OTTAWA-TAKE BACK CITY HALL 

POLICING — I witnessed police being aggressive and even violent towards the homeless for congregating with their friends, sleeping outside and panhandling between 2002-2005. Non of these activities are illegal but the homeless were ticketed and jail nontheless. I call this the criminalization of the homeless.

The so called Safe Streets Act (SSA) made it illegal to panhandle aggressively. But in Ottawa this was not good enough. Ottawa Police enforced this SSA against all panhandling.

For example the SSA makes it illegal to solicite a person who is using a pay phone, waiting for a bus or sitting in a parked car ie soliciting a captive audience. Police however use this to ticket persons for soliciting "near" a bus stop pay phone , parked car. They ticket and arrest these homeless persons (mostly young kids) up to two blocks away claiming they are soliciting near whatever. Well it is not hard to see that with this overzealous interpretation panhandling is illegally prohibited in all the downtown core.

In 2003 as a form of protest to try and draw public attention on this problem with hopes of rectification I gave up my home to live on the streets of Ottawa for 4 months. I set up a protest under the bridge at the corner of Rideau and Sussex.

I got to experience first hand how homeless people were treated by the City of Ottawa and by Ottawa Police Services. It was so horrendous that we should all be ashamed it was happening in our community.

Police were beating them taking their bags away from them and refusing to return it. They were constantly harassed, ticketed and jailed (illegally)  for congregating with their friends, sleeping out side or panhandling.

During that time I was subject to the same treatment as these street involved persons experienced. I was kicked, harassed, intimated, provoked, called all kinds of fouls names, my property was seized and not returned and ultimately I was violently falsely arrested for mischief. I was found not guilty of mischief in November 2005 after a two and 1/2 year prosecution period and a 7 days trial. The judge found the police testimony "problematic". video of arrest

The vast majority of the youth on the street are from the fostercare system 70%. All the kids trapped on the street have come from tremendous trauma. They need support not more abuse. Yes they are acting out and their behaviour is not always social. But if we want to actually solve the problem not make it worse we need to take appropriate effective measures to address the situaiton.

In 2004 I initiated another Homeless Action Strike on the lawn of city hall because the city had illegally shut the protest down at the Terry Fox Bridge with my illegal arrest and barring from the area. I was again illegally arrested in 2004 and this time jailed for my involvment in this peacefull non obstructive protest. But this time the homeless carried the ball and continued the protest for another month and half until the mayor agreed to set up a task force to investigate their complaints. The protesters agreed to shut down the protest on August 28, 2004 but the mayor shut it down on August 27 so that the public would not learn of the success the homeless had in negotiating the task force.

HUMANE PUBLIC POLCY

What will I do as mayor to rectify problems with policing in Ottawa?

I  will vigorously pursue the establishment of a local Office of the Ispector General that will handle complaints regarding misconduct of Ottawa Police. And all such illegal treatment of Citizens will be addressed under this process.

Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

As well the OIG can handle complains of systemic bias, sexism, racism, homophobia etc.

Because of public pressure there were some positive changes following the Homeless Action Strikes of 2003 and 2004 that resulted in the homeless negotiating for task force to invetigate their complaints of mistreatment. For example the Ontario Works office now processes their applications effectively and even offers personal support workers if there are issues of drug use. And the city funded drop-in centres are now mandated to advocate actively with a case management approach for their clients and are doing a bang up job of get these kids into housing; the housing register no longer discriminates against street involved persons and the police although they are still harassing them are no longer beating them and stealing their bags. We still have a ways to go but there needs to be changes in the basic operations of the City Hall process before we can get humane public policy and accountability in place. We need to replace the mayor and and the mean spirited councillors before we can have justice and fairness in local politics.