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911 call summoning Ottawa police to wrong address leaves mother, 4 kids shaken – CBC.ca

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An Ottawa family’s interaction with police after a 911 call that mistakenly brought officers to their home is once again raising questions about officers’ involvement in wellness checks and the way they enter private homes.

Around 5:45 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning, city police responded to a call about a potentially suicidal man.

The call was about a man “threatening self-harm,” but the female caller gave the wrong address, say police. 

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They narrowed down the call’s location to within 25 metres and entered a home on Montgomery Street in the city’s Vanier neighbourhood, but it was the wrong house. 

In their search for the distressed man, Nadia Ngoto said police walked into her home without permission.

“I didn’t hear them announce themselves,” said Ngoto, 38. “I have four children and one roommate, and not one person heard police announce themselves.”

Family ‘terrified’

She said police first walked to the back of the house, and knocked on her 11-year-old son Armaan’s bedroom window with their flashlights and startled him awake.

Armaan Ngoto, 11, says he didn’t really know what was going on when officers entered the family’s Ottawa home early Wednesday morning. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

“I was scared because I don’t have the best experience with officers and I didn’t really know what was going on and everybody in my house was asleep, so I was pretty terrified,” said Armaan, who said he saw three officers by his window.

He said he wanted to leave the room to get his older brother, but was told not to move. The officer asked about the address of the home and its layout, Armaan said, but he couldn’t remember the address because the family had just moved in two months earlier. 

CBC News asked Ottawa police if waking up the child was considered “announcing their presence.”

“Front-line officers attended this home and spoke to a young resident through a window,” the Ottawa Police Service said in an email. “Simultaneously, other frontline officers entered through the unlocked front door, announcing themselves before and during their entry.”

WATCH | Police under scrutiny for no-knock raids:

Police forces across Canada are conducting hundreds of no-knock raids each year to execute search warrants. 2:01

Around the same time Armaan was being questioned, Ngoto’s oldest son, Ozzy, was awakened by heavy footsteps walking across wooden floors. He could see the flashlights shining through the cracks of his bedroom door.  

“I proceeded with caution and opened my door,” said Ozzy. “I saw this tall figure … and he turns around, and he has this huge-ass gun in his hand and starts asking me all these types of questions about someone named Carlos who I didn’t know.”

He said a flashlight was shone in his face and he could see what looked like a long gun at the officer’s hip level. 

“You don’t expect to see armed men in your home. I assumed it was an accidental call [that] someone tipped them off about a drug charge and they got the wrong address.”

Ozzy Ngoto, another sibling in the home, encountered police responding to the mistaken 911 call. (Jean Delise/CBC)

Ozzy says he was even more disturbed when officers told him they were there for a suicide wellness check.

“That threw me off even more. That doesn’t seem to de-escalate things,” said Ozzy. He estimates there were at least 10 officers in his home. 

Ozzy says police said “sorry” as they exited after realizing they had the wrong house, but before they left officers did a “sweep” of the house and barged into the upstairs bedroom of a 70 year-old family friend. Ozzy estimates they were in the home for about 15 minutes.

Questioning police wellness checks

CBC analysis of deadly police encounters show that the majority of the victims suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. Black and Indigenous people are also disproportionately killed in police encounters.

They told my son “Don’t move” … Would he have gotten shot for not listening to instructions?– Nadia Ngoto, mother

Kevin Walby, a criminologist at the University of Winnipeg, said past fatalities show why police should not be engaged in mental health calls. He said resources should instead be put into solutions that turn health workers and community advocates into first responders to these types of calls.

“If we reimagine the way we respond to distress, re-imagine the way we respond to transgression so that so we’re not defaulting to policing all the time, but instead empower these community groups that have so much passion to keep people safe — then I think we would be in a situation where people don’t have to worry about getting killed by police,” he said.

Nadia Ngoto says her trust in police has been further damaged after officers entered her home without permission. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

Walby finds it particularly galling that the incident at the Ngoto family home occurred just two days after Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly announced a temporary ban on “dynamic entries” involving searches for disposable evidence, such as drugs. The force has come under fire for several cases of misconduct related to no-knock raids revealed by the The Fifth Estate.

He wonders if there is a disconnect between the police executive and the rank and file.

Walby said judges have ruled that a police announcement of entry has to be “loud and clear … and have some duration. And it doesn’t seem like any of that was there [in this case].”

