A drastically higher rate of bail violations in Somerset ward compared to other Ottawa wards can be explained primarily by the location of the city’s courthouse and police station, according to Ottawa police.

Somerset Ward – an area of downtown Ottawa framed by the Rideau Canal to the east, the Ottawa River to the north, the O-Train track to the west and the 417 to the south – had a rate of just over 15 bail violations per 1000 residents in 2013, according to an analysis of police crime statistics. The next highest rate was Rideau-Vanier, at 6.4 violations per 1000 residents. Excluding Somerset, the average rate of all wards was 0.87.

The Somerset number is inflated because Ottawa’s courthouse and police station are both located in the ward, explained Ottawa Police spokesperson Cst. Marc Soucy.

Whenever someone appears in court and is not obeying their court conditions, and more charges are laid, the address of the courthouse is used, said Soucy. Same thing goes if they are arrested and brought to the police station and violating their bail conditions, the address of the police station is used.

“When they’re charged with their bail violation, they’re either at the court or here,” said Soucy. “So that’s the address we’ll use for the call.”

Some of the more common types of bail violations are failure to keep the peace, not attending bail appointments, violating non-communication orders and consuming alcohol or drugs, said Sue Morse, senior bail supervisor for the John Howard Society of Ottawa.

The John Howard Society of Ottawa provides a variety of social services for Ottawa residents that qualify. These services extend from legal advice, finding housing, finding employment and various other social services, said Morse.

“It’s to help them better their life while they’re on bail,” she added.

Stuart Konyer, president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa, said other factors may play into the high number of bail violations in Somerset ward, such as addiction and mental health issues.

“You’re seeing a lot of people with addiction issues who get released on bail with conditions that are extremely difficult to follow, like addicts released on bail with the condition not to drink, and drug addicts with conditions not to use, and that sort of thing,” said Konyer. “And those are often the people we see back for breaching bail conditions.”

Konyer and Morse agree that bail conditions are generally too restrictive, and the best way to reduce violations is to be more lenient and understanding when setting these restrictions.

When someone is charged with a crime, there is supposed to be a presumption of innocence, and they should be released until they have their day in court, said Konyer, but we’re seeing an increase in the strictness of bail restrictions over time.

“The idea of bail conditions is that they’re supposed to protect the community from undue risk, but we see house arrest, curfews, alcohol prohibitions in cases where, in my view, it isn’t warranted,” he said. “So there’s an excessive use of really restrictive bail conditions that leads to more breaches.”

Konyer said this “culture” of more restrictive bail conditions has been slowly growing over time. It’s a culture of risk-aversion that is setting people up to fail.

“No one wants to be the Crown who agreed to release the guy on a domestic charge who goes back and is in the paper because he killed the girl the next week or something,” said Konyer. “So when they do release, oftentimes it’s with really strict conditions that are difficult to follow.”

Instances of counterfeiting currency nearly tripled in Ottawa between 2012 and 2013, a number that might signal a last push by criminals to counterfeit paper bank notes before they are completely replaced by new, more secure polymer notes.

There were 162 reported instances of counterfeit currency in Ottawa in 2013, compared to 66 in 2012, according to data compiled by Ottawa police. The wards with the highest instances in 2013 were Bay, with 21, followed by Somerset, with 18.

Those rates matched national numbers by the RCMP, which saw a slight increase in the number of counterfeit notes passed in 2013 compared to 2012.

The introduction of polymer banknotes in Canada in late 2012 and 2013 may factor in to the rise. Marie Terrien, a senior analyst at the Bank of Canada, said the new notes have pushed would-be counterfeiters to target old paper notes, as the security features on the polymer notes are harder to reproduce.

Out of a million notes, 29 were counterfeits in 2013, Terrien said. Although she declined to comment on the Ottawa data beyond saying counterfeiting wasn’t an issue in Ottawa, she said the rate of counterfeiting of polymer notes compared to paper ones was very small.

“Once we introduce new bank notes, the counterfeiters usually target the outgoing series. That’s what we’re seeing right now. The vast majority of counterfeiting is on paper bank notes,” she said.

As the bank introduces polymer notes, the paper ones are taken out of circulation, which means there’s a limit on how much longer paper notes can be counterfeited, Terrien said.

“Pretty soon we’ll just be left with polymer notes,” she said.

