32 minute read
Police misconduct
Is it time to reinvent policing?
Edmonton Chief of Police Dale McFee thinks so.
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The numbers tell the story. A report published in August 2020 by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) found that while Black people comprise 8.8 per cent of Toronto’s overall population, they represent almost 32 per cent of people charged by Toronto police. The numbers are based on the Toronto Police Service’s own data compiled between 2013 and 2017. They confirm what the city’s Black community already knew, informed by a much higher profile statistic in which its members are 20 times more likely to be killed by police than White people. The shockwave that ripples through communities and families as a result are more disturbing with every incident, and the residual trauma and fear reframes the police as enemies of the very citizens they swear “To Serve and Protect.”
Toronto mayor John Tory released a package of sweeping reforms last August, the day after the OHRC report was made public. It outlined more than 80 recommendations to address systemic racism within Toronto Police Service. Is it time for police services to reinvent themselves? Edmonton’s Chief of Police Dale McFee thinks so, and he’s already initiated bold action that goes well beyond more recommendations and studies. Dale McFee was sworn in as Edmonton’s 23rd Chief of Police in February 2019, following 26 years as a police officer in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he served as Chief for nine years. McFee was also Deputy Minister of Corrections and Policing in the Ministry of Justice for the Saskatchewan government, and from 2011 to 2014 served as president and past president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. He has lectured nationally and internationally
on the topics of leadership and change management in private and public sector organizations.
Following the shocking news of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests erupted in the U.S., Canada and around the world. Edmonton saw 10,000 people peacefully march at the Alberta Legislature calling for change. On September 21, 2020, Chief McFee responded with a speech whose details could be considered a model of change for police services across the country. He announced an action plan at Edmonton Police Service (EPS) that draws upon ongoing rank-and-file involvement with community leaders, declaring that “we are not launching a study. We are not launching a commission or a task force. We’re not writing a 30 to 90 day report. This is a perpetual commitment to evolve the way we
relate and work with our community, particular Indigenous, Black, racialized, and other marginalized communities who typically find themselves to be the victims of an inequitable system.”
Chief McFee takes a very scientific, research-driven approach to improving police services in a city with one of the highest crime rates in the country. McFee knows the importance of data,
having deep experience as a deputy minister with a background in policing and corrections as well as steering the transformational change file for the entire Saskatchewan government. A culture of transformation was already in place when McFee arrived on the job in Edmonton, so job one was to get the job done. He felt fortunate to have a police commission that was committed to change, so he did his homework.
“Part of my hiring condition was to get some external staff to prep me for office,” McFee says. “A small team did between 60 and 70 interviews with officers and civilians, looking for any kind of change momentum. If an issue is mentioned 20 or more times, then you need immediate action. If it’s mentioned five times, then it’s a theme that needs study, if it’s mentioned once then it’s probably not something to be addressed in the first 90 days.”
With data in hand, a team was chosen by the EPS membership to draft Vision 2020, a blueprint for transformational
success. Two key individuals at the civilian executive director and the inspector superintendent levels drove that change overseen by the deputy chief. “That got us the buy-in and renewed momentum with new information to continue what was well underway,” McFee says. “Simply put, there are only two things that matter. Reduce the intake into the system, and make sure every off-ramp works,” McFee explains. “What’s an off-ramp? Mental health, child welfare, addictions, and housing services, so what we focus on is to get the data and technology in place quickly to figure out exactly what we’re trying to fix.”
A large portion of a police officer’s day is spent dealing with things that do not directly involve the justice system. Homelessness, addiction, and mental health issues are examples of challenges for which an officer is not fully equipped or trained to address; hence, the need for an interagency hub model. “I arrived when a hub model was being implemented,” says Chief McFee. “Build the right team, put the right people together. If you’re not seeing improvements, then you probably don’t have the right people in the room.”
Direct community engagement is also an essential component of EPS reform. One example is the Nîsohkamâkewin Council, so named for the Cree word meaning ‘the act of helping.’ A large Indigenous population, both within its urban boundary and surroundings, means Edmonton police, perhaps more acutely than in many other Canadian cities, must seek cooperative solutions for the inequities and barriers Indigenous peoples face. EPS is doing just that with the formation of this Indigenous advisory council. Community members are invited to apply for the council to develop systemic changes to policing and implement the best practices to address long-standing challenges.
