Police chief reflective as decision in officer's trial nears

Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly is reminding the community that the service is committed to working to build relationships as the city nears the decision date in the trial of an Ottawa constable charged with manslaughter in the death of Abdirahman Abdi.

Ontario Court Justice Robert Kelly is set to render his verdict in the case of Const. Daniel Montsion on Tuesday.

“Oct. 20 will be an important day,” Sloly said. But so will the next day, or a year from now, he said. “What have we done … to move the organization forward, to move the organization and its relationship with all the communities in the city forward? That's my message.”

Sloly says the service has done a lot, but that work is far from complete.

“The 20th will be another major step towards understanding what took place and decisions that relate to that, all of which are out of our control, and we will watch for the outcome of the judge's ruling. But the work that has gone on before must continue on after, and that's our commitment.”

The chief made the comments to this newspaper this week as part of a wide-ranging interview in advance of his one-year anniversary as top cop.

Abdi, 37, died in police custody on the front steps of his apartment building at 55 Hilda St. in the summer of 2016 after he was arrested by two officers. Four years on, there hasn't been a resolution for either Abdi's family, police or the broader community.

Sloly said that, across the board, there was a sense “there was a tragedy that affected so many different people, not the least of which affected Abdirahman Abdi, his family, the Somali community, the local communities, the city of Ottawa, our members, their families.”

“Everyone understands that there was a significant tragedy — healing has not yet fully happened, the progress not yet fully accomplished.”

Sloly said there had been years of effort between police and the community “to open and keep open lines of dialogue to learn from and progress from that incident and the broader set of issues that relate to that incident.”

The chief said the service was “providing as much support as we can to our members. We are providing as much supports and getting support from our community.”

The force, too, will need to manage public safety and disorder on the day of the verdict. No discretionary time off is being allowed on either Monday or Tuesday, and plainclothes officers who typically don't work in frontline roles have been told to have their uniforms at the ready, this newspaper has learned.

Police officers understand that there is “a sense of watchfulness and weariness” from the community about the verdict, Sloly said.

“I think we all have a common purpose here again. Let's do what we can in the days leading up to it and then let's be absolutely committed, even more than we have been in the past, to the systemic-type changes that are necessary in policing in the broader society to prevent such instances from happening, reduce the impact of such instances.”