Most Rideau-Vanier residents feel unsafe after dark, according to an Ottawa Police Service 2016 public survey. Only 44 per cent of those surveyed said that they felt safe at night in Rideau-Vanier, compared to the 70 per cent Ottawa average. Anna Hayward, a Vanier resident, says she can relate to that feeling of uneasiness in the area once the sun goes down.

“There is a reason why I tried to schedule only morning and afternoon classes this year,” said Hayward.

Anna Hayward, 22, says she often feels unsafe in Vanier at night, because of the area’s reputation (Provided).

Hayward is a Toronto-native who is living in Ottawa while she finishes her political science studies at the University of Ottawa. While she says that she has not had anything “terrible” happen to her during her time living in the area, Hayward is firm about her apprehension with being out at night in Vanier, especially alone.

The 2012 Ottawa Police Service public survey indicates that not much has changed in the feeling of safety in Vanier after dark. That year, only 40 per cent of those surveyed said that they felt safe walking alone at night in the area.

“You just can sometimes feel vulnerable in the area, knowing the kinds of things that you hear about happening in Vanier and at the same time not knowing what could happen,” said Hayward.

There is some shouting that can be heard from outside of Hayward’s Vanier apartment complex, but it is the afternoon and it is just the neighbourhood kids walking home from school.

Rideau-Vanier saw an 11 per cent increase in crime rate between 2015 and 2016, according to the Ottawa Police Service. Rideau-Vanier, Ottawa’s 12th ward, had a total of 5,331 reported crimes in 2016. That is an increase of nearly 600 reported crimes from the year before. Despite the increase however, there are those in the community that believe the area is improving its safety.

“I think Vanier has improved and the people that live here really care about it,” said Helena Arruda, the director of counselling and community development at the Vanier Community Service Centre.

The centre has been working with the Vanier community for over 35 years and according to Arruda, safety has remained a primary concern. This includes working closely with Crime Prevention Vanier, a group of community leaders that meet on a regular basis to discuss how to make the area safer. Along with the Vanier Community Service Centre, Crime Prevention Vanier works on beautification of the area’s neighbourhoods and encourages citizens to start their own neighbourhood watches.

“It is something we have to continue to work on so that Vanier is somewhere people want to live,” said Arruda.

In addition to the overall increase in crime rate, there was an increase of more than 100 break and enter cases between 2015 and 2016. Going back to the 2016 public survey, 71 per cent of those surveyed from Vanier were concerned with break and enters in the area, compared to the city average of 55 per cent.

Arruda says that Vanier’s reputation as a “shady” area of Ottawa has been difficult to shake, but that the right systems are in place to make people see Vanier differently.

That includes Rideau-Vanier City Councillor Mathieu Fleury, who was unable to speak for this story because of the tabling of his office’s new budget last week.

Between Fleury’s office, the Ottawa Police Service, and the various Rideau-Vanier community groups, there is a sense of unity that Arruda thinks will yield tangible results.

“To have a safe community and to have a strong community, you have to work together. I think that is what we are doing,” said Arruda.

In a country that prides itself on its diversity, a small Ottawa community is leading the way in the nation’s capital, according to an analysis of 2016 Census data.

Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge is a group of neighbourhoods located south of Barrhaven, an Ottawa suburb. Previously referred to as “New Barrhaven”, the newly-developed area saw the highest population growth out any of any Census tract in the Ottawa-Gatineau area between 2011 and 2016. The overall population of Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge more than doubled. That is an increase of over 8,000 people, more than half of which was made-up of visible minorities.

The map below is zoomed in on the Ottawa Census tracts. The dark colours represent the areas of highest increase of visible minorities in population between the years 2011 and 2016.

The city of Ottawa’s municipal boundary titles are layered on top of the Census tracts to better-show the tracts locations in the region.

Clicking inside the Census tract boundaries produces a pop-up box with the number of visible minorities in the area for 2011 and 2016, along with the increase or decrease between the years. Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge is located south of the Gloucester-South Nepean title on the map.

Source: Statistics Canada

Despite being Ottawa-Gatineau’s highest growing tract in population, Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge, geographically, only makes up less than 0.5% of the region. (A surface area of under 29km², compared to Ottawa-Gatineau’s 6,700 km²).

Zijad Delic, an Imam at the SNMC Mosque and Muslim community organization in Barrhaven, describes the area as “safe, family-oriented”.

“Ottawa is one of those unique cities. The multiculturalism is very established,” said Delic.

During the five-year span between the 2011 and 2016 censuses, the area’s visible minorities population grew by over 4200 people. The number of visible minorities living in Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge was up to 7220 as of last year, the most living in any one census tract in the Ottawa-Gatineau Area.