Though the number of counterfeiting incidents changed dramatically, the rate of solvency did not. In both 2012 and 2013, counterfeiting was the second least-solved crime in Ottawa, second only to failure to stop and remain. Out of the 162 instances in 2013, 13 were solved, a solvency rate of about eight per cent. In 2012 the solvency rate was about six per cent.

Ronald Melchers, a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa, said the nature of how counterfeiting is reported to police makes it harder to solve.

“[Police] report instances when a bank or business reports a counterfeit bill, and not necessarily when they’re investigating,” Melchers said.

Another important note about the numbers, Melchers said, is that the total number of instances is comparatively small, making changes harder to track. While there were 162 cases of counterfeiting in 2013, by comparison there were over 2000 instances of breaking and entering. Melchers said when categories with small numbers like counterfeiting see changes, they are usually much more noticeable.

“They go up or down … those kinds of things vary. When you track numbers that small, we don’t draw conclusion, really,” he said.

Instances of counterfeiting can spike in certain seasons, according to Christine Leadman, executive director of the Downtown Bank Street Business Improvement Area, which is in the Somerset ward, one of the wards with the highest number of reported counterfeits.

The Ottawa police data is divided by year, which doesn’t allow for an analysis by season. But anecdotally, Leadman said, she’s seen instances of counterfeiting spike in the holiday season.

“It’s important that (businesses are) more attentive, (and) that the part-time and seasonal staff they hire are trained as well,” Leadman said.

Terrien said it’s important for consumers to check if bills they are handed are counterfeit, and if they are hand them back immediately.

“Don’t try to pass it somewhere else, because that’s illegal. That’s knowingly passing a counterfeit,” she said.

“The best protection is to check your note,” she said.

Three used vehicles parked at the Triole Auto Sales used car dealership in Somerset. General Manager Kasey Elayouti said these cars have been thoroughly screened to make sure they are not stolen vehicles. (Photo credit: Beatrice Britneff)

While incidents of vehicle theft decreased across most of Ottawa between 2012 and 2013, car theft increased significantly in the city’s core.

According to an analysis of data published by the Ottawa Police Service, auto theft increased 37 per cent in 2013  in Somerset — a ward that covers the neighbourhoods of Centretown, Chinatown, Little Italy, and downtown Ottawa.

Although Somerset wasn’t the ward that experienced the highest number of stolen cars in 2013, it placed third on the list of wards with the highest rate of stolen vehicles, behind Beacon Hill-Cyrville and Alta Vista.

(Analysis and heat map by Beatrice Britneff)

Numerous requests to interview Ottawa police about the spike in Somerset auto theft were ignored.

While unsure of a concrete reason why car theft in downtown Ottawa increased last year, Kasey Elayouti, a used car dealer, said he thinks there’s simply more opportunities to steal a car in a busy area of town than in suburban neighbourhoods.

“Downtown is more hectic… more people, more cars parked in the streets,” said Elayouti, who manages family-owned Triole Auto Sales, located on Bronson Avenue near Chinatown.

Ottawa police told the CBC three months ago that organized crime rings could be responsible for the theft of dozens of luxury cars in Ottawa this past year. Police also said at least two organized auto theft gangs are operating in the capital.

There are also thieves who act alone, according to Terry O’Keefe, director of communications for the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council, an association that regulates registered car dealers across the province.

O’Keefe said stolen cars can end up in different places depending on who snatched them.

If organized crime is behind the theft, O’Keefe said there’s a good chance those cars will quickly end up in a “chop shop” — where vehicles are stripped for parts to be sold separately — or loaded into containers and shipped overseas to Eastern Europe or Africa.

O’Keefe said a lone thief usually steals car to get somewhere — commonly referred to as “joyriding” — or for quick cash, in which case he or she will try to sell the vehicle to a used car dealership or an unsuspecting buyer.

However, O’Keefe said it’s rare that a stolen vehicle makes it into registered car dealer’s lot. He said dealers conduct several background checks, which include matching the seller’s name to the vehicle’s registration certificate, searching for debts on the car, and running a vehicle history report to find out whether it was involved in an accident.

“There’s a lot of due diligence done by dealers,” O’Keefe said.

Although Elayouti said he hasn’t had a stolen car go through his lot, he said that an amazing bargain is also a good indicator of a stolen vehicle.

“If the deal is too good to be true, then red flags should go up,” he said.

