About 60 people gathered in front of the Waterloo Region Police Services (WRPS) building in Kitchener on Friday to protest the fatal shooting by police of Nicholas Nembhard, a 31-year-old Black man.
Nembhard was killed in the evening of Feb. 19, the third such fatal shooting in the region since 2007. Police confirmed Feb. 20 that the Special Investigations Unit was investigating the shooting.
The next day, on Feb. 21, the African, Caribbean, and Black Network (ACBN) put out a statement condemning the WRPS’ killing of Nembhard, a “Black man in distress due to a mental health crisis.”
Organizers of the Friday demonstration explained why they felt the gathering was necessary and explained their demands of police, including changes to responses to mental health calls.
But some people felt organizers had not done enough to include the Black community and had used the killing of a Black man to push their own agenda.
On Wednesday October 18th, regional councilor Rob Deutschmann presented a motion asking council to “express its dissatisfaction and disappointment” in the “Waterloo Region Police Services Board and the Waterloo Region Police Service Chief of Police”.
The motion in response to the police board ignoring a February 2023 resolution from the regional council which asked the police to present their draft budget ahead of the budget being approved by the police board. Deutschmann says the police have ignored 3 follow up requests for engagement ahead of this year’s budget season.
Further, Deutschmann’s new motion again calls for the police to present their draft budget to the regional council before it is approved at the police board in the coming weeks.
In a response to questions posed by CKMS News regarding the police presenting their draft budget as previously requested, Cherri Greeno the director of corporate affairs for the Waterloo police indicated the police were not planning to present their draft budget ahead of time saying:
“The 2024 WRPS Operating and Capital Budget will be presented to Waterloo Regional Council on November 22, 2023.” Greeno Added “Two public engagement sessions are being held on October 26, 2023 and November 6, 2023.” The police board will be meeting on November 15th to approve the police budget.
Greeno concluded “WRPS is confident that through this enhanced and purposeful engagement with Regional Council, that we will build on our existing relationship of collaboration and trust while continuing to ensure that all people in Waterloo Region are safe and feel safe.”
At the meeting councilor Deutschmann presented his argument to have council again ask police for respectful collaboration in finalising the budget, and without any questions from other councilors, a vote was soon called.
In the end the vote failed after a 6-6 tie as councilors Deutschmann, Liggett, Wolf, James, Williams, and Huinink voted for the resolution, while Councilors Shantz, Redman, Foxton, Erb, Harris, and Craig voted against it. Councilors Salonen, Vrbanovic, Nowak, and McCabe were not present for the vote. Of the 6 “no” votes, Councilors Redman, Shantz, and Craig are all on the police services board.
Today’s episode features an interview with Waterloo Regional councilor Rob Deutschmann, discussing the motivations behind his motion including how the police ignoring the council’s previous requests for early engagement are “disrespectful” and quite disruptive to the overall budget process as it typically represents around ⅓ of the overall budget.
Last week’s episode of the Waterloo Region Weekly Round-up was left as a bit of a cliff-hanger of sorts as we looked at all of the meetings leading up to Regional Budget Day. This week’s episode dives into that budget meeting and examines where several items ended up, including the much discussed police budget.
This episode also digs into the Housing for All: Rally for Change event hosted by MPP Laura Mae Lindo on January 21st. Plus, I’ll have a couple of quick updates from local council meetings including Kitchener’s 2-hour discussion about windows and Waterloo’s transportation master plan.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
The Region of Waterloo will finalize it’s 2021 budget this month. Calls from the community to reallocate funds from policing into more upstream services has led to, as one councillor declared, an unprecedented interest in the police budget this year.
This week’s Waterloo Region Weekly Round-up takes a look at how we got here, diving into police board discussions and delegations from community residents in support of reallocation of funds towards Indigenous and Black-led community initiatives.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca
In today’s segment we will look at some proposed provincial regulations that could have a huge impact on the Grand River Conservation Authority and our watershed and what Regional Council’s response is to those proposed changes. We’ll discuss what’s happening with the proposed police budget amid calls for reallocation as we dive into November’s police board meeting. And finally, we’ll learn a bit more about Cambridge Council’s recent decision about a Consumption and Treatment Services site in Cambridge.
—
This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.
As the Waterloo Region’s Police board is discussing the next police budget, Radio Waterloo sat with Dr. Kathy Hoghart, an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work in University of Waterloo, and former advisor to police chief Brian Larkin, on issues of race.
The discussion covers the widespread calls to reallocate police budget money into other services that can more competently do the work the police have been tasked with, and issues of systemic racism within the WRPS and policing generally.
In the last few months the police board received several reports that clearly show the police bias against black and indigenous people. While board members were surprised by those reports, Dr. Hoghart wasn’t surprised at all.
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news. You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. And you can email news@radiowaterloo.ca to get in touch with comments or ideas about stories to cover.
The music was Blackroom by Moby, courtesy of mobygratis.com
