A vegan barbecue, speeches from community advocates and the symbolic destruction of a pig piñata marked a protest outside Ottawa City Hall on Monday, where demonstrators demanded Ottawa police officers accused of gender-based misconduct be fired rather than allowed to resign quietly.
The event, titled “No Pigs BBQ and Roast,” was organized by the Punch Up Collective, an Ottawa-based activist group focused on social justice, along with several advocacy organizations.
The rally followed recent revelations that some Ottawa police officers misused police databases to obtain women’s personal information and pursue personal relationships. Organizers also encouraged attendees to watch the virtual Ottawa Police Service Board meeting later that afternoon.
The rally comes amid renewed scrutiny of the Ottawa Police Service following allegations that officers misused police databases to identify and contact women they encountered while on duty,
The demonstration featured speakers including Alexandria Bonney, a human rights lawyer, Khadija E. of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW), Rachel Fayter of the Ottawa Transformative Justice Collective, Sam Hersh of Horizon Ottawa, Megan Linton of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, Vanessa, a poet and Maia Wenger of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project.
Khadija E., speaking on behalf of OCTEVAW, said many survivors were not surprised by the allegations.
“These incidents are not isolated or unprecedented,” she said. “They are part of a much longer history of gender-based violence, colonialism and the abuse of power that women have been naming for generations.”
She argued governments should invest more heavily in housing, counselling, crisis intervention and community organizations instead of relying primarily on policing.
“If we are serious about ending gender-based violence, then our budgets, our public policies and our political priorities must begin reflecting what survivors and communities have been telling us for decades.”
Poet Vanessa shared her own experiences with police, recounting how she’d been harassed by an officer who obtained her phone number following an arrest in her early 20s.
‘They are given access to people’s private information, names, addresses, backgrounds, et cetera. They’re hired to protect and serve our community.
— Poet Vanessa
But . . . our community needs protection against them.’
Rachel Fayter of the Ottawa Transformative Justice Collective, a community group that advocates for alternatives to policing and responses to harm, also recounted her experiences with domestic violence and policing, arguing survivors often experience further harm through the criminal justice system.
“Survivors deserve real safety, real accountability and healing community,” said Fayter, calling for greater investment in community-led responses to violence rather than expanding police resources.
Human rights lawyer Alexandria Bonney placed the recent allegations within a broader historical context, arguing police institutions were never designed to create public safety for marginalized communities.
“When an institution is operating as it was designed, you can’t reform your way into a better system,” she told attendees. “The system itself is rotten to the core.”
Throughout the afternoon, speakers criticized Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs’ recent comments urging officers responsible for gender-based misconduct to “change your behaviour now or quit.”
In an internal video recorded in May and publicly released in June, Stubbs acknowledged officers had been using police databases to identify women they encountered while on duty, calling the behaviour unacceptable.
Stubbs said officers had been “messaging vulnerable victims on calls they’ve attended in an attempt to develop intimate relationships” and, in some cases, running licence plates through police databases to identify women. In the video, he warned those responsible to “change your behaviour now, or quit.”
At the same time, Stubbs acknowledged the police service has struggled with longstanding cultural issues, saying misconduct “can’t be tolerated” and has damaged public trust. He also said the service has invested significant time and funding into workplace reforms and intends to continue those efforts.
Protesters, however, argued resignation is not sufficient accountability.
Speakers repeatedly called for officers accused of abusing their authority to be terminated and for more municipal funding to be redirected toward housing, mental health services and community organizations.
The event concluded with organizers unveiling a large papier-mâché pig piñata painted with the words “rotten apple.” One by one, speakers and organizers took turns striking the piñata with a bat before the crowd dispersed, using the traditional party game as a symbolic protest against the systemic problems within the Ottawa Police Service.