“We’ve heard many stories from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. So many inquests tell us that we need to be a lot better at sharing information,” McFee says. “This council brings direct representation from the Cree community to give us guidance and direction. I’m not forming another study, that’s been done plenty of times. We’ve committed to action.”
The Nîsohkamâkewin Council is just one of 50 different community councils representing Edmonton’s diversity. Action means EPS is going into those communities to listen. It’s an aggressive agenda to fan out and meet with all 50 groups over the coming months to exchange knowledge. For example, a know-your-rights campaign is being developed to provide information to the Indigenous population, as well as to immigrant community groups whose members may have come from countries where policing and individual rights and freedoms are viewed very differently than here in Canada.
“It’s one thing go into a community and tell them top-down what they need to do,” McFee says. “It’s another to stand by their side with the research and the data to drive sustainable change.” This approach turns the model on its head. Every community listening session is followed by a de-briefing to determine what happens next. “We’ve already taken action with peer intervention training, community recruiting, etc. I want our recruits to spend time in vulnerable sectors like homeless shelters to learn the issues first-hand and understand those individuals and the trauma they’re facing.”
Officers face danger every day that they go home to their families. Some days they don’t make it home. Calgary Sgt. Andrew Harnett pulled over an SUV on New Year's Eve and was hit and dragged when the vehicle took off. He died about an hour later, leaving behind a wife and unborn child. Two young men have been charged with first-degree murder. Harnett was a former military police officer with the Canadian Forces accustomed to random and unpredictable danger.
Crime statistics warn officers of heightened danger and weapons possession in what are often racialized communities and neighbourhoods. This is crucial information to officer safety, but only training can prevent these statistics from turning to racial profiling. “I hope to bring civilians in to review officer training with us in an advisory capacity,” McFee says. “We’ve introduced a comprehensive social police training program, including such topics as Indigenous historical trauma training and many others. Bringing in civilians makes for ongoing and sustainable improvements and oversight.”
Calls to defund the police rear up with every new incident and every new report. The defunding demand is more punitive that pragmatic, so McFee again emphasizes that policing must adopt a team approach to dealing with underlying societal issues or one-
on-one encounters that, for example, involve mental illness. While the idea of defunding police may send chills through the general population, Chief McFee stresses that “moving money around agencies won’t solve a darn thing. Social services are already funded 7-to-1 when compared with police funding.” Change must come from within police operations. EPS has already hired 10 social workers, and is aiming for 24/7 Police and Crisis teams and the placement of mental health crisis experts into its dispatch centre. “It all starts with that first call,” McFee says.
That urgent first call requires an urgent response, but McFee believes policing is much more effective in the long term if it works to deter the second, the third, and the fourth call involving the same individual. That is where police influence versus police legal authority is most effective in a community context. “Community safety and wellbeing involves way more than policing, that’s where our influence can bring others to the table to get results and outcomes. That’s been the biggest shift in Edmonton,” McFee says.
Innovative thinking at EPS has shifted $28 million to a bureau called Community Safety and Wellbeing, which comes with a Deputy Chief at the top. The Bureau is focused on partnering with the right agencies to get the right outcomes.
In another nod to innovation, an EPS research excellence division informs a community solutions accelerator that works with private-sector partners to prototype and deploy solutions to reduce crime. The Edmonton Police Foundation has partnered with Telus, Motorola, ATB Financial, University of Alberta, and others to come up with answers. Here’s one challenge: tackle 9,600 liquor store robberies last year alone.
Research revealed there were two reasons behind these thefts and robberies: supporting an individual’s habit, and illegal re-sale by gangs. EPS worked with one of Alberta’s largest liquor suppliers and put out a community challenge for a solution. The winner out of 220 entries from around the world was the MacEwan University Social Innovation Institute based right in Edmonton.
The MacEwan concept was twofold: identify the point of resale as the most effective point to deter thefts, resulting in lose of market, and; combine a highprofile awareness campaign, hidden tracking devices, and a whistle-blower cash prize for restaurant employees who tip off police about establishments buying stolen liquor. Challenges are being issued for creative and scientific solutions to a wide range of problems to reduce crime and intake into the justice system.
A core tactic of advocacy is the use of extreme language. Everything is a crisis and an emergency. Defund! Repeat that over and over and over. A side effect of this tactic is the deliberate occultation of all things positive. Thousands of police officers go to work every day with the honourable intention to ensure public safety. Only the bad ones
make the news. My father was a police officer who took disability leave and early retirement due to a stress-related illness. About that same time, my oldest friend became an RCMP officer at the age of 19 and was assigned to northern BC, about as far away from home as a posting could place him. He suffers from extreme PTSD and has been hospitalized many times. Bottom line: policing is one of the most difficult professions in our society. So what about mental health support for officers themselves?
