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An Ottawa police officer says it’s unfair for people to condemn him as a racist simply for discussing race in an online video that is now the subject of an internal police probe.
“It’s crazy to say that because a police officer was talking about race, that it’s racist,” Const. Paul Heffler, a 34-year veteran of the service, said in an interview Friday.
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“I’m embarrassed by the way it has been painted, but I’m not embarrassed by what I said. Because I know what we were saying was a simple, objective analysis of something.”
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Ottawa police will no longer routinely tell police officers when fellow cops are suspended from duty, saying that the decision to release that information will now be made on a case-by-case basis. The service will also no longer confirm all suspensions to this newspaper.
The revelation came in an interview Thursday in which police explained the criteria and rationale for suspending officers with pay and why that is not, in the service’s eyes, a punishment that would require revealing the officers’ identities. Those questions came after a Citizen investigation last year which revealed that there is no public accounting of suspended officers’ identities and the reasons for their suspensions.
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The second woman to complain about the abusive behaviour of Ottawa police Const. Eric Post says the whole process from fighting to have the police take her allegations seriously, to the sham of a plea deal that saw him admit to just five of 32 criminal charges has been defeating.
The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, was one of seven women who came forward with serious criminal allegations against Post, including sexual assault. One victim died by suicide before the trial was scheduled to begin.
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A 33-year-old man accused of stabbing four people at the Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday night is facing multiple charges.