By: Nichole Ekkert-Vine

A ward minutes from Parliament Hill is the most likely place in Ottawa for people to get assaulted, causing the Vanier Community Association to take special measures to combat what they say are ‘much needed improvements’.

Assaults Mapped By Ward
Source: Ottawa Open Data

In 2013, assault charges spiked at 714 cases in the Rideau-Vanier ward, 95% higher than any other ward according to an open data source from the City of Ottawa.

Source: Ottawa Open Data

The VCA is a community organization in the downtown region that, in addition to providing daily information services to residents, communicates with the Ottawa police and local organization Crime Prevention Vanier to help prevent danger in the area.

VCA Communications Officer Tara Jackson says it is the community liaison officer’s role to “work with many community organizations to better communicate with the police services, as well as helping those organizations understand things like incident reporting at any time of day.”

She also says that some of the bigger safety issues surrounding the downtown area are issues of late-night transportation routes that could use a few changes.

“As an urban neighbourhood close to the downtown core, we still have many streets without street lamps or sidewalks, so we continue to work with the city to bring these much-needed improvements,” says Jackson.

“This infrastructure support would go a long way to improving overall safety in the neighbourhood. In cases where there are street lights, where they occasionally burn out, we educate residents on how to communicate this issue to the city so that they can be rectified immediately.”

Source: Ottawa Open Data

On a similar note, OC Transpo has been taking recent action to combat issues surrounding public safety and transportation.

Troy Charter is the assistant general manager of the transit operations division. He says many of the programs OC Transpo has are aimed at maintaining public safety and “combating violent behaviour in all its forms.”

In cases such as the Transecure and SafeStop programs, OC Transpo has made effort to reduce the risk of danger or assault to their commuters.

“Operators are expected to use their best judgment and accommodate all requests by finding a place as close as possible to that requested where the customer can safely exit the bus,” says Charter.

“OC Transpo and Ottawa Police Services have also been working together on regular joint zero-tolerance blitzes with respect to criminal activity and conduct issues.”

Charter says these ‘safety blitzes’ are usually done on Friday and Saturday nights when ridership is at its highest, and consist of everything from checking proof of payment to laying drug and alcohol charges in and around transportation areas.

He says this is just one of many ways that OC Transpo has recently worked with Ottawa police to crack down on crime and assault in the downtown core.

Rideau-Vanier councillor candidate Marc Vinette agrees that lack of safety downtown is a concern, and something he has first-hand experience with.

“I see some crazy shit which is but a fraction of what I hear from local merchants and residents,” says Vinette.

“Rideau-Vanier has a lot of assaults because there are a lot of wasted people. The ones on illegal drugs prey on drinkers. So do gangs, of which there are many.”

To rectify the issues of safety in the ward, Vinette says that elected or not, he wants the city to stop focusing on the topic of assault awareness and start teaching children at a young age the necessary tools they need to defend themselves physically and psychologically.

He agrees with what he calls the ‘obvious solutions’ such as better lighting for walkways and more foot patrol on the streets, however what he wants to do to combat rising assault rates in the area is to teach children what they don’t learn in school.

“The first lesson will be situational awareness. Practicing the lesson will lower your chance of victimhood to near nil,” says Vinette.

“Pretty soon, you’ll see a drop in assaults. Sound trite? If so, you’re selling yourself short.”