Imam Zijad Delic has lived in the Ottawa area for over a decade and says its diversity and acceptance has improved greatly in recent years. (Provided)

Although SNMC is located just outside of the Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge area (about a ten-minute drive away), Imam Zijad says that he has noticed Ottawa’s diversity grow in suburban communities like it over the last five-to-six years.

“Diversity has become a trademark of this community,” said Delic.

The biggest demographic of visible minorities in the area is South Asian (1920 people), which grew by nearly 1200. The area also saw an increase of almost 3000 immigrants during the five-year span.

“Canadian diversity is very unique. It is managed fairly on the national level through multicultural policies that provinces, and then the municipalities, have taken mostly well,” said Delic.

A driving factor behind its increase in population is the area’s recent urban development, says the City of Ottawa’s Planning and Development Office.

According to Royce Fu, a City of Ottawa planner, the census tract is part of an area that accounted for nearly a fifth of Ottawa-Gatineau’s development between 2011-2016. The city planner’s office tracks development by sub-area. The sub-area that is made-up of Half Moon Bay-Stoneridge and Barrhaven, called “South Nepean”, accounted for 18% of the region’s new housing units.

“From year-end 2011 to year-end 2016, South Nepean was the fourth largest growing sub-area behind Leitrim, Riverside South, and the Central Area,” said Fu.

According to Fu, South Nepean is still one of Ottawa’s highest developing areas. In the first half of 2017, the area accounted for over 15% of the region’s development.

Between the two Census years, Ottawa as a whole saw an increase in about 45,000 people who identified themselves as visual minorities. The area now has a visible minority population of over 280,000, meaning about one in five of the overall Ottawa population.

“By the nature of being the capital, if Ottawa is not going to embody diversity, then who else will?” said Delic.

Two Ottawa tattoo businesses ranked in the bottom five of health inspection violations so far in 2017, according to an analysis of Ottawa Health Inspection data.

Future Skin Tattoo and Body Piercing Services (176 violations) and Ink City Tattoos and Piercings (152) tallied the third and fifth most failed health inspections respectively through the first nine months of the year.

The businesses that have ranked first, second, and fourth in violations so far this year are restaurant chains Tim Horton’s, McDonald’s and Subway. While all three of those restaurant businesses have several locations across Ottawa, both Future Skin and Ink City only have one location each. The two tattoo parlours were located about a block away from one another on Rideau Street, before Ink City closed its doors earlier this fall for unknown reasons.

Julie Beaule, the owner of Future Skin, says that despite the vast number of violations so far this year, inspections have never slowed or stopped her business.

“Getting a warning from the health board is not scary, it is normal,” said Beaule.

The Ottawa health board issues warnings on violations found during their inspections and, depending on the severity of the violation, will give a business time to rectify the mistake in their standards and procedures. An investigator will then return to make sure that the business has remedied the violation(s).

“If a tattoo place is worried about the health board, then it means that there is a big problem there. Maybe they are not doing the right procedures”, said Beaule.

The city requires at least one in-person inspection per year, but could show up at tattoo businesses’ doorsteps more often if there have been issues with violations. Tattoo parlours are also required to have their autoclave machines tested for spores by an outside company, and then submitted to the city, every two weeks.

An autoclave is a pressure chamber that uses air to sterilize tattooing equipment and supplies. Future Skin has yet fail an autoclave spore test this year. According to Beaule, who has two autoclaves, the machines tend to cost as much as $20,000 to purchase brand-new.

Veronica Piasta, an employee who has experience with sterilization at Silverline Tattoo and Body Piercing on Rideau Street who has experience sterilizing, says that new standards have had an impact on Ottawa’s tattoo businesses, but not a negative one. Needles used for tattooing and piercing have almost always been one-use then thrown out, but now businesses have shifted even more of their equipment towards disposable because it is a cheaper alternative.

“We have never really had any issues with inspections,” said Piasta. “More failed inspections usually means [workers are] not as experienced in standards and practice. We have been in the business for a long time and we are pretty knowledgeable in cross-contamination and blood-borne pathogens.”

Beaule has owned Future Skin for nearly 25 years. A native of Quebec, Beaule says that Ontario’s high public health standards should be the archetype for a behind-the-times Quebec, as well as for the rest of Canada.

“The Government [of Ontario] is very caring about its population and it is a good thing,” said Beaule.

Beaule describes the relationship between tattoo businesses and Ottawa Public Health as one of cooperation and growth. New standards and measures are adopted every year and the result is an improved tattoo and piercing sector. She says that she appreciates the health board’s role in protecting businesses and the population.

“Everything in life comes with responsibility. If my shop isn’t doing what we are supposed to be doing, then I hope the health board would shut us down,” said Beaule.

This is a test post from Liam Fox.