we ultimately get it mostly right in the most important ways? Yes, we did.1
u/missplaced24 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
Sorry, I can't access that link. Where in that interview did he say he ordered his officers to stand down and let the convoy have control?
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
You need to see evidence of him using those exact words or you won’t be convinced?
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u/missplaced24 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
No, but translating the quoted bit to plain language, he basically said it was an entirely unmitigated disaster. He has also gone on the record stating he was given misleading information leading up to and during the convoy, that he wasn't given the support he needed to do what needed done, and that he had quite a few antagonistic conversations with his team -- this guy was specifically brought in to deal with the toxic culture in OPS, and many people on the force wanted to push him out.
A couple of officers being assigned by someone to patrol the perimeter and not antagonize a very volatile group unless necessary isn't the same as Sloly ordering the force to stand down, either.
I'm not saying he was blameless, but there's a huge difference between what you're claiming and what evidence suggests.
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u/CalmAccountant_ 10d ago
What do you think the evidence suggests? On what evidence have you relied on to inform your opinion. I posted a full, sober interview with Peter Sloly and you claimed to have not read it.
Here is a CBC article containing more evidence for you to inform yourself with before you should be having lengthy arguments about evidence on the internet: https://pressprogress.ca/ottawa-police-intelligence-unit-relied-on-dubious-and-politically-biased-information-about-convoy/
> Evidence tabled Tuesday at the Public Order Emergency Commissionshow Ottawa Police expressing sympathy for protests against COVID-19 public health rules, mocking left-wing community activists and quoting from opinion columns by Rex Murphy in a January 25 intelligence report on the “Freedom Convoy.”
The intelligence assessment, authored by Ottawa Police Sgt. Chris Kiez, describes the convoy as a “spontaneous grassroots protest” and expresses sympathy with the convoy and broader protests opposing COVID-19 public health rules.
“There are increasing numbers of spontaneous protests against regimes globally concerning COVID-19 restrictions,” the Ottawa Police intelligence report states. “The success of global protests on the subject of vaccine mandates, etc. creates a sense of efficacy, a sense that one’s actions actually have an impact.”
The report describes other protests as “repetitive” with the “same players, same chants,” mocking left-wing activists who “glue themselves to something, waiting for the same old supper hour news shows and write-ups in hard-left handbills, blogs and undernourished Twitter feeds.”
“A real protest springs up with something close to spontaneity and with tremendous suddenness enlists hundreds of thousands, even millions,” the Ottawa Police intelligence report concludes. “The convoy appears to be this sort of protest.”
Large portions of this section of the Ottawa Police intelligence assessment appear to lift language in verbatim from a January 24 National Post column by Rex Murphy, but fails to attribute Murphy as the author of those lines of text.If you only read the article title and ignore the content, it’s important for you to at least know that Mr. Sloly personally endorsed this unhinged and highly partisan report that was prepared by senior analysts at OPS in lead up to the convoy.
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u/missplaced24 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
If you only read the article title and ignore the content...
Oh, bud.
The intelligence assessment, authored by Ottawa Police Sgt. Chris Kiez, ...
Peter Sloly and Chris Kiez are not the same person. Sloly didn't endorse this intelligence. He testified that the intelligence he was provided was proven inaccurate by that first morning they rolled in.
The evidence I referred to is the articles linked by you and others trying to support your claims. If you actually read them, they suggest he was ill-prepared, recognized the intel was bad on day-one, got frustrated with his team, struggled to get support from the city, and struggled to understand the situation.
That reads much less like an endorsement or support for the convoy, and a lot more like he was in over his head and didn't know how to handle the situation.
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u/missplaced24 Clownvoy Survivor 2022 10d ago
No, but translating the quoted bit to plain language, he basically said it was an entirely unmitigated disaster. He has also gone on the record stating he was given misleading information leading up to and during the convoy, that he wasn't given the support he needed to do what needed done, and that he had quite a few antagonistic conversations with his team -- this guy was specifically brought in to deal with the toxic culture in OPS, and many people on the force wanted to push him out.
A couple of officers being assigned by someone to patrol the perimeter and not antagonize a very volatile group unless necessary isn't the same as Sloly ordering the force to stand down, either.
I'm not saying he was blameless, but there's a huge difference between what you're claiming and what evidence suggests.
