Peter Sloly was the first only and most likely last Black Police Chief of the Ottawa Police Service
by Ketcia Peters
Until a couple of months ago, Ottawa had a Black Police Chief. One of the few, really, in the whole country. Unfortunately, Peter Sloly, our ex-Chief, was also the ONLY one to have been forced out of the office. Ever.
He lost a game that since the very first moment was against him.
Never happened before that someone who held that position resigned given the absence of possible solutions.
It was like the surrender move in chess.
In that game, tipping the king down means surrendering.
It is as unambiguous as universally acknowledged. It means, essentially, that you recognize the advantage of your opponent and that you wish to give up. It means you don’t have a choice.
You don’t even need any words for it: you make one gesture.
That’s it. Game over.
Funnily enough, in the game of chess, whites move before blacks. And funnily enough, that makes for slightly a better chance to win.
But we’re not talking about chess here. We’re talking about policing.
And policing is not a game.
Policing is neither politics nor just enforcement.
Policing means upholding an oath and doing right by the rule of law, OUR rule of law.
All the while being capable of sensibility and empathy.
Being an officer is not enforcing rules by violent means or malicious or duplicitous intent. Being an officer does not mean trusting blindly this system. Neither defending it.
It is toxic, and we now all know that.
Being the Chief of Ottawa Police is not, or at least should not, mean to fight gossip. Nor being held accountable for problems that invest the entirety of the system.
Sloly fought these very things from the very moment, and now that he’s been forced to resign, it has become evident, more than ever, that change must follow.
It is not the sins of one man we’re trying to outline here.
Nor should we.
It is the predicament of the establishment which prop a man in a situation where the only possible outcome was to give in.
Give in and renounce the hope to make something better, while others remain unpunished or untouched.
Give in and stop trying whilst the system remains the way it is: poisonous.
The next Chief will take up the mantle of a broken apparatus that needs fixing.
It cannot—it must not—come from the same culture that brought us into this situation.
Policing is not a game. The high-brass must be serious and capable.
Policing is not politics. Leadership can never be deceitful. In any circumstance. And it cannot have opinions forced by ideologies of any kind.
Policing is not just enforcement. Iron fist must not be the only competence required.
Sloly has been forced out because of who he was. Eaten by a system that wishes no changes. A system that profits from the toxicity within itself.
Sloly was undermined and treated unfairly from the get-go.
There is no point in denying so.
It is what happened.
In 2019 Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute analysed the diversity of companies in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, and Toronto. The study found out that Blacks on the boards of more than 175 companies, represent less than one percent of the members, with 13 board members to be exact within 1,639 people.
Blacks in positions of power are systemically less, and it is easy to spot the whys, isn’t it?
It is no stretch of the imagination to think that the first Black Chief of Police in Ottawa has been compromised to lose from the starting line.
After all, it happens all over the places in this country. Constantly.
Sloly had no choice but to resign.
The under-support he faced—or even proper attack—from the people who no matter what, should have backed him up (like Matt Skof OPS Association President), is but a mere example of what he’s been dealing with. And whom.
We shall—we must—fight to make sure that now change happens.
The next Chief must make that change. Although, we’ve already lost one figure that could have done it.
The next one, the next Chief, will either cleanse the whole horror story that is the Ottawa Police Service, or further settle in stone a racist, unhelpful system.
Let’s hope for the first.
Ketcia Peters is Manager of the Black Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Fund program at Le Conseil Économique et Social d’Ottawa Carleton (CÉSOC). She is a former Co-Chair of the Ottawa Community and Police Action Committee (COMPAC).
Since chess is being used as and example in this article I will continue using the game to make my point.
Chess is about the white king trying to conquer the black king. White always moves first. Therefore the white pieces are playing offensive / defensive while the black pieces are playing
defensive /offence.
Too many of the black pieces are saying please don’t conquer me to the white pieces. The black pieces don’t realize that they are in a game of dominance, control, and ultimate destruction. The black pieces of the game are trying to be accepted by the white pieces. Chess is not a game of acceptance. It is a game of destruction.
The Black pieces have to play on their side of the board to have a chance of winning the game.
Where does Ex Ottawa City Police Chief Sloly fit in the chess game?
The game of chess equals the game of life.