OPS: Market Office Takes 1.5 Years To Accept Public

Published 12/19/2023 · Updated 12/19/2023

whopper.watch .12.26

“We have a lot of objectives that we want to meet in the first year of opening up this building and what we want to accomplish, not only with the building, but also with the community and the ByWard Market. If it’s solidified and we have a very good process, then we will move on to phase 2. How long that takes, in terms of phase 1, it may take a year, it may take 18 months, but we have to assess after we’ve been up and running for a little while.”

Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs on his new Rideau Centre operation

How can a police community office be “up and running” but not accepting the public? That’s easy. The police Rideau Centre digs are for the police, not the public.

Worth noting too is that one of the reasons Stubbs says the public won’t be able to go there is because of “staffing issues.” What kind of staffing issues? Well who knows. Looks more like a convenient excuse.

Given the track record of our Ottawa Police Service and its oversight partner the Ottawa Police Services Board, maybe the police, as per form, don’t want people there. Were they people-oriented, OPS would have a spot on the street in the ByWard Market, instead of the Rideau Centre. Is there a Timmy’s in the mall? And what’s the next excuse? An outbreak of chafing? Dandruff? Hangnail?

Between the OPS and the OPSB, the organizations appear to be content to operate as much as they can in private. You know, the public is so messy.

That’s a police operation in crisis. And the biggest crisis they have is their inability to deal with the public. Their efficacy and public relations are abysmal.

Need an example? Try this on for size. Look through the agenda for the OPSB and you’ll see that two of the most popular words in it are “no” and “consultation,” as in no public consultation.

They’ve closed down the OPSB so thoroughly that community groups are taking the board to court because they feel their charter rights are being broken. Yet another lesson in the smooth relationship with the community of the police and its noversight body.

Another interesting feature of the OPSB is that at its meetings, the chief’s report is verbal. So no written record. That’s why former mayor Jim Watson started keeping records of city meetings by video rather than writing.

Efficiency, Watson said. Efficiency 100 per cent. Efficacy zero.

You know why? You can’t Google video.

We learned from the provincial LRT inquiry how open, caring and inclusive the city is.

Don’t think for a second that what citizens saw was confined to LRT.

We have the only police service and city government that’s scared of the people.

Ken Gray

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