“That’s a great question,” Chief McFee acknowledges.” EPS has bolstered its Employee Family Assistance Program with 10 staff members supporting the organization. 14 different programs include mental health awareness, critical stress management, suicide prevention, a chaplaincy, and a re-integration program for injured officers. “We also have an internationally recognized re-integration program that works in the short term with officers involved in major incidents like shootings, fatalities, officer assaults, plus we go deeper with a longer-term component to prevent PTSD and other risks,” McFee says. “This is all going to be doubly important during COVID. It’s a strategy that has been adopted by 25 other police agencies across Canada, which is something we're pretty proud of.”
Ottawa Police Service (OPS) is struggling with its own challenges. 15 officers are on paid suspension for criminal misconduct, there is an outside Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) investigation into multiple charges and allegations of sexual assault by OPS officers, and Ottawa Deputy Chief Uday Jaswal has been suspended with pay since March 21, 2020 after OCPC charged him with sexually harassing and assaulting a female civilian police employee. He faces a total of six charges from multiple complaints by OPS employees.
Ottawa Police HQ sports a large banner facing the Queensway. It is a recruitment poster featuring two good-looking officers with pearly teeth: a Black male and a blonde female. All OPS recruitment branding would make the CBC diversity police proud. What is less front-facing is the OPS plan to address policing relative to racial inequity and diversity in the community it serves. Minority communities continue to express concern over multiple cases related to police misconduct. The Ottawa Police Services Board has paid over $20 million in damages, settlements and legal fees over the past decade to victims of police misconduct.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says that he is committed to police reform. Chief Dale McFee is writing the book on police reform in Canada. Watson, OPS, and the Police Board would be well served by reading it n
RAPES AND LIES — The Cancerous Misconduct at the Ottawa Police Service
The Ottawa Police Service Board members are accessories to the rape culture at the OPS.
Ottawa Life Magazine has been writing about the serious problems in policing in Ottawa and across Canada with police misconduct, police recruiting, police training and police oversight for over a decade. Over the past several weeks the CBCs Fifth Estate has been running a series of investigative shows titled Policing the Police about the disturbing preponderance of crimes committed by police officers without consequence in forces across Canada. One full episode is focused on the sexual assault, misogyny, and dysfunctional culture within the Ottawa Police Service (OPS).
That show comes on the heels of several years of Ottawa Life Magazine and other investigative media reporting on the multiple cases of sexual assault and other crimes by OPS officers who are then protected by ‘the system’ at the expense of the victims and taxpayers.
This criminal behaviour is the direct result of poor leadership and incompetent oversight.
The criminal legal system in Ottawa is dysfunctional to its core. The police are corrupt, the Crown prosecutors have integrity, judgement and credibility issues and the decisions of local judges in multiple cases are causing the public to question whether justice depends on your race or position in society.
Many residents are legitimately asking how a hand wringing judge could possibly conclude that it was a ‘reasonable use of force’ for an Ottawa policeman to punch an unarmed and frightened man with mental health issues, Abdi Abdirahman, in the head multiple times with non-regulation issue composite gloves that have the impact of brass knuckles? Abdirahman of course died from the beating.
In court police lawyers claimed he died of a heart attack. It was a breathtakingly preposterous claim akin to saying that if someone was guillotined, they did not die from their head being cut off-they died from bleeding to death (of course caused by their head being cut off!). Justice Robert Kelly's statement that he was not convinced Montsion “used force that was a substantial departure from what a reasonable police officer would do, or that it went beyond what’s justified in the Criminal Code” should shake the conscience of every citizen in Ontario. That a superior court judge somehow conclude that it was not only reasonable, but also acceptable for the police to violently punch a man in the head multiple times with vicious blows while wearing non-regulation gloves that have the same impact as brass knuckles is mind-blowing.
That Justice Robert Kelly could not see the forest for the trees in the case is an understatement. His decision was a massive gut punch to the principle that “Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.” His ruling was completely insane in a most Kafkaesque way as it represents ‘the law and legal system’ vetting out ‘justice’ to one of its own.
