Neighbourhood Watch Bulletin for 2021-04-22

Last couple of day’s topics:

• Changes to interprovincial crossings operation.
• A reminder to remain vigilant about the potential for abuse towards women and children.
• Missing youth to locate.

If you’re interested in helping out, see our Neighbourhood Watch Page.

– Alex

—– Forwarded Message —–
Subject: Neighbourhood Watch Bulletin for April 21, 2021
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2021 09:05:18 -0400
From: Darren Joseph <wellingtoncpc@gmail.com>

1.  Changes to interprovincial crossings operation

Effective this evening at 8 p.m., the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) will no longer maintain a 24/7 presence at interprovincial crossings (bridges and ferries).

Instead, the OPS will deploy officers on a rotating schedule of checkpoints moving throughout all City of Ottawa interprovincial crossings on a daily basis, until the expiry of the Provincial Order.

Since the onset of the border operations, the OPS has been working closely with Ottawa Public Health (OPH) along with local stakeholders and interprovincial stakeholders (the City of Ottawa, the City of Gatineau, the Ontario Provincial Police, etc.) to assess any local public health, traffic and safety impacts.

The assessment resulted in today’s operational changes.

We have been and will remain focused on our stated goal of ensuring our education, engagement and enforcement actions support improved public health outcomes and respect the concerns of our most marginalized and racialized communities all while enabling compliance with the Provincial Order restricting interprovincial travel.

The operational changes announced today are designed to better ensure the health and safety of all, to minimize delays and/or hazards for travelers and to ensure essential workers can get to their places of employment on time.

The OPS will continue to work with OPH and our partners to conduct daily assessments on the border operations.  The public will be notified of any material changes to the border operations.

We remind all members of the public to respect the Ontario Stay-at-Home order.

Who should cross the interprovincial border

This is a reminder that the circumstances for which a person can travel into Ontario from Quebec, per the Ontario government directives, include:

• the person’s principal residence is in Ontario
• the person is travelling to perform work in Ontario
• the person is transporting goods into or through Ontario as part of the operation of a business that involves the transportation of goods
• the person is travelling into Ontario for the purpose of exercising an Aboriginal or treaty right
• the person’s health makes it necessary to travel into Ontario to obtain health care or social services
• the travel is necessary for a humanitarian or compassionate reason

Beyond identification to operate a motor vehicle, there are no requirements for travellers to provide documentation to officers such as a note from an employer or physician. Individuals will be required to provide their name, address and reason for travelling.

Enforcement of Provincial Authorities

These measures are in support of new public health orders issued by the Government of Ontario. The OPS began screening travellers at all Ottawa-area interprovincial border crossings on April 19th.

We are working in close collaboration with our community, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) and other City of Ottawa agencies (OC Transpo, Roads/Transportation, etc.) to ensure these authorities are only used for their intended purpose of supporting public health orders and public health outcomes.

2.  A reminder to remain vigilant about the potential for abuse towards women and children

The Ottawa Police Sexual Assault and Child Abuse and Partner Assault Sections are asking the community at large to remain vigilant about the potential for abuse towards women and children, considering they may be further isolated, per the Provincial Government’s Stay-at-Home order.

We extend the message to local community shelters, victim services, immigrant women’s services, and crisis centres, and encourage police reporting.

Shelter services in the Ottawa region are available for both Ontario and Quebec residents.

Of concern is that victims of abuse are staying home, and therefore a significant portion of the cases, which would normally come through others, are going unreported. We encourage local Hospitals and Clinics to highlight to their respective communities that they are ‘open and safe places for victims’ who have been injured.

We understand that survivors of domestic abuse may not choose to reach out to the police. To that end, we are reminding the public that victims and survivors of domestic violence and abuse can also get help and support through a number of community resources, including Ottawa’s text and online chat tool, UnsafeatHomeOttawa.ca, available 7 days a week from 8:30AM to midnight. This service is now available in over 70 languages, thanks to the support of their new partner, Immigrant Women Services Ottawa (IWSO).

We continue to work closely with partners, including the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of Ottawa, to identify trends and mitigate the risks to vulnerable children. We urge everyone to pay special attention to the well-being of children and report any suspicious incident to the CAS or Ottawa Police at 613-236-1222.

Subject: Neighbourhood Watch Bulletin for April 22, 2021
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:11:21 -0400
From: Darren Joseph <wellingtoncpc@gmail.com>

Missing youth to locate

The Ottawa Police Service is requesting the public’s assistance in locating a 13 year old missing boy. Mukunde WADANDI was last seen leaving his residence in the Vanier area on Wednesday April 21^st 2021 at approximately 3:30pm. The youth is described as a black male, 5’6” slim build, with short dark hair, his clothing description is unknown (see photo).

Anyone with information about the current whereabouts of Mukende is asked to call the Ottawa Police at 613-236-1222.

If you have information that could assist investigators, but do not know where he is currently, please contact the Missing Persons Unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 2355, between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm, daily.

Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477, or crimestoppers.ca.

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Contact Cst. Darren Joseph directly (west of O-Train, Line 2) at josephd@ottawapolice.ca or 613-236-1222, ext. 5871.

Contact Cst. Stephanie Lemieux directly (east of O-Train, Line 2) at lemieuxs@ottawapolice.ca or 613-236-1222, ext. 5287.