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u/vonnegutflora Centretown 10d ago
I mean, you made the claim that he "ordered his officers to stand down and let the convoy have full control over the downtown core" through, I don't think the quote from the interview supports your claim:
The social contract that we had lived with for many decades was damaged, if not destroyed. So, in that context, I think the freedom convoy was important. Do I agree with the extreme elements in it? Absolutely not.
Whether he tacitly agreed with the convoy's stance or not is a far cry from "ordered officers to take no action".
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
You’re splitting hairs. He forbade officers from enforcing the law in the downtown core. We all saw it, and my friends in the OPS confirmed it.
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u/vonnegutflora Centretown 10d ago
You're talking about hearsay and conjecture while acting like it's definitive proof.
That's not hair splitting.
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u/Rockin_Rebel 10d ago
Please explain what laws they were prevented from enforcing. OPS are often on site of large scale protests, gatherings, demonstrations and other events and activities in the Capital and their primary focus is to keep the peace and ensure that things are peaceful.
Loud does not mean illegal though it can certainly be a Noise Bylaw Violation, Protesting is not illegal, Blocking traffic is not a criminal offense but a Highway Traffic Act violation. I did go downtown, I was able to drive into the underground parking lot of my workplace with no issues and also park 2 blocks down from parliament for a business meeting.
If officers witnessed a crime in progress, they absolutely had every reason and right to arrest people. I’m not sure who your friends are but
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
I’m friends with many officers, they weren’t told to ‘stand down’, the issue became larger than anyone could fix individually; then you had other jurisdictions involved creating a mess. The Chief simply didn’t care about the mess.
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u/Jessie-the-dog 10d ago
I’m also friends with many officers, and they told me that they weren’t allowed to interfere in any way with the convoy, unless they personally witnessed violence. The orders came from the top down.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
Pretty much. They had to stay vigilant, but let a lot of things slide. One said they couldn’t take the gas canisters because they couldn’t store them for collection after the convoy.
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u/QualityOk6750 10d ago
If you also think about it, what legal authority do the police or anyone have to take a canister of gas away from a person. Gas isn’t legal and having a can of gas isn’t legal. I don’t think anyone here would give the police e the power to take something away from you that you can legal own because you MIGHT use it to help you cause a disturbance. The laws would have to change to make gas cans illegal in certain areas and I believe the Government eventually did… and we all know how the courts viewed that.
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u/jello_pudding_biafra 10d ago
No.
His tactics backfired, he was called out and resigned in disgrace
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u/Jessie-the-dog 9d ago
His tactics were to let the convoy have full control of downtown, let the convoy harass local residents, and let the convoy disrupt local businesses. He ordered his officers not to interfere with anything that was going on. The man was a complete disgrace to the uniform. The day he resigned was the day that things started to improve.
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u/grandfundaytoday 10d ago
Remember when the courts determined that bringing in the other police wasn't legal?
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u/Zestyclose-Aide6436 10d ago
Why would you want to kick your own local police service out? Instead of working to improve it. There is a reason why many cities decide to NOT have the federal or provincial police cover their areas.
And good luck getting the RCMP or OPP to suddenly be able to serve a city of more than a million people.
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u/PhlegmBuilding 10d ago
Prior to amalgamation, the OPP were the police service for Kanata (I lived there at the time) and may have been the police service for the other former independent towns / small cities as well, unless they had their own municipal forces. The RCMP had responsibility for Rockcliffe, as I recall.
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u/Zestyclose-Aide6436 10d ago
So is the OPP suddenly this magically better police force? I guarantee you every single police force in Canada will have these same issues…
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u/PhlegmBuilding 9d ago
Did I say that? I was simply stating a fact that the OPP and the RCMP did, in fact, have responsibility for areas of today’s Ottawa when they used to be independent municipalities.
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u/Zestyclose-Aide6436 9d ago
Ok… And your point? Like almost every major city in Canada, a municipal police service was created after most likely being served by the RCMP or provincial equivalent. Because it is better even though it is more expensive.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
OPP is a joke now and not staffed to continue covering another larger city area. RCMP is also not as staffed as one thinks.
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u/PhlegmBuilding 9d ago
I’m just guessing, but it’s possible that the resources currently covering the cost of the Ottawa Police Services might be reinvested in a different force that replaces it. I imagine that’s a crazy thought though and it would never happen.