Worse than the Kelly decision was that the crown did not appeal it. However, this should come as no surprise to the chummy chummy, yummy yummy relationship between the OPS and the Crown Attorney in Ottawa. The local crown prosecutor’s office has been in bed with the Ottawa Police for decades. Don’t worry about integrity
or redlines or rules having a say in the adjudication of matters with this crew. After all, it was the crown who agreed to the request for Montsion to avoid appearing before a bail judge when he was criminally charged in March 2017 with manslaughter, aggravated assault, and assault with a weapon in the July 2016 killing of Abdi.
It was the crown who set a trial almost a year and a half after the charges. They apparently missed the class in law school that teaches the principle that “Justice delayed is justice denied” as a legal maxim. This is the same crown office that ensured that Matthew Humphreys got to keep his job as assistant Crown attorney in Ottawa after he was charged with drunk driving for crashing his car into the back of a construction vehicle on Metcalfe Street at 2:25 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2015 on his way home from the annual Christmas party for Ottawa’s Crown attorneys’ office that was held at . . . . the Ottawa Police Association headquarters on Catherine Street. (I won't even get into how completely inappropriate it is for crown prosecutors to hold a party at the police union hangout).
Humphreys’ blood-alcohol level was 200 mg/100 ml of blood, or more than double the legal limit of 80 mg/100 ml. He was convicted of drunk driving and his sentence included being banned from driving for a year, a $1,400 fine, a $420 surcharge, and he was ordered to install an ignition interlocking device on his vehicle.
While Humphreys expressed remorse and took responsibility for his actions, he should have been terminated upon conviction in the interest of preserving the integrity of the office of the crown attorney. Instead, when asked if he would be fired, Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Attorney General, wrote in an email that Humphreys’ employment status is “internal and confidential.” He is still an assistant Crown attorney in Ottawa. The injustice of this came into sharp focus again in 2019 when Ottawa crown prosecutors refused to appeal the sentencing of Deinsberg St-Hilaire, who was spared jail time after admitting he went to great lengths to cover his tracks and hide from police after a 2015 hit-and-run that killed Ottawa cyclist Andy Nevin. On May 15, 2019 the victim’s father, Kerry Nevin said the crown in Ottawa and the justice system had failed his dead son.
“This whole dirty justice system has forgotten what their jobs are. My late son was not accorded justice, rather he was victimized again,” the grieving father said.
After doing nothing, Deputy Crown Attorney Brian Holowka did what many of his ilk tend to do and sent a disingenuous letter offering trite condolences to explain away his incompetence and crass insensitivity to the victim’s family. “I recognize the devastating impact that this case has had on you and your family, and that the sentence imposed was far more lenient than you had hoped for. I extend my condolences to you and all your family for the tragic loss that you have suffered,” Holowka wrote.
His comments run in the same vein as the ‘our hearts and prayers are with you comments’ Americans get from public and elected officials after every mass shooting. These are meaningless and hollow words from a hollow man that only contribute to the continued erosion of trust in Canada’s unequal justice system .
It is a very legitimate question to ask how it is that the crown prosecutors in Ottawa were able to play the system and protect one of their own who was charged and convicted of a serious criminal offence yet was able to keep his job and then some. Yet, when a citizen is killed a couple of years later by a drunk driver, this same crown office doesn't go to bat for the citizen whose son was killed. They go to bat for the killer. And justice for all, indeed!
Then again this is the same crown office that orchestrated a please deal against a dangerous and abusive Ottawa cop and determined it was appropriate and somehow in the public interest to drop 27 of 32 charges against OPS Constable Eric Post against seven Ottawa women including violent sexual assault, assault, and forcible confinement. Post was convicted last month on the five plea deal charges and is awaiting sentencing. He was not immediately fired for cause by OPS Chief Peter Sloly and remains on the OPS payroll.
The heart wrenching statement by Kerry Nevin that,” This whole dirty justice system has forgotten what their jobs are. My late son was not accorded justice, rather he was victimized again” serves as the perfect metaphor to describe the Ottawa Police Service and its rather temperamental chief and the Ottawa Police Services Board (OPSB).
