AFRICAN CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF OTTAWA
40 Colonnade Rd North
Ottawa, Ontario K2E 7J6
Tel:
613-663-2940
Fax:
613-663-2940
www.acaottawa.com
www.fb.com/acaottawa
twitter.com/acaottawa
OTTAWA – February 15, 2022
40 Colonnade Rd North
Ottawa, Ontario K2E 7J6
Tel:
613-663-2940
Fax:
613-663-2940
www.acaottawa.com
www.fb.com/acaottawa
twitter.com/acaottawa
OTTAWA – February 15, 2022
Dear Ottawa Police Board members,
We at the African Canadian Association of Ottawa are appalled by the pressure from within and outside of OPS, especially the anti-change agents, brought to bear on the Ottawa Police Chief Sloly to resign. It’s unfortunate he has become the scapegoat for the failure of the entire system. We in the black community do not accept this.
The effort to topple Chief Sloly from within the force started before the so-called freedom convoy got to Ottawa. We were not surprised they would target the first black chief of Ottawa Police Service because those who had benefited from status-quo will fight to keep it. We are fully aware of a clandestine movement since his inception of office to undermine his leadership and eventually dismiss him from post.
We are also not ignorant to the fact that Chief Sloly has been unfairly targeted due to the colour of his skin. The siege of Ottawa by the truck convoy has presented an opportunity for those working against him behind the scenes to scapegoat him and publicly ‘lynch’ him.
We are asking that any steps against the chief should be transparent and follow due process. We as an umbrella organization with 75,000 members are watching with an eagle’s eye.
Below are our observations and asks:
- Since the resignation is not official yet, do not accept the resignation if you believe your hands are clean and truly care about Ottawa’s black and indigenous community.
- Do not put your own political future above the welfare of the Ottawa community. Let your conscience speak.
- The Police Board has not exercised leadership during the occupation. The City Council has failed the citizens of Ottawa. Curfew should have been declared from the get-go to give the Police extra powers to sweep the downtown core and its environs. Some members of the board have resorted to tweets and blaming instead of exercising leadership and uniting behind the Chief to do his job.
- It’s been an ongoing constructive dismissal process that’s been in the works all along. In fact, the chief has been sabotaged by his own subordinates all along, and the police union leader has all along prioritized selfish personal interest over the greater community’s common good.
- It is obvious why the police brotherhood has been cooperating with the outsider insurrectionists all along, encouraging them instead of applying basic existing laws to do basic policing on our streets.
- The Chief asked for 1800 more cops to bolster his forces at the beginnings of the occupation. How many did he get from both provincial and federal governments?
7.Unlike Black Lives Matter protests, the anti-vax occupants enjoyed the support oftop politicians morally and financially to keep them on the street.
8.If anyone has to fall on their sword over this, let’s start with the individual officerswho are racking up excessive overtime pay, while failing to execute the basicduties and rule of law they swore to uphold. The very first thing to scrap are the“suspended with pay” provisions of the police act, so individual officers will paythe price of dereliction of duty without further sponging off the lowly, humbletaxpayer.
9.It is obvious that many established interests will lurk under the cloaks and mantleof the newly-invoked Emergency Act, to settle traditional intolerance scores thathave no place in a society that purports to be civil and tolerant of the “other”.
10.What happened to the Windsor Police Chief? Why Chief Slowly? Because he isblack? That is how we see it.
Signed by
John Adeyefa,
President, African Canadian Association of Ottawa
[email protected]
613-663-2940
- *********************************************************************
819-613 BLACK HUB
Failure of the Ottawa Police Service to remove the occupiers isn’t Chief Sloly’s fault: it’s exactly as expected
February 16, 2022 – Ottawa – The response of the Ottawa Police Service to the occupation of Ottawa was not a failure nor was former chief Peter Sloly’s leadership in that response. On the contrary, the OPS acted exactly as expected because the OPS, like all police forces in Canada, has always had one mandate: protect the powerful – or at least don’t get in their way. And the thousands of mostly white convoy protesters, and their organizers with their millions in the bank, were the powerful. In contrast, the young Black and Indigenous protesters who blocked the Ottawa intersection in November 2020 weren’t and that’s why the OPS treated them very differently.
Sloly faced resistance from OPS rank and file officers, senior officers and the Ottawa Police Association from the moment he took the job. From the racist memes comparing him to Hitler to the multiple attacks from OPA president Matt Skof, Sloly was under attack – and under-supported – from day one. That these same people would take the opportunity to use the OPS response to the occupation as an excuse to oust Sloly is completely expected.
Furthermore, the claims by unnamed OPS officials that former Chief Sloy caused the supposed “failure” by his “short fuse” that led to “volatile behaviour” with senior staff is the age-old racist technique of people labeling Black people aggressive to shift blame away from themselves.
The media perpetuated this racist stereotype by quoting these sources without providing details to prove their claims. CBC quoted one unnamed source saying, “The Ottawa Police Service is paralyzed…at the front line. They’ve been waiting for directions from the senior leadership team and are frustrated with how they’re being viewed by the public because of the spectacular failure of their leader.”
The OPS is neither frustrated nor paralyzed: they’re acting exactly as intended.
The OPS response to the occupation backs up calls to defund and eventually abolish the OPS because the main questions people ask about abolishing the police is, “What about the murderers? What about the rapists? Who are we going to call then?” Well, up until last month, people could have asked, “What if thousands of angry protesters occupy downtown Ottawa and harass people for over a week? Who are we going to call then?” Well, now at least it’s crystal clear who there’s absolutely no point calling: the Ottawa police.
“Enough is enough. It’s time to start the process of abolishing the Ottawa police by massively defunding them and starting real community conversations about what systems we should fund and create to truly make us all safer”, said 613-819 Black Hub co-lead Robin Browne.
******************************************************
BLACK HISTORY OTTAWA
Friday 18 February 2022
To: Mayor Jim Watson Ottawa City Councillors
EXPECTATIONS ON POLICING IN OTTAWA AFTER THE OCCUPATION
Those who oppose police reform are celebrating today.
How disappointing and ironic to hear Chief Sloly’s interim replacement state that he “believes that they now have the resources and partners to bring this occupation to an end”. Where was that support when Chief Sloly asked for more officers and resources?
Was Peter Sloly made the scapegoat for this colossal failure of the system? Given the history of policing experienced by persons of African descent in Ottawa and given the loss of representation in the leadership roles with the Ottawa Police Services, the Chief and Councillor Rawlson King on the Ottawa Police Services Board, how do we go forward with confidence believing that there is truly a culture change in policing?
How do we have confidence that the Ottawa Police Services is truly committed to cohesively serving, promoting, and protecting the human rights of us, people of African descent – ethically and in equal measure as is experienced by our white fellow citizens? We will be watching closely to see the credentials of the new Chief of the Ottawa Police.
“Freedom” is not only reserved for truckers and people who are protesting vaccine mandates, COVID-19 restrictions, and other measures. Black Canadians will expect to get a Police Chief in Ottawa who will continue the work that Chief Sloly started in order to reform unjust policing practices that is the history of Canada.
The progress that has been made cannot now become history. A return to unfair targeting of racialized people and other practices that violate the freedom of Canadians of African descent is not an option.
Respectfully, what do we say to our children?
Black History Ottawa- Making a difference in what is known about our history and contributions to Canadian society and in the kind of inheritance we leave our children in the future. Please email [email protected] for inquiries.
Black History Ottawa
P.O.Box 81081 111 Albert Street, Suite 108 Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1A5 [email protected] www.blackhistoryottawa.org Charity Business Number: 85368 6962 RR0001
—