Monday September 9, 2024
By Marlo Glass
The lawsuit claims the Ottawa Police Service "has earned a reputation, both internally and externally, as an institution rife with racism and discrimination that over-polices the racialized communities it has pledged to protect."
A file photo of signage at the Ottawa Police headquarters on Elgin Street. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA
A $2.5-million lawsuit alleges the Ottawa Police Service wiretapped and surveilled five of its Somali officers and their family members and accuses the police force of racism and discrimination against its own members.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2023, claims the OPS obtained the wiretaps and general warrants “based on racist and stereotypical assumptions about Black persons of Somali origin,” alleging the wiretaps and warrants were improperly issued and breached the Charter rights of the officers and their family members.
As first reported by CBC, the lawsuit say the OPS “has earned a reputation, both internally and externally, as an institution rife with racism and discrimination that over-polices the racialized communities it has pledged to protect.”
The officers, the lawsuit says, “were specifically recruited to ameliorate the reputation of the OPS,” it reads.
“Instead, the OPS marginalized the officers, subjected them to racial slurs and then relied upon its privilege as a law enforcement agency to invade the Plaintiff’s privacy, the most intimate details of their lives, in an effort to discredit them. In so doing, the OPS perpetuated the racist prejudices and stereotypes that hiring the officers was originally meant to atone.”
Liban Farah, Mohamed Islam, Abdullahi Ahmed, Ahmedkador Ali and Feisal Bila Houssein, all identified as constables with the police force, say they were hired in part to heal its strained relationship with racialized communities.
Instead, the lawsuit claims, the racialized officers faced backlash for their anti-racism advocacy, which included developing a report on how the OPS could improve policing in marginalized and racialized areas and challenging fellow officers who posted racist memes.
“The Plaintiffs were subject to the wiretaps and general warrants due to their race, Somali descent, and their advocacy on behalf of racialized officers and community members,” the lawsuit claims. “They have reason to believe that the affidavits the OPS submitted in support of the authorizations failed to disclose to the issuing judges the surrounding context that necessarily informs the as-yet-unknown basis for believing that interception of their private communications was justified.”
The wiretap materials are sealed, meaning the plaintiffs don’t know why a judge approved the surveillance.
The officers are all Canadian citizens and were invited, recruited and encouraged to join the force, the lawsuit says.
It further claims all the officers have “excellent” performance metrics and, yet, the force’s wiretaps and surveillance have left them “marked.”
“The Officer Plaintiffs’ opportunities for advancement have been stifled,” the lawsuit says, and “their reputation forever damaged.”
Farah, hired in 2013, has worked on patrol in the West and Central divisions as well as with the guns and gangs unit. He is currently a detective in the drug unit major investigations branch.
“Farah grew up in low-income housing in Ottawa after his parents immigrated to Canada when he was a child in 1986. He has a diploma in Police Foundations from Algonquin College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton University,” the lawsuit reads, adding he is the first member of his family to obtain a university degree, and he joined the force after years of working as youth worker and special constable.
Islam was hired by the OPS in 2016. Born in Somalia, he came to Canada at age 13 in 1995 as an unaccompanied minor during the Somali civil war. He has lived in Ottawa ever since. Prior to his police career, he was a social worker.
“Several times, the OPS has called upon Islam’s knowledge and skill to de-escalate tensions between racialized communities and the OPS,” the lawsuit says.
Islam had his initial application to the Ottawa force rejected by police background investigator Christina Benson. That decision was overturned and Islam was offered a job, after which Benson resigned in protest, saying in her letter of resignation that Islam was an “unsuitable” police candidate and that his hiring “is being done for political reasons to appease the Somali community.”
The lawsuit alleges that, once Islam started working with the OPS, “his every move was under a microscope” and “negative rumours and gossip circulated about him.”
Ahmed was born in Somalia and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1990. He lived in low-income housing and was raised by a single parent. He was hired by the OPS in 2013. He is involved in training new recruits and was called upon to improve the force’s outreach team and to increase its recruitment of diverse candidates, the lawsuit says.