The OPSB members are Ottawa city councillor Chair the OPSB Diane Deans, Vice Chair Sandy Smallwood, Daljit Nirman, Dr. Beverly Johnson and Ottawa city councillors Rawlson King and Carol Anne Meehan (and their predecessors) have one of the worst records in Canada in dealing with police misconduct. That is not conjecture — it is fact. Look no further than the 20-million-plus taxpayers’ dollars the OPSB has doled out in the last five years for victim’s settlement and legal fees and related costs rather
The continuing swindle the OPSB is running to cover up the misconduct is worthy of a crime family. It works like this: suspend officers charged with crimes on full pay; wait for the court hearings to be over; use taxpayers’ dollars to pay out the victims and their lawyers and other associated fees and then give the offending officers a slap on the wrist and put them back on the job.
holding offending officers accountable for committing serious and often repugnant crimes.
The continuing swindle the OPSB is running to cover up the misconduct is worthy of a crime family. It works like this: suspend officers charged with crimes on full pay; wait for the court hearings to be over; use taxpayers’ dollars to pay out the victims and their lawyers and other associated fees and then give the offending officers a slap on the wrist and put them back on the job.
The collective gross incompetence of the OPSB can be measured by their inaction on multiple files where OPS cops have committed serious and at times violent crimes against both citizens and their fellow employees without consequences. The OPSB’s propensity to turn a blind eye to the victims of rape, sexual assault and misogyny have made them all accessories by default to the ongoing rape culture at the OPS. Despite having the power and resources to take action, they have behaved as meek cowards treating the brutalization of women as an internal human resource matter while allowing OPS Chief Peter Sloly to boss them around like children instead of telling him who’s the boss.
As apologists and enablers for the bad police involved in misconduct, Deans and the other board members have stained the reputation and credibility of the good police on the force whose pleas for help, they ignored. Good police like OPS Constable Nicole Gorham, an 18-year veteran of the OPS who took early retirement due to PTSD caused by years of unbridled sexual harassment and misogyny by OPS officers.
OPSB Chair Diane Deans has proven a farcical figure in her role as the whacky cheerleading apologist for the OPS. Incredibly, she continues to publicly praise Sloly and the OPS, despite the horrible record of misconduct. She blindly supports Sloly’s preponderance for secrecy and acts though she works for him. Deans has said nothing meaningful or substantive about the dozens of victims of the police misconduct or the OPS officer/employee who was allegedly raped by her superior. Both Deans and other board members have yet to explain how in the past five years the OPSB has paid out over $20 million in taxpayers’ dollars to cover damages for police misconduct Over 75 OPS officers have been criminally charged in the past seven years. Not one has been fired with cause.
Between 17 and 20 Ottawa Police officers are currently on suspension
with full pay and benefits despite being charged with criminal misconduct. The exact number is not known because Deans and the rest of the OPSB believe this information should be kept from the public. OLM estimates based on salary information, leave, vacation pay, and benefits estimates the cost to taxpayers in the city of Ottawa is well over $4 million this year alone.
There are now over 40 formal allegations against the OPS regarding misconduct, sexual abuse, and harassment. Due to misogynistic culture in the OPS, women who report their abusers are often met with silence or sexism, intimidation, and backlash. This systemic abuse has allowed police officers to get away with crimes against women, including rape, without having to fear punishment. Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly’s handling of the rampant misogyny in the force has been an unbridled disaster since he became Chief 18 months ago. After learning last March that OPS Deputy Chief Uday Jaswal was being charged with six counts of sexual misconduct it took Sloly and the OPSB ten days to remove him. Jaswal remains on suspension awaiting trial a year later with full pay and benefits. Following the Jaswal charges, 14 other female OPS employees came forward with complaints of sexual harassment, assault and misogyny. Sloly’s response to the additional accusations by his own employees was startling. On
May 25, 2020, he said that “unless women outside the police service were impacted, the names of the officers found guilty of wrongdoing against female counterparts should not be identified because it's an internal matter”.
Carleton criminologist and professor Darryl Davies, a recognized national expert on police misconduct told Ottawa Life
Magazine that Sloly’s comments were “outrageous, arrogant and beyond ignorant”. Davies said that,
‘clearly, Sloly doesn’t get it and is part of the problem. Rape and sexual assault are not an internal human resource matter. These are criminal matters and when Sloly did not immediately call for an outside independent investigation, Deans and the OPSB should have ordered him to do so or called one in themselves. It seriously brings into question issues related to Sloly’s judgement, temperament and management and leadership abilities,” said Davies, who added, “worse it is proof of the utter incompetence of the OPSB”.
