Tag Archives: Ottawa Police Service

Getting out is hard to do for Carlington’s social housing residents

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Carlington’s public housing complex is a place where people land if they need to get back on their feet. The problem is getting out of the highly concentrated social housing complex built in the 80s. You have two options: one you either manage to improve your socioeconomic status and move out of the area or you apply to transfer to another subsidized housing unit.

The wait times for social housing in Ottawa can be up to five years, and according to Ray Sullivan, executive director for Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation – a community-based non-profit housing corporation for low and moderate income people – 20 per cent of those requests are from people seeking transfers to other types of social housing.

Joanne*, 60, lived in one of the high-rise apartment buildings on Caldwell Avenue for 18 years with her daughter Sarah. She recently received a transfer to move to another subsidized housing unit after a domestic incident. Domestic violence and overcrowding are two circumstances that are given priority if you are on a waiting list.

“The reason why it’s hard is because once you’re in a community like this – low income – to put your name on a transfer list, it’s very hard to get out of here unless you have a valid reason. You can’t just up and go because you don’t like the area.”

Joanne says when they first moved to Caldwell it was fine until the social problems and issues with the living conditions began to emerge.

“Everything was okay until the alarms would start, but there was a drug-house right across from us, other problems in the building like drug dealers and prostitutes.”

“The fire alarms would go off any old time, sometimes that would be if it was for a fire, but very rarely, more because people were just pulling the alarms. As a lot of us knew sometimes it was being pulled by some drug person who was wanting to get in (the building).”

According to the Ottawa Neighbourhood Survey, the Carlington neighbourhood has five times more social and affordable housing units in the City of Ottawa at 1,200, compared to the average and is one of the least socio-economically advantaged neighbourhoods in the city.

Another long-term resident Andrea Terry is the first to admit the public housing complex has issues, but she wants people to see how vibrant the tight-knit community is.

“The biggest problem with areas like this is people just assume, they don’t know people’s situation. For the longest time I couldn’t tell you where I lived because of the stereotyping and because of the bad reputation this area has,” Terry said.

“Now I come out and say ‘yes I do live on Caldwell’, ‘yes I live on ODSP’…I am not embarrassed by any means, because you know what home is where the heart is.”

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Map data sourced from 2011 National Household Survey

The crime and social ills are only one aspect of the neighbourhood which has a strong community presence united by a desire to support each other. Resources like the chaplaincy, foodbank, clothing depot, community centre and family centre are located inside the community. In the middle of the day residents descend on the family centre for a free big breakfast or take part in the language lessons that are offered next door.

Cst. Kevin Williams with the Ottawa Police Service is a community police officer who offers support to the Carlington community and occasionally helps out at the foodbank.

“I’ve sat on committees with Andrea and it’s awesome the dedication that they have and it’s great. It just makes you want to be involved and be a part of this. It’s refreshing to see that,” Williams said.

“It’s too bad because Carlington is a great place and sure there might be one or two incidents that might happen and it doesn’t reflect what this community is, it’s a great community.”

*Joanne declined to use her last name out of privacy.

Hate graffiti accounts for highest percentage of hate crimes in Ottawa

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In January 2016, Rev. Anthony Bailey and the Parkdale United Church community were preparing to celebrate the church’s 85th anniversary. A few days after advertising the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. service, the community was shaken by an attack of hate-motivated graffiti.

“On the side of our church…scrawled in big red letters was ‘n–gers’, there was also another recognizable tag sign, on huge letters they had sprayed ‘Tupac’,” Bailey said.

“There was outrage and shock initially because this is an obvious attempt to intimidate our congregation and what we stand for.”

Graffiti is one of the most common forms of hate crimes in the city. In 2015, hate graffiti accounted for just over 60 percent of reported hate crimes in the city. According to Constable Stephane Quesnel with the Ottawa Police Service, “hate crimes in general could be threats or assaults, but are almost always graffiti.”

Hate graffiti can seriously affect a community or individual. “Whatever the intention was it doesn’t really matter, it’s the impact of using language like that, against people who have been victimized over the years, with such racial epithets.” Bailey has reached out with support for local Imams and Rabbis in Ottawa who have been victims of hate graffiti.

311 data from the City of Ottawa in 2015 shows that 1 in 5 calls regarding graffiti were reports of hate graffiti, that doubled from the previous year. However, that number may not be reflective of the actual number of hate graffiti incidents. Sometimes victims avoid reporting them out of fear.

“Not as reported as much by marginalized groups because they fear the backlash from publicity,” said Bailey.

“Every incident of racist graffiti is not reported in the media because of a fear of a copycat.”

Results from the 2009 General Social Survey on Victimization support this. Two-thirds of people who said they had been victims of hate-motivated incidents did not report them to police.

