Black and Middle Eastern people were more likely to be subjected to use of force by Ottawa police officers in 2023, with no improvement over numbers from 2022, according to a report by the police made public by the Ottawa Police Services Board.
The report revealed that police used force against 310 individuals last year, including 81 perceived as Black and 33 Middle Eastern.
The report found Black individuals are subjected to force more than three times their share of population while Middle Eastern people are over-represented at almost twice the amount.
Overall, more than a quarter of the total use of force incidents were committed against Black people. They made up about eight per cent of Ottawa’s population in the 2021 census.
Middle Eastern individuals were subject to about 11 per cent of incidents, while making up six per cent of the capital’s population.
In all, 46 per cent of use of force subjects were racialized, including Indigenous people, the report found. Black and Middle Eastern individuals have been over-represented since OPS began collecting race-based date in 2020.
The report also includes information on gender and age for first time.
Last year, 91 per cent of incidents involved men, while the largest age category was people aged 25 to 34 suffering 33 per cent of incidents.
The Ottawa police said in the report that officers indicated on average three reasons for using force against civilians: 80 per cent were for self-protection, 72 per cent to make an arrest and 55 per cent to protect other officers. In addition to that, nearly half of the incidents had, or were perceived to have, weapons.
This is a second report detailing police actions involving racialized groups in Ottawa. A study released in June showed that over a 10-year period Black and Middle Eastern drivers have been stopped by police at disproportionately high rates in Ottawa.
Community frustration has grown over racial disparity for years, prompting some to demand defunding of the OPS.
Godlove Ngwafusi, chairman of the Anti-Black Racism Committee of The African Canadian Association of Ottawa, told Capital Current recently that racial profiling is not new in Ottawa, and he believes the OPS should hold their officers accountable.
“Unless there are real consequences, unless the job of police officers who do this kind of stuff is on the line, unless people get fired for being racist, nothing will change,” Ngwafusi said.
The OPS did respond to Capital Current’s request for comment on the report results.
More Stories