Instead of acting, Deans and the OPSB took more of their stupid pills and followed Sloly's lead. Then reports surfaced of an OPS constable who claimed she had been raped by a senior constable in 2011. It was later disclosed that the allegations of rape were investigated and found to be credible. The OPSB and Sloly and the former OPS Chief Charles Bordeau all knew of the rape and took no action. To get justice the victim went outside the force and filed a human rights complaint and
legal action. Only after this, in August 2020 did Sloly finally suspended Const. Kevin Benloss on accusations that he allegedly raped a rookie colleague in 2011 Benloss has not been charged and remains suspended while receiving his full pay.
Then it was learned that another OPS officer named Peter Vanderzander, a cop a spotless 20-year record had run into the rath of both OPS deputy Chief Jaswal and Chief Peter Sloly prior to Jaswal being charged. Vanderzander spoke to Jaswal who was a superior and asked him to stop sexually harassing his spouse, who is also an OPS officer. When Jaswal did not stop, Vanderzander then confronted Sloly, Jaswal and other senior staff about the deplorable behaviour towards his wife, demanding it stop. He alleges that Sloly’s response was to professionally demean him, changing his shifts and docking his pay along with making him report to Jaswal. Vanderzander then filed a formal complaint against Sloly and the OPS with the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC). The OCPC are still investigating the complaint. Vanderzander has the full support of his spouse, OPS Constable Jennifer Vanderzander and many of his OPS colleagues.
In response to the rape and sexual misconduct allegations, OPS Chief Sloly and the OPSB hired a consultant to undertake an internal review. In December 2020, media reporting indicated that the consultation with police employees had determined that most OPS employees didn’t trust the Ottawa Police to handle its own complaints and asked specifically for a third party to be used. The OPSB then hired Janice Rubin and Rubin Thomlinson LLP for a six-month period to independently examine claims of sexual assault and sexual harassment within the police force.
Within a short period Rubin Thomlinson had received 21 inquiries and 14 complaints. However, the Ottawa Police Association complained that Chief Peter Sloly and OPS senior management had interfered in that independent process, rendering it tainted. They allege that the OPS had “screened out complaints” that should have been addressed by Rubin Thomlinson. The firm was expected to receive the complaints, screen them in or out and then investigate. Chief Sloly has yet explain to the public why complaints by OPS employees that are to be sent to a Rubin Thomlinson are first being vetted or ‘reviewed’ by the OPS Executive, prior to commencing their ‘independent’ investigation,” The Ottawa Police Association (union) says, “We have been advised that the OPS
Executive has, in fact, screened out complaints and investigations are not occurring. The union has already filed a grievance on the matter. “If true, it makes a mockery of the credibility, independence and veracity of the work of Rubin Thomlinson. When the program was launched in December the OSP claimed the investigator “will independently investigate all claims, maintaining confidentiality of parties” and that “information will only be disclosed where necessary for the purposes of managing or investigating the complaint, or as required by law.”
In the meantime, the carnage continues. These are just some of the OPS officers who have been charged with serious crimes and are suspended with full pay and benefits as they await trial. There are too many cases to print: • On February 12, 2021-an unnamed Ottawa police officer was suspended with pay from duty after being charged with domestic assault, mischief, and careless storage of a firearm. The OPS and OPSB refuse to release the officer’s name in order ‘to protect’ the victim’s identity. In a statement, the Ottawa Police Service says it, “takes the issue of violence against women very seriously.”
• On January 14,2021, OPS Const. Eric Post pleaded guilty to four charges of assault and one charge of uttering threats. Post was initially charged with 32 criminal offences involving seven women, including sexual assault, forcible confinement, and uttering threats. He pleaded guilty to assaulting four women he met online, as well as threatening to dispose of one woman's body. Post told her that if she ever cheated on him, he could dump her body in the water and get away with it because he's a police officer. Another woman said Post grabbed her by the neck and slapped her face when she tried to leave following an argument and that when she went to strike back,
Post told her she’d be assaulting a police officer.
Two of the assault charges involved
Post trying to prevent women from leaving. In those cases, he grabbed the women by their wrists. The fourth assault occurred when Post grabbed a woman by her neck and chin and told her he “did not know whether he wanted to choke her or kiss her.” One of the victims said she was worried about filing a complaint with the Ottawa police after a two-year relationship ended with Post because she feared he “would make her life, and the lives of those around her, hell.”
