2020-2022 EDI Action Plan: Moving from Reports and Recommendations to Greater Action Together

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, February 23, 2021   10:05am

(Ottawa) — At the Ottawa Police Services Board meeting yesterday, the Ottawa Police Service provided an update on the 2020-2022 Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan.

The report and presentation to the Board provided an update on 2020 progress and outlined 2021 priority action items that align with the Board’s strategic direction and the approved 2021 Change Budget. 

2020 was a foundational first year of the EDI Action Plan, where we worked with community stakeholders to accomplish more than 10 action items across the organization.  Some highlights include: 

• Building greater capacity for EDI with focused senior leadership sessions and a new Respect, Values and Inclusion Directorate;
• Removing barriers in outreach recruitment that is already seeing dramatic results in diverse police applicants;
• Reviewing the OPS competencies framework;
• Reinstating the Hate Crime Section with dedicated resources and working closely with partners like United for All on anti-hate strategies and responses in the city;
• Continuing to address discrimination and racial profiling concerns with new Authentic Inclusion Training, race based data collection for use of force, and partnership work with United for All;
• Building a Wellness Team with additional staffing and program launches that focus on member wellness;
• Initiating dialogue and partnership work to develop new programs and tools that enhance service delivery to the community including dialogue and research for improving mental health response and collaborative work to build a custom EDI Lens toolkit to remove and prevent barriers in employment and service delivery;
• Working on improvements to the internal complaint process – including a special project to address sexual violence and harassment in the workplace that led to the recent hiring of a third party firm - Rubin Thomlinson LLP (RT) - to address complaints; and 
• Co-hosting the sixth annual Human Rights Learning Forum on December 10^th that focused on understanding and addressing systemic racism.

And while much has been accomplished in this first foundational building year of the plan, we know that there is more work to be done. We will move from the important collaborative and foundational work of 2020 to implementing programs and focusing on systems and culture change in 2021.

The 2021 priority work will include:

• Culture change strategy focused on the duty of care, community safety and well-being, and public trust.  Equity, diversity and inclusion is a fundamental over-arching approach that will drive our decision-making and change;
• Community-led mental health response strategy;
• Implementation of anti-racial profiling policy review results;
• Anti-Racism training that focuses on anti-Black and Anti-Indigenous racism;
• Implementing new tools including a custom EDI Lens toolkit for decision-making for both employment and service delivery; 
• Launching new complaint resolution process and employee empowerment for change;
• Violence against women service and staffing enhancements including new dedicated staffing; and,
• Member wellness program enhancements and initiatives.

“We will continue to honour the past reports and recommendations for change by continuing to focus on collaborative partnerships and collective action that lead to meaningful and measurable change,” said Supt. Isobel Granger of the Respect, Values and Inclusion Directorate. “This is about ensuring meaningful and measurable progress on equity, diversity and inclusion by creating a police service our police and community members deserve.”

The Service will work closely with stakeholders including the CEC and the Board’s Policy and Governance Committee to ensure accountability with ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the plan.

“The Service is grateful for the ongoing input and partnership work with the Community Equity Council and other stakeholders such as Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition, United for All, Equity Ottawa, and Violence against Women coalitions,” added Supt. Granger.

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan 2020-2022 is a major deliverable of the Ottawa Police Services Board’s Strategic Plan in the priority area of: “Make meaningful progress on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.”

Further information about the EDI Action Plan and the latest progress report are available at ottawapolice.ca/EDI.

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