But Elayouti said these screenings aren’t perfect and determined thieves can find room to get away with their crimes.

“Nothing is bullet-proof,” he said. “There’s always cracks here and there.”

While some thieves will take off with whatever car they can get, O’Keefe says some — particularly gangs — look for specific models.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada — a national association representing Canada’s private business, home and car insurers— publishes a list of the most popular stolen vehicles every year. According to their website, the top stolen cars of 2013 include specific Honda, Ford, Cadillac and Acura models.

Car theft also increased 15 per cent and 7 per cent in the Gloucester-South Nepean and Bay wards, respectively, in 2013. Ottawa’s other 20 wards either saw the number of auto theft incidents decrease or remain stable.

According to the Ottawa police’s annual crime statistics, 997 vehicles were reported stolen in 2013, down from 1249 the year before.

Somerset 2012-2013 Crime Trends for City of Ottawa (Text)

While you’re four times more likely to have your laptop stolen in Bay ward than you are in Osgoode, you’re also almost seven times more likely to get it back.

An analysis of data from the City of Ottawa shows that the farther you live from the downtown core, the less likely the police are to solve a crime that you report.

The widest disparity is for thefts valued at $5,000 and less. In the city centre, the chances of police recovering your property hover between 35 and 50 per cent, with Bay ward tipping the scales at 53 per cent.

In the rural wards, theft solvency drops severely. In Osgoode, victims of theft have only an eight per cent chance of seeing their belongings again.

Those aren’t good odds, but city council candidates in the area say they aren’t overly concerned.

“Petty theft isn’t much of an issue in our ward. We don’t get a lot of it here because there aren’t any drug users stealing stuff to fence,” said Liam Maguire, a city council candidate for Osgoode.

“We’d like to see more police presence in terms of clamping down on speeding and traffic, but if you steal a laptop in Osgoode, you’re more likely to be caught by your neighbors than you are by the cops,” Maguire said.

Kim Sheldrick, another candidate for Osgoode, agreed.

“Some people do have that old country mentality that we look out for each other, but I’d like to see more patrols out here,” she said.

“Where I live, I’m much closer to the edge of the city limits than I am to downtown, so it’s not necessarily people from Ottawa who commit crimes here. It could be someone from out of town,” Sheldrick said.

The city’s police services board refused to comment on this story. The Ottawa Police did not return a request for comment by press time.

Minor theft accounts for around half of all the crime reported in Ottawa in a given year. Over all, property crime is decreasing in the city. There was a 16 per cent drop in thefts both over and under $5,000 in 2013, according to the Ottawa Police annual report.

Although occurring at much lower rates than minor theft, there’s also a wide discrepancy in the solvency rates of robbery between different areas of the city.

As Ottawa police chief Charles Bordeleau told the police services board last year, those crimes tend to increase in the springtime.

“The most frequently targeted items continue to be newer smartphones like iPhones,” Bordeleau said.

“Like they do every year (in the spring) many of our robberies have been occurring in high-traffic areas near school campuses, near bus routes, where people often use or check their devices,” he said.

Like the police success rate, the overall crime rate also drops the farther you get from the city centre. Typically there is a higher police presence in problem wards like Rideau-Vanier and River, where the crime rate is triple that of the rural areas. Having more police on hand in high-crime areas might help explain the discrepancy, said Jean Johnston-McKitterick, another candidate in Osgoode.

But Johnston-McKitterick said even with the low crime rates in rural wards, as the city grows, people will eventually have to give up some of their innocence.

“Lots of us leave our cars open because we are trusting,” Johnston-McKitterick said.

“But in June there was a group of kids going around stealing things from unlocked cars. Sometimes we’re a little behind on our first responders’ times, and I’d like to see that improved,” she said.

The bail violation rate in the Somerset ward is nearly ten times as much as the city’s average. Local lawyer says bail violation is an offence that alarms police because it could be an “early warning signal” for future problems.

Police caught 578 bail condition breaches in Somerset ward last year, according Ottawa Police crime statistics. This translates into a least one bail violation case every day while most of the other wards had one incident a month.

A heat map shows the bail violations across the city. 

Conway says one of the main reasons that explains the high rate is the cheap housing in Somerset ward. He says there are many shelters, low-income housing and single unit housing that are designed for people who are under bail conditions.