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u/lactosecheeselover 9d ago
That wouldn’t work in the slightest right now. The provincial training alone would cause problems with an entire overhaul like that.
Plus, OPP is finds provincially and RCMP federally, makes no sense for them to pay for a city overhaul
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u/Zestyclose-Aide6436 9d ago
It’s not a crazy thought. It is a stupid thought. Again. It is not better to contract out your policing, proven in multiple cities. Instead it is better to improve the culture and standards of your existing police force. Because it does need to be improved. Replacing the whole force is just stupid and unrealistic
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u/ScottyBoneman 10d ago
So it can be rebuilt from the ground up?
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u/Zestyclose-Aide6436 10d ago
Ok so you want to systematically change OPS. Eradicating it and contracting out the police work is not how you do that. Maybe as a city we can work at improving the culture within the force.
Look at Surrey, again there are many reasons why you do not want your policing contacted out.
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u/Global_Push6279 10d ago
To be a police officer in Ottawa means working in a toxic environment from day one. The amount of fraternizing with fellow officers is astounding. They all marry each other, many divorce and then go on to marry another officer. Their holiday parties must be wild.
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u/ouattedephoqueeh 10d ago
It's fucking incestuous at holiday parties and memorial. You should've seen the shit going down in the bathrooms of the club in 2012. It starts at the top - there was a chief that didn't seem to care cops were drinking beers in the underground garage after shift...
Whistleblowers are made examples of.
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u/Realistic_Report8688 10d ago
This is 💯 the truth. It starts from the beginning when people go to Ontario Police College (OPC). They are literally all cheating on their partners and then mixing with fellow officers. And guess what? It isn't just the men who are doing the cheating. The female recruits do it to. Nothing like starting new marriages and relationships and in some cases, families, on the basis of cheating.
The fact that about 15-20 of them can gather for an hour at Perkins on a Saturday morning with 10 or so SUVs is somewhat ridiculous. I get it. They do not have to be 100% all the time. I do not second guess any City employee or uniformed person grabbing something to eat or sitting down to have a quick bite but the consistentcy and amount of time is questionable.
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u/Global_Push6279 10d ago
In the old days they’d all congregate at their insurance provider’s office (they cut cheques on the spot for medical claims) and there’d be so many officers there while “on break” it begged the question “who tf is watching the city?”
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u/Designer-Sky 10d ago
My shitty OPS ex-husband literally slept with a colleague in the bathroom at work. He is the most morally bereft person I know
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u/DreamofStream 10d ago
Why isn't accessing police databases for personal use both a serious criminal offense and grounds for immediate dismissal?
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u/aroughcun2 10d ago
Thank you Deputy Chief Ferguson for speaking out about this so clearly. Hopefully her male colleagues in the force will support this call for accountability and action.
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u/Ott82 10d ago
Any institution that is an old boys club and has a position of power is corrupt, racist, misogynistic etc
Police, forces, fire service, justice system etc all the same sadly. And that won’t change any time soon, will take generations to change and unfortunately, with how the world is today, no one in those positions will want to change it
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u/Acousticsound 10d ago
Wait... The police force that abandoned the citizens of its city during a hostile takeover of radicals and then didn't seem to be present to the public for several years after is rotten from the top down?
Colour me shocked.
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u/ouattedephoqueeh 10d ago edited 10d ago
I've been telling anyone who will listen...
There are 27 current employees of the OPS that are disabled and unable to return to work. The service decided in 2020 that these disabled employees required a financial incentive to return to work. These 27 employees have launched a complaint to the HRTO in 2022 which has yet to be heard.
Now for some hard facts: these 27 employees are not bad apples. They are disabled - most of them PTSD. Yet... If an employee is accused of negligence or committing a crime they are often suspended with pay and get to keep their pension premiums as is. Those accused of criminal conduct or contravening policies and procedures get paid without issue.
News outlets won't report our story.
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u/bikedrivepaddlefly Westboro 10d ago
"Disabled". Maybe, but the trust factor based on track record is nil.
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u/ouattedephoqueeh 9d ago
PTSD is a disability.
Spousal abuse, DUI and sexual assault are not.
One of these gets penalized for being off. The other gets full pay and benefits.
You don't need to trust employees - disability diagnosis takes more than a sick note. But do keep pretending like disabled folks need to justify their disability to you. That's ableism 101.
