Interim Chief Steve Bell Speaking Notes for Badge and March Past Ceremony - June 7, 2022

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I want to welcome all of you to today’s Badge Ceremony.

First, I want to recognize and thank the families, mentors and loved ones who are here today.

You are very important part of this event. Your support of the members of the class of 2019 is the reason they are here.

Thank you from myself, our senior leaders and our entire community.

To the members of the class of 2019 - I want to thank you all for choosing and committing to the Ottawa Police Service and the City of Ottawa.

We are privileged to have you as part of our organization.  I am proud to work alongside of you.

This ceremony is about celebrating our new recruits and new experienced officers just joining our Service.

Unfortunately, the pandemic delayed us for a few years.

During that time, you were working on the road helping our community.

You started your career in one of the most unique times in policing.

You have shown your professionalism and your dedication.

We saw it on the thousands of calls for service you responded to.

The emergencies like the recent storms that hit Ottawa, the removal of the unlawful protests, the opioid saves and countless other acts you have been involved in.

You have truly earned these badges today.

You are here because of the passion for service and the skills you bring.

Your background, your families, your life experiences, and your education have benefitted our Service and our community.

In this group alone, you speak many different languages, such as English and French, including Russian, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, Creole, and Mandarin as well as Sign language.

There are former paramedics, carpenters, software designers and veterinarian technicians in this group.

And today, you all look fantastic and are well turned out.

Three years after OPC and your marching skills still look great.

It takes many people to make this event happen, so I want  to thank Acting Sergeant Chris Pignon, Sergeant Sébastien Paradis, Ceremonial Sergeant Major Steve Boucher and many others for getting us all ready today.

You are the future of this organization.

As experienced officers you know the challenges we face.

We must rebuild public trust.

We must build stronger connections with our most marginalized communities.

We are an organization focused on cultural and systemic change.

We must continue to address systemic racism and violence against women. 

•           Promote equity, diversity, and inclusion,

•           Increase diversity-focused hiring, and

•           Contribute to our communities through neighbourhood policing.

We remain committed to our learning journey with marginalized, Indigenous, Black, faith-based, racialized, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, and address the real change that those communities demand and deserve.

You will learn, develop and lead this Service in all those areas.  We can’t do it without you.

You also know the challenge of taking care of yourself. We have many supports in place to help you, but we need you to reach out when you need help.

We are all invested in building a safer Ottawa.

This means new approaches to responding to people in crisis, call referral programs and new partnerships.

We are working to be better, and we know we have a lot still to do.

And you are very important part of this work.

You are tomorrow’s leaders and innovators.

All of those experiences and skills that you each bring will add to the wealth of resources we can use to help serve and protect the public.

You also provide us with different perspectives that can be used to develop new ideas and solutions.

So thank you all for being here today and being part of the Ottawa Police Service.

Thank you for everything that you bring to our organization to help make it better.

And welcome to the Ottawa Police Service.

Thank you.

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