The original charges against Post included sexual assault and pointing a firearm against the same woman. In October 2018, Post was released on bail conditions including house arrest and a ban from online dating sites. The Crown and defence later brokered a plea deal. Despite several complaints being made against Post through the OPS professional standards section during his 18 years with the service, he
was never formally disciplined by the Ottawa Police. After his conviction, he was not immediately fired with cause and is still receiving full pay as he awaits sentencing.
• In July 2020, Constable Carl Keenan was convicted for a particularly brutal assault that occurred in December 2017 to his then girlfriend. He had been suspended with full pay by the Ottawa Police Service since the charge in 2017. He remains an officer with the OPS.
• In 2020, OPS Constable Jesse Hewitt is charged with nine counts of misconduct for taking videos of vulnerable women.
• In 2020, OPS Constable Yourick Brisebois-is charged with assault with a weapon and uttering threats.
• OPS Staff Sergeant Will Hinterberger is awaiting trial on 21 charges including sexual assault and forcible confinement.
• May 15, 2019, an Ottawa Police officer was charged by the OPP with assault and uttering death threats in relation to an alleged domestic incident. The OPSB and OPS Police did not release the man’s name in order ‘to protect’ the victim’s identity. The Ottawa Police Service Professional Standards Section is conducting its own investigation. It is not known if he is back on patrol or why the so-called investigation into the matter is taking so long.
Despite this shameful debacle, Deans and OPSB brain trust approved Sloly’s request for an additional $13.2 million to hire 31 more police officers in 2021 giving them the OPS a $332.5-million net operating budget in total. Sloly claimed he required the additional funds so he could meet OPS operational commitments. Neither Diane Deans nor any OPSB members thought to tell Sloly they would reject the request until he dealt with the 20 suspended OPS officers who are sitting at home getting fully paid to watch Netflix as they await trial. Not one of the OPSB members or city councillors has called for a fully independent audit of the OPS to ascertain how a city department can pay out over $20 million in victims’ settlements and related costs over just a few short years to cover up criminal police misconduct.
Ironically, it was Deans herself who constantly and very harshly criticized
Mayor Jim Watson, city staff and other councillors over a lack of transparency on the light rail transit file. Since being appointed Chair of the OPSB her preponderance for secrecy and not disclosing information to the public or hiding behind convenient rules created by her fellow politicians and police management to not disclose information would make her a star KGB agent. Her hypocrisy is only trumped by her vacuous behaviour and lack of understanding of her role as chair of the OPSB. Deans and the OPSB all seem to think they work for Chief Sloly — and this along speaks volumes about their utter incompetence. They do not seem to ‘get’ that he reports to them.
For his part, OPS Chief Peter Sloly has failed to gain any traction or trust for the OPS in the minority community who feel he betrayed them with his conduct over the Abdi case. He had the temerity to spin the yarn in a CJOH news interview with Graham Richardson after the verdict that Abdi Abdirahman had died of a heart attack. He refused to terminate Constable Daniel Montsion and has instead signaled that Constable Daniel Montsion will be returning to full duties as an OPS officer.
Paradoxically while completely denying any police responsibility for Abdi’s brutal beating death, Sloly and the OPSB then signed off on a settlement to the Abdi family in reportedly excess of $1 million taxpayers’ money, plus their legal fees. Both he and the OPSB have refused to disclose the full settlement amount to the public, saying it was confidential. On the same day, the OPSB announced the settlement with the Abdi family, the OPS presented a report to the
OPSB on how it would work with the public to develop a strategy, including consulting with Black,
Indigenous, LGBTQ+, and mental health advocacy groups.
The report was widely criticized by community members and mental health professionals who cited the high lack of trust between the public and police after numerous cases where police have used excessive force in dealing with people with mental health issues. Most groups declined to participate in the so-called guiding council that would inform the strategy.
Sloly’s response was to spin another yarn claiming that right now certain community organizations “did not have the time, the capacity or the resources” to sit on the guiding council. That was a blatant lie. The truth is that is that resources are scarce for these groups because the money they could have used was sucked up by the OPS to pay for 20 discredited and criminally charged officers to sit at home and collect full pay while Sloly then demanded and got another $13.5 million from taxpayers to hire 31 additional officers to cover the workload. That is in addition to the Abdi settlement and multiple other victims’ settlements in the past two years. Those alone total almost
The OPSB’s propensity to turn a blind eye to the victims of rape, sexual assault and misogyny have made them all accessories by default to the ongoing rape culture at the OPS . . . they have behaved as meek cowards treating the brutalization of women as an internal human resource matter. continued >> page 30
