It was standing room only for the Sarnia Police Services Town Hall Thursday night in the Royal SCITS Academy gymnasium.
This was just one of the many Town Halls the police have hosted, but the night's discussion topics brought out a crowd.
“So you never know when you host these things how it’s going to go,” said Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis. “But we were willing to take the chance cause we owe it to the community to make ourselves available and to be responsive to their concerns. We know people are upset, we know people are angry, and we wanted to give them a venue. And certainly from a policing perspective be able to tell people what challenges we face and what we are trying to do to help.”
Out of the topics up for discussion which included, myths and misinformation, catch and release, Sarnia’s downtown, and the Sarnia Police Services direction for 2025, it was the encampments at Rainbow Park that had the most reaction from crowd and was the topic of the majority of the questions from the attendees. It was what Davis called getting to the “meat and potatoes.”
The Chief addressed the origins of the encampment at Rainbow Park, explaining it originated at Veterans Park, and the police were never involved in moving it.
“There are a lot of rumours of how it got from A to B,” explained Davis. “No one was ever kicked out, no one was ever evicted, nor were the Sarnia police ever asked to do so, because we are not the property owner. What we did is our people reached out, working with city bylaw to try and get them the resources and were successful in that particular space in that particular time, with most of those folks going somewhere else.”
Davis explained that three of the people living in Veterans Park made the decision themselves to set up in the new location.
“So they were never sent there, they were never directed there, every one of them was offered services and they refused. And that’s what happened at Veterans Park and around the issues we were having around the library,” said Davis.
Ultimately Davis said the police aren’t the property owners of Rainbow Park and legally they aren’t able to do as much as the community might think or want them to do.
“We need the tools to be able to do certain things, and if we don’t have the tools we can’t do the work,” said Davis.
With lots of talks of injunctions, Davis explained that the Sarnia Police Services had recommended one to council back in May but that is all they can do, recommend.
“Under the new community safety act, police officers are liable for taking unconstitutional actions, like we can actually be charged with misconduct. So we have to make sure we are on solid lawful footing,” said Davis.
What it ultimately comes down to, Davis said, is the involvement of government both local and higher alongside the community and the police.
A handful of city council members attended the meeting, notably absent though was Mayor Mike Bradley, something Sarnia resident Sharon Docherty asked the Chief, specifically questioning if the two had ever met in an official capacity.
“Hot seat out of the gates,” joked Davis. “Number one every event the Sarnia police host, we invite every member of council, every single one, every single time, and you will see the same faces again and again and again…As a Chief, I think one of the most important things we can do as a community is communicate, and I think this is what we are trying to do tonight is have some of those things. I think it would be very helpful to have open conversations at every level in the city but I can say we have not yet been able to have that conversation.”
Docherty, who lives across from Rainbow Park, shared her doubts about a solution when two of the city’s leaders aren’t communicating.
“Why are we stuck in the middle of people who can’t seem to get their little political lego in order. Same with the county, this has to be a conglomerate. We can’t have the city doing this, the police saying that, and the county doing whatever. Get on the same page everybody, you all have a responsibility to all of us,” said Docherty. “We are the ones doing a lot of the work too. And that city, and that county and the police all need to sit down together in the same room and have a conversation on a regular basis about this situation. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”
City councillor Adam Kilner agreed, telling the Journal, “council needs to be at as many of these conversations that happen as possible. That is the bottom line…We also need as a community to air the laundry, people need forums to talk about it and that allows us to communally share what we are experiencing. And try to figure out from the policy side of things if we can move some things forward.”
In terms of what the city council is doing about Rainbow Park, Kilner explained things are happening at the municipal level.
“If we aren’t willing to come to the table we are not going to be willing to change anything,” said Kilner. “We are working on circumstances behind the scenes to start trying to initiate some more creativity on how we can move some things forward.”
This includes lands that could be developed or developed on and including the community in the discussion. Though ultimately it does extend above this level of governance.
“There are some government things that really we can’t do without…in this case the priority is provincial. Housing, social services, health care, addiction support, those things are all things that require partnership with the province if we are to change the social conditioning…we all know that is going to be a journey,” said Kilner.
Kilner’s plan is to bring the feeling of urgency from the Town Hall back to council.
“The number of people here especially, indicates that the kettle is close to boiling. And it might even be more urgent than that…You just filled that auditorium, it was standing room only…even just standing in the doorway of the auditorium was like a blast of warmth because so many people were here,” explained Kilner. “At city hall we need to be taking seriously that the whole community is feeling unsettled and is longing for urgent action.”
Councillor Bill Dennis agreed about the urgency felt at the meeting.
“It’s been almost six years that I’ve been a councillor, and we have never had an issue that has shaken the community to its core like this,” said Dennis. “People got emotional. I’ll tell you, it was a police hosted event, could you imagine if it was a council hosted event without the police there? It would have been like the ‘Jerry Springer Show’.”
All joking aside, Dennis couldn’t speak higher of the Chief of Police and the Town Hall he assembled.
“I think we are really fortunate to have him. The way he lays it out, he’s a straight shooter, he presents it to people so they can understand and see what he is up against. And he’s a great communicator and that is very very important,” said Dennis.
Longtime resident Olivia Clark, was one of the over 20 people there to ask a question, expressing her need for compassion when finding a solution to the encampment.
“I am here tonight, and I said what I wanted to say in hopes of making people realize that it’s not just one person that is going to change it, it’s not just the mayor, it is not just city council, it is everybody in a position of power and the people that live here who have to come together and say something needs to change, here we are how do we change it,” explain Clark.
Whatever comes from the Town Hall, Davis is taking this as a win, explaining they are always open to improving and there are things the Sarnia Police Services will adjust based on sentiments expressed by attendees. The main sentiment again being the encampment at Rainbow Park telling the crowd,
“This is not going to go away overnight. We are going to have to manage better. So right now we have Rainbow Park which is disproportionately putting a ton of issues on one small community. But there is going to be, I hate to say it, there’s going to have to be a share the burden across the city somehow, somewhere. But we, the police, bylaw, city, the community we are going to have to find a way to manage this more effectively then we are doing right now.”