Despite Ozzy Ngoto’s account of seeing officers with long guns, Ottawa police say this was a wellness check and not a dynamic entry. The force says its tactical officers did not enter the home, although they were called in later to support the search for the potentially suicidal man.

Police didn’t find the distressed man that night, but Nadia Ngoto said her family has been retraumatized.

For several years, the Congolese-Canadian lived in shelters with her children after fleeing domestic violence. Ngoto and her four sons have had negative experiences with police involving racial profiling, she said.

“If any of us made the wrong move, we would have been the ones in trouble or dead.

“They told my 11-year-old son, ‘Don’t move, don’t move.’ So what if he turned his back and left his room? Would he have gotten shot for not listening to police instructions? Those are questions I don’t want to know. It’s a nightmare.”

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

(CBC)

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Alberta's population surges by record-setting 202,000 people: Here's where they all came from – CBC.ca

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Alberta smashed population-growth records in the past year, mainly due to people moving to the province from across Canada and around the world.

The province’s population surged to just over 4.8 million as of Jan. 1, according to new estimates released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

That’s an increase of 202,324 residents compared with a year earlier, which marks — by far — the largest annual increase on record.

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Alberta also broke a national record in 2023 for interprovincial migration, with a net gain of 55,107 people.

“This was the largest gain in interprovincial migration nationally since comparable data became available in 1972,” Statistics Canada said in a release.


Most of the interprovincial migrants came from Ontario and British Columbia.

Statistics Canada estimates that 38,236 Ontarians moved to Alberta last year, versus 14,860 Albertans who moved to Ontario, for a net gain of 23,376 people.

Similarly, an estimated 37,650 British Columbians moved to Alberta, compared to 22,400 Albertans who moved to B.C., for a net gain of 15,250.


All told, interprovincial migration accounted for 27 per cent of Alberta’s population growth over the past year.

That put it just ahead of permanent immigration, which accounted for 26 per cent, and well ahead of natural population increase (more births than deaths), which accounted for eight per cent.

The largest component, however, was temporary international migration.

Non-permanent residents from other countries accounted for 39 per cent of the province’s population growth in the past year, reflecting a national trend.


Canada’s population reached 40,769,890 on Jan. 1, according to Statistics Canada estimates, which is up 3.2 per cent from a year ago.

“Most of Canada’s 3.2-per-cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration in 2023,” Statistics Canada noted.

“Without temporary immigration, that is, relying solely on permanent immigration and natural increase (births minus deaths), Canada’s population growth would have been almost three times less (1.2 per cent).”

Alberta’s population, meanwhile, grew by 4.4 per cent year-over-year.

Alberta now represents 11.8 per cent of the country’s population, its largest proportion on record. 

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Why Canada's record population growth is helping – and hurting – the economy – CTV News

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Canada has recorded the fastest population growth in 66 years, increasing by 1.3 million people, or 3.2 per cent, in 2023, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.

The country has not seen such growth since 1957, when the spike was attributed to the baby boom and an influx of immigrants fleeing Hungary.

The vast majority of Canada’s growth last year was due to immigration, with temporary residents — which includes foreign workers and international students — making up the largest proportion of newcomers.

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“We need people coming to Canada to help with our economy,” says Matti Siemiatycki, a professor of planning at the University of Toronto. “There are many jobs and professions where there are vacancies, and that is having an impact, whether in the healthcare sector or trades and construction sector.”

Siemiatycki adds immigrants also bring “ingenuity… resources… and culture” to Canada.

Newcomers are relied on to help keep pace with Canada’s aging population and declining fertility rates, but the influx also presents a challenge for a country struggling to build the homes and infrastructure needed for immigrants.

“It’s an incredibly large shock for the economic system to absorb because of just the sheer number of people coming into the country in a short period of time,” says Robert Kavcic. a senior economist and director with BMO Capital Markets.

“The reality is population can grow extremely fast, but the supply side of the economy like housing and service infrastructure, think health care and schools, can only catch up at a really gradual pace,” Kavcic says. “So there is a mismatch right now.”

The impact of that mismatch can most acutely be seen in the cost of rent, services and housing.

In December, Kavcic wrote in a note that Canada needs to build 170,000 new housing units every three months to keep up with population growth, noting the industry is struggling to complete 220,000 units in a full year.

To address this, Ottawa has announced plans to cap the number of new temporary residents while also reducing the number of international student visas, a move economists say could offer some relief when it comes to housing and the cost of living.