Ali was hired by OPS in 2018. Born in Somalia, he immigrated to Canada with his family when he was eight and grew up in low-income housing. The lawsuit says he has been referred to as an “ambassador” for the police force, and he specializes in assisting vulnerable victims who report sexual assaults.
Houssein was hired by OPS in 2019. Born in Ottawa, he has lived here his entire life. In 2022, the lawsuit, he “displayed immense courage when he attended the scene of an active triple stabbing” as he “stopped the attacker and saved the life of one of the victims.”
Farah and Islam are first cousins and have “dozens” of other first cousins, the lawsuit says, including the “gang-affiliated” Bile Khandid and Bayle Khandid.
The lawsuit says Farah disclosed that connection when he joined the guns and gangs unit in 2018. In July 2021, Islam was ordered to attend the police station while on parental leave and was questioned about Bile and Bayle. Islam said he “was aware of their criminal lifestyle, and that he had no relationship with them and had not seen or spoken to them in many years.”
He was told OPS was surveilling the home of Bile and Bayle’s mother, who is Farah and Islam’s aunt, and Islam’s personal vehicle had been seen outside that home. Islam said his aunt was elderly and ill, and he was supporting her. The gang-affiliated cousins dud not live there, and were not present when he was there, he said.
The lawsuit then claims Islam was asked “if Somali youth killing each other in Ottawa stems from issues in Somali tribal culture.
“Islam found the belief that murder of Somali youth in Ottawa was ‘tribal’ to be racist and offensive. Somali youths grew up in Ottawa with no knowledge of Somali tribal systems or culture and the question was designed to insinuate that Somali youths are savages,” the lawsuit reads.
In April 2020, a racist meme circulated widely within the OPS, including photos of several OPS officers, mostly racialized men, with the caption “Ottawa Police Service: We’re always hiring … anyone.” Farah’s image appeared in the centre of the meme.
“The meme was created by an OPS member and suggests that the officers in the image, and racialized officers in general, have not been hired by the OPS based on merit and are not qualified to be police officers,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit claims Farah faced retaliation speaking out against another racist meme that circulated in a group chat for the guns and gangs unit during the height of 2020 protests following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.
The lawsuit alleges the wiretap and surveillance were done in retaliation to the five officers “for their advocacy on behalf of racialized OPS and community members,” saying the wiretap activity began shortly after Farah raised the issue of the racist meme.
The officers’ surveillance was common knowledge within the police force, the lawsuit claims, with the officers subsequently “experiencing strange interactions with other OPS members.”
Houssein, for instance, was told by a sergeant-major that he was “never worried” about Houssein, and the higher-up said, “I’m serious, I knew you were always good”.
Another sergeant told Ahmed it was “not good” that the “higher-ups” were “sixing the boys,” referring to wiretaps and general warrants, which are authorized in Part 6 of the Criminal Code. Then, in December 2021, an inspector told Ahmed, “What happened to you guys is f—-d up,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit claims the surveillance of the officers has permanently affected their opportunities within the police force. In January 2021, Ahmed was promoted into the homicide unit, “a coveted position and the pinnacle of policing — the highest level of investigative assignments.”
Ahmed was congratulated for “breaking the glass ceiling for black and racialized officers,” the lawsuit says, but “suddenly, he was kicked out of the homicide office in March of 2021, with no explanation, and his white colleague was immediately brought back. Ahmed felt humiliated, disrespected, and ashamed. Ahmed believes this was a result of the ongoing surveillance.”
Each plaintiff — the five officers and some of their family members — received notice in fall 2021 that they had been subjected to the interception of private communication, which had been authorized by a judge in April 2021.
The three family members of the officers, also named in the lawsuit, were “targeted” by the police, “merely because of their relationships to the Officer Plaintiffs.”
The family members no longer trust the police, and “are shocked by the misuse and abuse of authority of members of the OPS,” the lawsuit says. They also “fear for the safety of the Officer Plaintiffs working in an environment where their colleagues view them with suspicion.”
The lawsuit claims the wiretapping violates the officers’ Charter rights as it was “motivated by discriminatory stereotypes based on their race and Somali origin.” The suit also says the police service “breached the Plaintiffs’ right to liberty and security of the person in a manner not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
The claims in the lawsuit have not been tested in court.