“Somerset contains a large segment of the housing and services that this population uses. That is why quite a large percentage end up hanging around Somerset,” Conway says.

“There are also more police patrolling in Somerset ward,” Conway says. “I see them all the time.” He says that he thinks the fact that police keep catching people while they are breaching their conditions contributes to the large number of bail violations.

Cst. Marc Soucy, an Ottawa Police spokesman, says the greater number of bars and restaurants in Somerset ward should be blamed for the high bail violation rate. He says they often catch people consuming alcohol when they were prohibited by the courts from doing so.

Dundonald Park, located at Lyon and Somerset Street, is a typical place that well illustrates all these reasons.

David Lelacheur, who walks his dog Pete in the park at least once a day, says the police almost come here as often as he does. He thinks it’s because of the beer store across the park.

“I have seen many times that things were left behind, beer cans especially,” Lelacheur says.

Conway says he has seen repeated examples of low-income and homeless people pulling huge garbage bags full of beers cans and beer bottles right across the park from the shelters on McLaran Street to the beer store on Somerset Street. He says the park can be a very good example where police catch some people who breach their conditions by simply drinking beer from a nearby beer store.

The number of bail violations has dropped nearly one third from three years ago. However, Somerset has historicallyhad the most violations.

Ottawa Police says decreasing the bail violations isn’t their ultimate goal, making people not commit crimes is. Soucy says “people who are under bails are those who got something criminal, so our main target is the original crime.”

Conway says, “To some extent it is not possible to ‘lower’ the number of breaches and it is not always desirable to lower the number of breaches.” (Click to listen how Conway explains.)

He explains that it is because the breach of bail is the early-warning signal to the criminal justice system that the offender is likely to increase the criminality of their behavior. This is a trigger to grab the offender before the increase in offending becomes too serious.

By Peter Mazereeuw

Ottawa’s Somerset ward has a bail problem.

Residents of Somerset discharged on bail—release from police detention after an arrest and before a court date, usually with specific conditions of good behaviour—violated the conditions of their bail at a rate ten times the city’s average last year, according to an analysis of police statistics.

Just more than 15 bail violations were reported per thousand residents in Somerset ward in 2013. The next-highest rate, in Rideau-Vanier, was 6.4. The median rate among wards–which is not influenced by the high number for Somerset ward—was just 0.59 bail violations per thousand residents last year.

Those numbers are similar to the rates of bail violations in 2012. Somerset ward led the way with 19.5 violations per thousand residents, followed by Rideau-Vanier at 6.4. The 2012 city median rate of bail violations per thousand residents was 0.54.

Police track crimes based on the number of incidents reported, instead of arrests made, because one incident can sometimes involve multiple arrests, according to Statistics Canada.

Somerset ward includes much of Ottawa’s urban centre, stretching from the Rideau Canal to the east, the Rideau River to the north, the Queensway highway for most of its southern boundary, and the O-Train tracks to the west. The bars, drug activity, and community housing within the ward, and even the Elgin Street courthouse, likely account for its high rate of reported bail violations, say the Ottawa police and others who work in the bail system.

Somerset ward actually trailed its downtown neighbour, Rideau-Vanier, in its rates of the other most commonly reported crimes last year, including assault, mischief, fraud and theft under $5,000.

Rideau-Rockliffe, Gloucester-Southgate, and River wards had the next highest rates of bail violations last year, but none cracked 1.5 violations per thousand residents.

National and provincial figures for bail violations are difficult to determine; Statistics Canada lumps them into the broader category of failing to comply with a court order. The national average for that category of offences was just more than 3 violations per thousand residents last year. The rate for Ontario was 1.74, and the rate for Toronto was 0.98.

People involved in altercations in or around downtown bars are sometimes also on bail, and are found to be violating bail conditions such as abstaining from alcohol, said Ottawa Police spokesman Cst. Marc Soucy. As a result, more bail violations are reported in neighbourhoods in Somerset and other wards with many bars, he said.

Violating conditions of bail is a summary offence, and as such is punishable by a fine and/or up to six months in jail.

Ottawa police also spend more time in downtown wards such as Somerset and Rideau-Vanier, and so are more likely to encounter people drinking in public or violating other terms of their bail, said Geraldine Castle-Trudel, a criminal defence lawyer who works in Somerset ward.

