Do Your Damn Job OPS: WHOPPER WATCH
“I understand and respect the perception that may exist, but I think we have to look at all of the information and understand what’s happening before we rush to judgment on these kinds of things.”
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on bylaw being told by police not to issue tickets to convoy protesters
Well Your Worship, difficult to get all the information when the Ottawa Police Parking Concierge Service at last word won’t answer calls from CTV News.
That’s not a rush to judgment. That’s an obstruction of the information to produce a full story on what happened at the convoy anniversary protest. Possibly as a former journalist you could remind the parking service that it has a responsibility to keep the public informed about its actions … even when it is embarrassing … or wrong.
So isn’t it interesting that tickets are issued to Palestinian protesters but not to convoy protest participants. And when did it become legal to set off big fireworks in a downtown street? No tickets for that.
Let’s put this all together now. Bylaw says its officers were told not to issue parking tickets to convoy celebrants. The mayor is suggesting no rush to judgment. The protesters got away with at least fireworks bylaw infractions … probably more. And the police aren’t talking.
And let’s see, members of the OPS were known to have convoy sympathies and some worked at counter-purposes to their orders in the original protest. That’s a violation of the rule of law.
Here’s more … at the same time now, a group of Ontario police officers are mounting a court challenge to Ontario pandemic rules … a sore point of those in the convoy.
So, for fear of rushing to judgment, possibly the senior officers at the OPS could issue a stern warning to its rank-and-file to uphold the rule of law equally among people … even the people the police support. And if they don’t do it, fire them.
Police actions like these at this current convoy protest are how the original convoy turned into an enormous mess viewed by people around the world. That resulted in laws being broken left and right and calling in officers from other forces because the OPS was incapable of doing its job.
That protest interfered with people’s rights downtown.
In other words, do your job OPS. Of course, the police will argue they know better. Or at least they would if they were talking. It’s obvious by their actions they do not. Frankly, they look like a group of under-educated and over-politicized zealots.
How can you rush to judgment, Your Worship, when the police won’t talk. Get the OPS in line. You’re on the Ottawa Police Services Board. Do something.
The OPS wants no judgment because, by all appearance, the police were in the wrong.
So here’s some advice from a law-abiding citizen. Stuff your political views in your locker at the station when you’re at work and do your damn job.
Ken Gray
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Ken, What a total shemozzle the OPS involvement was! Although I don’t live in the downtown area, I was appalled at how cretinous that convoy mob was and at how useless the police were in handling them. The rest of our country must have been disgusted by their ineptitude, not to mention the rest of the world. Yes! There absolutely needs to be accountability, with a list of lessons learned, if only to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.
Hear hear!
The mayor would have been better off keeping his mouth shut instead of making mealy-mouthed comments like the above.
Sometimes, Mr. Mayor, the perception that “may exist” actually is the reality. Your job is to identify the reality and share it with us so we can determine how closely related perception and reality really are. You are almost always better served by getting the truth out before people get other information that you will then have to disprove.
That’s particularly the case when the perception is consistent with what has been proven in the past to be the truth. This is mainly an issue because we have no trouble, based on past behaviour, in believing what you’re describing as a perception. If the OPS had not had serious and egregious misdeeds on record, many in the last couple of years, we might not embrace the probability that they are again stepping over the line. Some of those misdeeds were related to the so-called “Freedom Convoy” as is the issue now before us. With their record, it’s up to them to demonstrate to the community that they are doing their job properly, not the other way around.
Usually, if it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, it’s a duck but sometimes it’s a police officer. The police, by their own behaviour, have ceded their automatic right not to be assumed to be ducks.
If you have something solid to contribute to the discussion, by all means put it on the table. If all you were doing was trying to deflect our attention, you’ve succeeded in drawing more attention. I look forward to your providing all the information that will allow us to fully understand what happened. I trust you’ll be doing that quickly so we can determine where truth and perception meet or diverge from each other. I’m sure you’ll also be scrutinizing this issue carefully in your role as member of the Ottawa Police Services Board where you are responsible for oversight of the police.
I didn’t think it was possible for the OPS to do less than the required bare minimum… I was wrong. Did they not realize that Ottawa’s citizens were expecting protection and at least some effort at enforcement? The Mayor’s comments were disappointing and not what the city should expect from a leader. It is really unfortunate that so many people in Ottawa listened to AM radio during the election campaign. We needed a leader not a disk jockey.
Theresa. I used to live in British Columbia. Many people from all the western provinces also live in BC as well as some Ontarians who have joined the crowd. Have you ever heard the chant “Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark” Don’t kid yourself about how disgusted the rest of the country feels when Ottawa falls flat on its face. They revel in it.