Security: What Autocratic Gov’t Looks Like: GRAY

People do things because they believe they are necessary and have good reasons for them.

You fix the roof of your home because it’s worn out and could spring a leak. You change your car tires because they will be a hazard if they can’t get a good grip.

You also do something because you believe it will achieve the desired result.

So why is the City of Ottawa erecting draconian security at city hall and closing a popular entrance to the building? Get a grip.

The public … it is our building after all, at least theoretically if not in practice … needs to hear a good reason for the added security to our building and the municipal government is not providing one. Instead, it is hiding behind an in camera meeting that gives the impression of a threat and gags councillors from commenting on security in public.

Give residents a good reason for the security and the residents will buy it. Don’t give them a reason and they don’t buy it. Very simple.

But increasingly the public doesn’t matter to our municipal government.

Take this security example. No public, committee or council debate. No public consultations. No rational reason for the security. The city refuses to answer questions on security and hides behind an obscure report. The media, as representatives of the public, at least demand the courtesy of an answer.

The city won’t say what incident prompted this measure so we can only conclude there wasn’t one. No evidence to the contrary. Maybe all this is the result of some wee staffer trying to get an A on their report card. Or senior management trying to prove it’s not an incompetent, self-interested group of fools as light rail, Lansdowne, the proposed too-small arena, the new over-budget central library, the appalling condition of our roads, the butchered bus system, the secret LRT lawsuit situation, the misallocated road-safety-camera money, a botched and rushed e-bus initiative and unlimited other examples show. They’ve got a long way to go to show the public the contrary.

Instead staff justifies the unjustifiable by referring the media to a report. You can get a report to say whatever you want. Consultants know that. That’s why they say what their clients appear to want. And like interests … the consultants want work in the future. You get that by giving the client what they want. Hey, a consultant needs to fix their roof, too.

And what good is the security anyway. A person with a gun won’t be stopped by a scanning device. They just pull the gun. What will unarmed security do? Call in a psychologist because the gunman obviously needs counselling? Parliament Hill proved how effective entrance security was. A gunman went through it like butter. With city security, how many bystanders will be killed or wounded unnecessarily at a scanning-machine line-up. More than in the Westboro bus crash?

Staff gives the reason that Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton have security so it must be right. All that proves is the majority of municipalities apparently don’t have doorway security. Wonder why? Maybe Toronto was trying to achieve world-class security in a so-called world-class city whose description only reinforces a world-class inferiority complex. Well the City of Ottawa isn’t world class as its world-class transit system shows every day. So maybe Ottawa doesn’t need world-class Toronto security. Maybe it doesn’t work. Certainly, it costs money and if staff and council are good at anything, it is misspending billions of dollars.

Furthermore, Ottawa City Hall was designed to be a people place. Thousands of residents walked through it on their way to work. High school bands used to play there at noon. Public meetings took place. So too little demonstrations in rare shows of municipal interest. At least the apathetic people walking through got a small sniff of civic Ottawa demonocracy in action. Come to think of it, maybe it’s better it’s closed. We live in hope of democracy at city hall.

When the amalgamated City of Ottawa was created in 2001, its much-used slogan was open, caring and inclusive. Such descriptors have disappeared.

The remodelled City of Ottawa is secretive, exclusive, autocratic and will do most everything it can to empire-build and ensure smooth-re-election in a small outburst of democracy every four years. And it demonstrably works as repeated incumbency shows.

Then for three years and 364 days, you get a closed club where the moneyed and the connected hold sway and where the public is left blissfully ignorant of the machinations of Ottawa municipal government until another gross and transparent screw-up occurs,

And those happen often enough to show what secretive, exclusive and uncaring autocracy brings.

Ken Gray is an award-winning journalist who worked at five major Canadian newspapers. He is an educator, broadcaster and at present is the editor and founder of the 16-year-old pioneering internet publication, The Bulldog.

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