Quesnel offers other reasons why victims of hate graffiti might not be reporting it to police, “…because some people may not think that it is a hate crime and also because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves, if it was on a private residence for example,” he said. “Reasons for reporting are so that police are aware of it because it affects the whole community, and also, by doing so, we can hopefully catch the person doing it.”

Even if the hate graffiti incidents are reported they are often difficult to investigate. The OPS is currently investigating several reported incidents of swastikas appearing on OC Transpo buses. It can often be difficult to pinpoint when the hate graffiti first occurred and even harder to find the suspect(s). In the Parkdale United Church incident, the case remains open.

Hate graffiti is considered a serious offence under the Criminal Code of Canada and carries an increased penalty for assault or mischief motivated by bias, prejudice or hatred toward a particular group.



Although it’s rare to hear of someone being convicted of hate graffiti, a Calgary man was sentenced to eight months in jail and issued a $5,000 fine after he spray painted hateful graffiti targeted towards Syrian refugees on a light rail transit station.

According to Quesnel the number of hate graffiti incidents often fluctuates. “It can go in spikes based on world events. For example, if there was a religious group that was a victim of an attack, the whole community becomes victimized, so there could be a local surge of hate graffiti towards them.”

Although the year isn’t over, 2016 is one of the lowest reported years for hate graffiti incidents in the City with only 26 reported incidents.

Spike in Ottawa human trafficking incidents signals improved awareness, uphill battle

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Police in Ottawa uncovered a record 24 incidents of human trafficking in 2014, but experts say there are countless more cases that go unreported.

According to analysis of crime data from Statistics Canada, the number of police-reported incidents of human trafficking has more or less doubled every year in Ottawa since 2010.

Sgt. Jeff Leblanc, lead investigator with the Ottawa Police Service’s Human Trafficking Unit, said that number will only continue to grow.

“As long as we’re out there doing more proactive work to find out what the full picture is in the city,” he said, “we’ll see an upward trend for the next little while.”

The Criminal Code defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, harbouring or control of a person and their movements, typically for the purposes of sexual or labour exploitation.

Though human trafficking-related offences have been on the books for more than 10 years, it was only five years ago the Ottawa police uncovered its first major case.

Excerpt from the Criminal Code
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Sex trafficking victims are often advertised on online classifieds site like Backpage.com. On Friday, March 18, over 260 women were listed in Ottawa.
Sex trafficking victims are often advertised on online classifieds site like Backpage.com. On Friday, March 18, over 260 women were listed in Ottawa.

Leblanc said the most recent swell in the number of incidents reflects a growing awareness about human trafficking — both within the police force and across the city.

In October 2013, the Ottawa Police Service launched a two-year pilot human trafficking unit. Led by Leblanc and staffed by four detectives, the unit has worked not only to identify and rescue trafficking victims, but also to help service providers and first responders recognize the signs of human trafficking.

Excerpt from the Ottawa Police Service’s 2014 Annual Report
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Zaneta Miranbigi chairs the Ottawa Coalition to End Human Trafficking, which brings together a wide range of organizations likely to encounter victims of trafficking. These include victim services groups, health care providers, as well as youth shelters and group homes. Miranbigi also credited the trafficking unit’s work for the increased number of reported incidents.

“When word gets out there’s a dedicated unit, victims are much more likely to report than when they know they’re dealing with officers who don’t have a clue,” she said.

While this may be cause for optimism, Miranbigi cautioned the scale of the problem goes far beyond incidents recorded by the police.

A landmark 2014 report from local community organization Persons Against the Crime of Trafficking in Humans (PACT)-Ottawa found 140 trafficking victims between June 2013 and April 2014.

Excerpt from PACT-Ottawa’s 2014 Local Safety Audit Report
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But even those numbers are now far off the mark, said Miranbigi. “If you were to talk to any of my service providers around the table on the coalition, they will all tell you it’s a gross underestimation of what the actual reality is.”

Despite efforts by police, advocacy groups and service providers, Miranbigi said trafficking victims are often reluctant to contact law enforcement.

Youth are very impressionable, and may be convinced by their traffickers that they will be charged for their involvement in the sex trade if they report. Similarly, many victims fear they might be shamed by officers or the broader community once they leave their trafficking situation.

“There’s so much more work to be done on this,” said Miranbigi. She warned that a lack of sustained funding poses a real threat to the progress that has been made over the past several years.

Though the human trafficking unit’s formal lifespan has come to an end, it continues to operate while the police service mulls whether it should be made permanent.

Both Leblanc and Miranbigi hope that Ontario’s anti-human trafficking strategy — to be released in June — might help support their efforts to combat human trafficking in Ottawa.