Soucy was unable to explain why Somerset ward had a rate of bail violations nearly three times higher than the sometimes rowdy Rideau-Vanier, which includes the Byward Market and has higher rates of reports for many other kinds of crime.

“We can’t explain from year to year what happens. It always depends where the offence occurred,” said Soucy.

“We don’t analyse trends for breaches [of bail],” he said.

Ottawa’s John Howard Society, a non-profit that supervises bail cases in the city, also couldn’t account for the much higher rate of reported bail violations in Somerset ward compared to other wards.

Sue Morse, the society’s bail program coordinator, said many of the people on bail she supervises live in Vanier or Lowertown (parts of Rideau-Vanier) or in Centretown (part of Somerset), but she couldn’t explain why so many more violations were reported in Somerset ward.

The John Howard Society meets with people to help guide them through the bail process and to help them “remedy issues that may have contributed to the alleged misconduct,” its website says.

These meetings are a mandatory condition of bail, and Morse said she contacts police if individuals under her supervision miss more than one meeting without contacting her.

Ontario’s bail supervisors generally have “flexibility” in their obligation to report violations of bail, said a July report on Canada’s bail system by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

While most supervisors reported multiple missed appointments, there were greater differences in reporting between supervisors and police officers when it came to violations of requirements to abstain from drinking.

The vast majority of Ottawa’s bail supervision is done through Morse’s Lowertown office, she said.

Socio-economic differences across the city don’t entirely account for the gap in bail violations either. Somerset ward had a median income of $43,817 in 2005–the most recent census data available on income by municipal wards in Ottawa—compared to $69,743 for Ottawa as a whole. Rideau-Vanier was even lower, at $40,373.

The location of the Ottawa courthouse on Elgin Street could explain some of the violations, said Castle-Trudel.

“It would be very interesting to know how many of those violations occur within two blocks of the courthouse,” she said.

Release on bail often comes with conditions that prohibit contact with victims of the offender’s crime, or those associated with it. Castle-Trudel speculated that individuals leaving the courthouse after a bail hearing could be caught calling the victim or a witness, or, in the case of domestic assault cases, being picked up by the victim.

“Police and special constables are very savvy about that sort of thing,” she said.

Soucy said it is a “possibility” that more bail violations could occur near the courthouse than elsewhere.

However, Jason Gilbert, a criminal lawyer who also works in Centretown, said he believed it would be “very rare” that a person would be caught in violation of their bail conditions in the area around the courthouse.

By Meagan Simpson

Despite safer polymer bills cases of counterfeit arrests rose in Ottawa from 2012 to 2013, the latest year for which statistics are available.

According to an analysis of statistics collected from the Ottawa Police, the cases of reported counterfeiting went from 66 in 2012 up to 162 in the following year, an increase of 145 percent.

Wards across Ottawa experienced this trend even as the Bank of Canada was rolling out its new polymer bills from 2011 to 2013. (Click here for announcements of new bills: 100, 20, 5&10)

The wards experiencing the highest increase were Gloucester-Southgate which saw 600 percent increase and Somerset which saw a 500 percent increase.

Local expert and co-author of ‘Faking It: A History of Counterfeiting in Canada’, James Powell was surprised to hear that counterfeit currency rose in the city.

He says that the most likely cause of the increase comes from older, paper bills rather than polymers. He argued that they are much easier to counterfeit than the polymer notes.

Manuel Parreira, a senior regional representative for the Bank of Canada said the bank tries to keep bills secure by changing banknotes every seven to 10 years. Polymers were chosen for their safety the material makes it difficult to duplicate, he said.

“We were able to put a number of different things on the polymer; transparency, holography and other security elements,” said Parreira.

Safety features of the new notes include the transparent window and images, raised ink and small, specially placed numbers.

However, it is the transition period from paper to polymer bills that is attracting counterfeiters. They are using this time to take advantage of businesses in across Canada and Ottawa.

Erica Foster is an employee of a TD Canada Trust branch in Ottawa and has experienced the effects of counterfeiting. She found herself in possession of four $100 counterfeit bills earlier this year.

“We only noticed it once we compared it to a bunch of other bills. The four bills that were brought in looked identical to each other,” she said. A fellow employee only caught the counterfeits while counting cash in the back and noticed a discrepancy in size.

Parreira says that as the old paper series come out of circulation, they get targeted. “(The current) increase in counterfeiting is specifically of the paper notes,” he said.