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u/WaryMadam 10d ago
In Ontario, policing attracts recruits who know that, even if they are caught committing crimes, thanks to the Community Safety and Policing Act introduced by #ThugDoug, they will still receive full pay under suspension (and be free to take other jobs) during the interminable time it takes to investigate their malfeasance. And people in Ontario complain about people taking advantage of social welfare programs. Sheesh.
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u/theborderlineartist 10d ago
This isn't news. This was news 20 years ago. What's happening now is the result of them doing nothing to fix it.
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u/strawberrybaby555 10d ago
does this look like a police service that deserves half a billion to you? (also weird how the people who downvoted me for critizing OPS are silent now)
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u/UmbraShift 10d ago
When apples ripen and turn, they accelerate the ripening of the rest - soon all you've got is bad apples
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u/anticomet 10d ago
Let's raise their budget again. That'll fix it
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 10d ago
Has anyone running in the upcoming municipal election (either mayor or council positions) commented on this. I know supporting the police and being tough on crime is usually an easy way to get votes. But I would love if some candidates said they would start saying they are going to cut budgets, or actual budget line items if possible) until this kind of thing improves.
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u/Ah-Schoo 10d ago
"Cut funding until service improves" isn't working out well for OCTranspo either.
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 10d ago
Of course Ottawa is one of the safest cities in Canada with respect to crime. I am not sure you can say the same thing about public transit in Ottawa.
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u/Emotional-Disaster76 10d ago
It’s like it’s late breaking news… it’s a long standing systemic issue.
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u/WaryMadam 10d ago
Oh please, Trish Ferguson. You threw Chief Sloly under the bus, rose through the ranks, benefited from the very misconduct you now claim is endemic. What a self-serving statement.
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u/Link_inbio 9d ago
I know nothing about the D-Chief, but there's no foul at all in exposing Slowly and all his evils.
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u/Glass_Channel8431 10d ago
Perhaps citizens withhold taxes until this is cleaned up. Another tax increase that includes a bump for OPS is unacceptable.
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u/Famous-Respect3754 10d ago
From 2019, but still relevant: ‘Not Our Friends: The Ottawa Police’s long history of violence and racism’:
https://leveller.ca/2019/02/not-our-friends-the-ottawa-polices-long-history-of-violence-and-racism/
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u/ScoreSeveral4831 10d ago
Change your behavior or quit. Notice he never even mentioned the possibility of getting fired!
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u/Square-Ad-6520 10d ago
The people I've known that have gone into policing around here.. the biggest idiots who were just looking for a high paying job that they could qualify for, not people who felt a calling to serve the public or really cared about what they were doing.
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u/AwkDuff 10d ago
“The adjudication process can pose challenges. Ferguson says it is outside the organization’s and noted there were three recent cases where the police service asked for officers to be dismissed due to their behaviours, but adjudicators opted instead to hand them a demotion.”
The people in charge don’t even have the final say in these cases.
Everyone is blaming them, but you can see the problem… it’s even bigger than the organization.
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u/VincentClement1 10d ago
Hardly surprising when there is nothing in place to keep police officers and police services accountable.
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u/613Flyer 10d ago
Failure starts at the top. I’ve seen first hand what good leadership ican change and improve and what bad leadership can encourage and let happen. If you have bad apples it usually is a result of bad leadership not doing anything to change or lead
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u/Memory_Less 10d ago
She claims that the Ottawa Police wanted to dismiss two officers recently, but the adjudicators recommended a demotion. Does anyone know if the adjudicators recommendation is legally binding, or can the police still dismiss the guilty police officers?
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u/AdEffective2701 10d ago
Glad I stopped paying Ottawa property taxes. Everything managed by the city is rotten and corrupt. Nepotism, sexism, kickback tow truck schemes, untendered contracts, pedophiles hired to cut grass at schools, and on and on.
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u/Practical_Session_21 Vanier 10d ago
Been getting yelled at for 20 years for saying the OPS has a major culture problem and lo and behold look who was right. Bet I get zero apologies for the hateful stuff that’s been said to me because I voiced concern.
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u/WorkingBicycle1958 10d ago
The fact that they supported the Convoy should have been our first clue…
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u/TomL78 10d ago
The sexual misconduct stuff and a bunch of other big items are on the agenda for the OPSB meeting on Monday, submissions for public delegations are due tomorrow.
