Three years ago there had been a gang murder a few blocks away from the park; over the past summer there had been been several swarming incidents, also a few blocks away, along Paul Anka near the co-op.
Hundreds of local parents take their youngest children to Uplands Park; many grandparents like me also frequent it. Households with young children went into lockdown mode - the park was instantly deserted on the assumption that someone had been murdered and stuffed into their children's play store.
As a Neighbourhood Watch block captain, I tried at the time to find out enough of what had happened to advise my members, and was told by the police, in no uncertain terms, to "move on". Total silence ensued, not a word from the police or from media. Panic spread - was this a drug gang murder in our quiet community? Something even worse? Soon, not just parents of young children, but the entire community was on edge.
A few days later, I located a newspaper reporter who privately told me what was going on: a person had committed suicide at the park. The police and Ottawa press have an agreement - suicide is such an appalling event that no one is allowed to mention it, anywhere, under any circumstances.
The problem is, that left a community in panic. And, no one was taking that into account, except Neighbourhood Watch. I issued a statement through NW channels, "The body found in Uplands Park was a suicide, not the victim of an assault". Fortunately, I'm well enough respected here that the community accepted it, and returned to normal. Nothing private was released - although I could have easily found out more details, to this day I don't know the sex or age, let alone name, of the victim. That wasn't necessary in order that my community feel safe.
If people are to feel safe in our community, their feelings have to be taken into account by our police. It's irrelevant that we live in one of the safest communities in one of the safest cities in the world, if people don't feel that way. The police should have issued that notice late the afternoon of the occurrence, when they determined that it was a suicide.
If people are to feel safe in our community, this policy of silence should be changed.