The trend is country-wide. According to the RCMP’s statistics, the number of counterfeit bills passed went up in 2013 despite an eight-year decrease since 2004.

In 2004, crooks tried to pass more than 500,000 counterfeit bills, the highest in many years. It was those numbers that convinced the Bank of Canada to innovate its bank notes and influenced the introduction of polymer notes.

Despite the increased security, even new $100 polymer bills have been counterfeited. British Colombia had incidents last year of the fake bills being passed, the first time counterfeit polymers had been discovered in Canada.

According to Parreira using fake polymers is unusual, because they have numbered in the hundreds versus the tens of thousands of counterfeit paper notes from previous years.

Despite the recent spike Powell said, “As time goes by and all those 2004 and earlier series are withdrawn from circulation you’re not going to be left with a whole lot of counterfeits.”

The easiest way to decrease counterfeit bills Parreira argued is vigilance on the part of Canadians. “The key to stopping counterfeiting in Canada is not by making a note that has more security features but by making sure that the consumer uses the security features that are on there.”

Assault rates (including sexual assault) appear to be on the rise in the Rideau-Vanier ward, rising 6.2 per cent between the year 2012 and 2013, while the solvency rate has gone down 8.2 per cent, according to Ottawa Police crime data.

Six candidates are currently running to be elected as the councillor for the ward. The elections are this Monday, Oct. 27.

The ward itself is comprised of various areas such as the downtown Byward Market, Sandy Hill, Lowertown and Vanier. These areas are prime spots for tourists, students, and partiers.

Close to the bar scene in the Market lies shelters and public housing.

In 2013, the second highest ward with assault crimes was Somerset. Even still, the Rideau-Vanier statistics were 56.8 per cent higher.

Mathieu Fleury, the current councillor for the area who is once again running for office, explained that the atmosphere attracts troublesome behaviour. Especially at night in the party scene where alcohol and drug use are apparent, and people are exchanging those things on the street it becomes “an area that is not friendly for most.”

Fleury said there are a number of things taking place and being discussed to keep the area safe. This includes police on foot patrol-where the police walk around and monitor problematic areas, security meetings with local businesses, along with changing dark and overgrown environments to lighten and open them up.

Linked with assault crimes is sexual assault, which is a problem affecting everyone, but disproportionately women.

Erin Leigh is the executive director of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women who offered an interesting perspective on the validity of assault crime statistics and what it means for women.

“It’s really hard to gauge from stats especially knowing 90 per cent of women who experience sexual assault won’t bring it to the police.”

What often happens she said is “victim blaming” where one can disregard the attacker’s actions and blame it on the victim, for not taking precautions. This is an unfortunate and false viewpoint that puts victims in an even worse situation.

Leigh said that numbers in assault crime rates fluctuating can either mean people are feeling more forward and reporting more, or more is happening-but it’s hard to tell.

There are a number of resources in Ottawa for women and people experiencing sexual assault, including French and English 24 hour crisis lines and services, such as Le CALACS francophone d’Ottawa and the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Ottawa.

The OCTEVAW has a variety of programs in place to reeducate society and help the issue.

One program is called “I Can MANifest Change.” This is a workshop to train men to recognize violence, whether it is verbal or physical towards women. With this knowledge, they are encouraged to challenge their peers in recognizing those things as well as not tolerating them. This workshop also challenges gender roles and “what it means to be a man.”

Leigh said that people can’t necessarily protect themselves from assault, but they can take measures to empower themselves, such as self-defence training.

A coordinator from Crime Stoppers, a volunteer network that takes tips from strangers to help police solve crimes, who wished to remain unnamed, said that crime happens in every ward in every community.

“Crime doesn’t discriminate,” he said, “All it takes is one or two people to cause more problems in that community.”

He said that social housing and drug pushing can be factors in making a neighbourhood more dangerous. Drug issues can bring out the negative elements in a community, but once certain people are removed, the problem might disappear, he explained. “The cause of it is a bad apple in the neighbourhood.”

The issues surrounding the Rideau-Vanier ward continue to be discussed, as many individuals are working hard to protect the people living in and visiting it.

Fleury said the issue is deep and complex. “The city needs to question themselves about what they mean to make the community safer…What is the root of the problem, and why are people coming here to commit crimes in the first place?”