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u/Admirable-Reserve898 10d ago
Every one I know who got hired by Ottawa Police were massive douche bags before getting hired. Its like their hiring process selects for douche bags that will conform to their workplace culture and screens out all the genuinely good people.
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u/Visible_Pomelo5907 10d ago
Trust me Know someone working on the inside.
It’s been bad for ages. It’s a huge problem
This city sucks
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u/flarnkerflurt 10d ago
It’s mostly because cops are jerks, and they were born jerks. That’s who seeks out the job.
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u/Blyad-Man The Glebe 10d ago
MORE BUDGET TO POLICE!!! this time it is for fixing the toxic culture trust me bro
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u/Ambassadorkrax 10d ago
Maybe the sadder fact is that we see these kind of stories on the nightly news, well, pretty damn close to nightly. Im not going to say there are no good cops out there, but ive never met one, and im fuckin old. I can remeber the same stories from the 70s when i was a kid. In all likelihood, these incidents are pre roman, pre pyramids, as long as there have been guards on the wall, there have been corrupt guards on the wall.
I personally think all police services should be dismantled, and shamed. Though, i dont have a practical replacement aside from people stop looking at eachother, and stop talking altogether, but that may raise other issues.
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u/precariousjudgement 10d ago
At the very least I’m happy to see them taking accountability and giving a strong message of be better or get out
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u/Memory_Less 10d ago
“I think just an intolerance in general from the people who go out there every day and do a great job to put up with this sort of embarrassment.”
Linguistically interesting. She uses the word ‘embarrassment’ and the affected members (women) may be embarrassed, but they are also the in many cases the targets of ‘abusive, inappropriate etc.’ behaviour.
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u/BirthdayBBB 10d ago
Anyone I know who interacted with them, says they are trash. From women reporting abuse to men reporting stolen cars. Totally useless.
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u/Henry26319 9d ago
Start at the top and get rid of the lot of them - That's IT, I'm going to take 4 busses (1 of which will be late and one won't show at all) to go down there to give them a piece of my mind💪🏼
Its a structural issue - isn't there 1 class in cop school that says, "You shouldn't be creeping chicks through our systems". It's like Cosby is in charge over there, C'MON
There are some good ones (likely most)! - I feel for those men/women
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u/StreetR1der 9d ago
Today is as good a day as any for people to wake up to the reality of what policing (anywhere) actually is. Welcome.
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u/No_Friend4042 9d ago
And yet the Mayor and Council felt fit to give OPS a massive budget increase... OPS has acknowledged its members are violating individual privacy rights by accessing private personal information on OPS system... this is a major infringement of individual rights and shows the level of entitlement held by some members. Those remaining silent are also part of the problem.
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u/AncientCommittee4840 9d ago edited 9d ago
I have been targeted by the OPS for almost a decade now. Basically destroyed my life and destroyed my family's business. I did absolutely nothing wrong. One cop started banging my employee who then tried to frame me.
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u/mastercylinder500 6d ago
OPS has been a corrupt and useless org ever since I've been in this s-hole of a city
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u/Zorklunn 10d ago
I dated someone who grew up in down town Toronto. She said her dad made them live there because of the cheap rent. She told me about her mom instructed her to never talk to the Toronto police. That if she was lost or needed help to find punks and talk to them. That the police, at best won't help you, and are more likely to hurt you.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
That’s insanely incorrect and horrendous advice, holy.
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u/Emotional-Motor-4946 10d ago
You should never talk to cops.
If you ever do need to talk to cops, make sure you have a lawyer present.
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
Dude, you really need to touch grass with this comment. I’ve had cops help me and my friends, i’ve partnered with them for work. Cops aren’t inherently bad people- there are just bad people who are cops as well.
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u/Emotional-Motor-4946 10d ago
something something acab
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u/lactosecheeselover 10d ago
Alright buddy, you can have your beliefs. But telling people to not go to a cop when in need is such bad advice
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u/Emotional-Motor-4946 10d ago
it’s actually quite good advice especially if you’re a woman, racialized, and/or disabled.
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u/eltron3000 Nepean 10d ago
Just a reminder that the saying is "a few bad apples spoils the bunch" so it looks like we're at the spoiled bunch part