Ottawa Gloucester-Southgate Ward municipal debate 2018
There have been three incidents of gun violence this year alone in the Gloucester-Southgate ward of Ottawa where the ratio of police to population ranks on the low end when measured against other Canadian cities. Specifically, Ottawa police service is ranked 15th out of all cities with a population of 100,00 or over for the ratio of police to population. The total amount of shootings in Ottawa for all of 2013 was 32, in the first month of 2018 there were 13 reported shootings, meaning Ottawa had already seen 40 percent of the shootings recorded in all of 2013. So, there’s no wonder why the topic of gun violence and gang crime is so prominent amongst residents in the upcoming Ward 10, Gloucester-Southgate municipal election, taking place Oct. 22.
An outspoken and concerned resident of the Gloucester-Southgate ward, and father of three, Brad Pye, had a lot to say about the issue of gun violence at the Ward 10 municipal debate on Oct. 11. “Three shootings have happened within a walk of my house, one two and a half weeks ago. This is low-level gang related violence that’s percolating in our community and my kids see it, they see the flashing lights they see the cop cars.” He also stated that he never received a straight answer for his question to Councillor Dean about what she advocated for in terms of an increase in crime prevention, specifically for a community-based policing solution, as well as, what percentage the city of Ottawa’s budget increased?
That answer to that would be about a 2% city-wide increase for Ottawa’s Crime Prevention budget from $100,9000 in 2017 to $102,9000 this year minus 33% ($346,00) for salaries, wages and benefits, according to the 2018 budget report.
Candidate Alek Golijanin stated, that he feels crime is disproportionately affecting certain communities in the ward, during the debate. He also referenced to a very controversial statement made by another candidate of Lebanese descent, Robert Swaita, during this election, commenting “There’s no place for fake activism in city hall” in his speech. Swaita stated in a CTV News Ottawa interview “Unfortunately there’s a lot of crime that’s happening with these minority communities, and in particular the Arab community...I’m an Arab. We need someone who understands how they think and how we can help”. Golijanin clarifies his comment saying “ Different communities have acknowledged, there’s a disproportionate rate of young males that are getting involved in crime and when he brought that point up, It’s unfortunate that our leadership, the councillor said ‘Let’s not go to stereotyping, I don’t want to go that far’ ...but what I meant by that is we can’t always say something is what it isn’t because Rob was making a real point… it kind of takes away from the message.” He then went on to explain that the religious leaders that he has spoken to, that go to the police station to provide moral support, have told him that about 50-60 percent of the youth that are jails right now are Somali Canadians.
The current councillor of Ward 10, Diane Dean, is hoping for her seventh consecutive re-elect with her solution to the surging crime rate in the region being to return to the old community policing policy. Dean also claims that she has advocated for a greater police presence and funding for youth crime prevention programs as well as neighborhood watch teams at city council.
