Councillors back police on mental health strategy
Council is fully onboard with the Ottawa Police Service and police services board creating a mental health strategy.
Coun. Shawn Menard, supported by Coun. Catherine McKenney, proposed Wednesday that council back efforts by the police force and board to work with community agencies on the mental health strategy and consult the public.
It was a unanimous vote in favour of Menard's motion.
The police force is also looking into ways to provide responses to mental health calls that don't require officers' attendance.
Menard's motion replaced his previous version, which would have simply encouraged the police force to look into those issues.
Under provincial law, council can't direct the police force. Only the police board can make policies on police governance, and even then, the board can't dabble in police operations.
Coun. Diane Deans, chair of the police board, said many calls related to mental health shouldn't be sent to police in the first place. The city should be funding poverty and homelessness strategies to help avoid police outcomes, Deans said.
In a demonstration outside of city hall, supporters of the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition called on the city to have alternatives to police intervention in situations requiring support for people who are in a mental health crisis.
Last week, an Ontario Court judge acquitted an Ottawa Police Service officer on manslaughter and other charges in connection with the death of Abdirahman Abdi after a violent arrest in July 2016.
MASK BYLAW EXTENDED
City council extended the mandatory mask-wearing bylaw into 2021.
The extension will last until the day after the first council meeting in the new year. That meeting hasn't been scheduled.
Mayor Jim Watson predicted the bylaw will probably need to be extended again based on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the bylaw is considered temporary, the city has been embedding expiration dates that can be revisited by council as the pandemic wears on. The bylaw previously had been set to expire on Sunday.
Council first approved the bylaw on July 15.
The bylaw requires people to wear a mask on transit property and in enclosed public spaces.
Council in August extended the bylaw to enclosed common areas of condos and other multi-residential buildings.
There have been 64 charges related to mask violations under the bylaw, council heard.
ANTI- ASIAN RACISM
Coun. Rawlson King, council's liaison for anti-racism and ethnocultural relations, received council's unanimous support in condemning incidents of racism directed at Ottawa's East Asian community.
King cited police statistics showing there have been at least 14 reported hate crimes this year against people of South Asian or East Asian descent. The incidents have included spitting and making racist remarks. “The number of non-reported cases is likely much higher,” he said.
Council called on the city's anti-racism secretariat to launch a public campaign promoting awareness of anti-East Asian racism and for the public to be an ally.
EMISSIONS PLAN OK'D
A $57.4-billion blueprint for eliminating Ottawa's greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years received council's full support.
The plan calls for the municipal government to eliminate its own greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and the larger community to eliminate emissions by 2050.
Watson said it's an “ambitious project and there's nothing wrong with aiming high.”
The electrification of the city's transit service, including the construction of LRT and gradual switch to battery-powered buses, is a big part of the blueprint, along with energy-saving building retrofits.
Most of the financial support for the plan will need to come from the upper levels of government, and the city hopes they'll recognize its efforts to protect the environment.
Coun. Scott Moffatt, chair of council's environment committee, lauded the work by city staff to create the plan. He also gave credit to former councillor David Chernushenko, who chaired the environment committee in the last term of council and got the city thinking about a municipal plan.
Council declared a climate change emergency in 2019.