“The arithmetic on the caps actual works relatively well because it would take us back down to 1 per cent population growth which we have been used to over the last decade and which is more or less absorbable by the economy,” Kavcic says. “The question is whether or not we see policy makers follow through and hit those numbers.”

Economists believe these changes could help ease inflationary pressures and may make a Bank of Canada rate cut more likely, but could also lead to slower GDP growth.

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Canada’s population hits 41M months after breaking 40M threshold – Global News

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Nine months after reaching a population of 40 million, Canada has cracked a new threshold.

As of Wednesday morning, it’s estimated 41 million people now call the country home, according to Statistics Canada’s live population tracker.

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The speed at which Canada’s population is growing was also reflected in new data released Wednesday by the federal agency: between Jan. 1 2023 and Jan. 1 2024, Canada added 1,271,872 inhabitants, a 3.2 per cent growth rate — the highest since 1957.

Most of Canada’s 3.2 per cent population growth rate stemmed from temporary immigration. Without it, Canada’s population growth would have been 1.2 per cent, Statistics Canada said.


Click to play video: 'Business News: Job growth fails to keep pace with population'

7:52
Business News: Job growth fails to keep pace with population


From Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2023, Canada’s population increased by 241,494 people (0.6 per cent), the highest rate of growth in a fourth quarter since 1956.

Usha George, a professor at the Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement at Toronto Metropolitan University, told Global News in June a booming population can benefit the economy.

“It is not the bodies we are bringing in; these are bodies that fill in the empty spaces in the labour market,” she said.

“They bring a very-high level of skills.”


Click to play video: 'Canadian millennials surpass baby boomers as dominant generation: StatCan'

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Canadian millennials surpass baby boomers as dominant generation: StatCan


However, Ottawa has recently sought to ease the flow of temporary immigration in a bid to ease cost-of-living woes.


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Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on March 21 Ottawa would set targets for temporary residents allowed into Canada to ensure “sustainable” growth in the number of temporary residents entering the nation.

The next day, BMO economist Robert Kavcic in a note to clients the new limits will have a positive impact on Canada’s rental market and overall housing crisis.

“We’ve been firm in our argument that Canada has had an excess demand problem in housing, and this is maybe the clearest example,” Kavcic said.

“Non-permanent resident inflows, on net, have swelled to about 800K in the latest year, with few checks and balances in place, putting tremendous stress on housing supply and infrastructure.”

Alberta gains, Ontario loses: A look at Canadian migration in 2023

If Alberta is truly calling, then it appears more Canadians are choosing to answer.

Putting the pun on the provincial government’s attraction campaign aside, Canada’s wild rose country saw the largest net gain in interprovincial migration in 2023, Statistics Canada said in Wednesday’s report.


Click to play video: 'Is Alberta ready for population growth?'

1:53
Is Alberta ready for population growth?


The agency said 55,107 Canadians moved to Alberta last year, which was the largest gain in interprovincial migration nationally since comparable data become available in 1972.

“Alberta has been recording gains in population from interprovincial migration since 2022, a reverse of the trend seen from 2016 to 2021, when more people left the province than arrived from other parts of Canada,” Statistics Canada said.

“Approximately 333,000 Canadians moved from one province or territory to another in 2023, the second-highest number recorded since the 1990s and the third straight year that interprovincial migration topped 300,000.”

Meanwhile, British Columbia had 8,624 more residents move out than in in 2023, meaning net interprovincial migration was negative for the first time since 2012, Statistics Canada said.

In general, the largest migration flows for British Columbia and Alberta are with each other, and most of the net loss from British Columbia in 2023 was to Alberta, it added.


Click to play video: '‘Enormous pressure’ expected in Ontario home care due to high growth of senior population'

1:01
‘Enormous pressure’ expected in Ontario home care due to high growth of senior population


It also seems that good things may no longer be growing in Ontario; Canada’s most populous province lost 36,197 people to other regions in 2023, the biggest regional loss in 2023, Statistics Canada said.

That followed a loss of 38,816 people in 2022; the only other times a province has lost more than 35,000 people due to migration to other parts of Canada occurred in Quebec in 1977 and 1978.

Alberta aside, net interprovincial migration was also up in Nova Scotia (+6,169 people), New Brunswick (+4,790) and Prince Edward Island (+818), although all three Maritime provinces gained fewer interprovincial migrants in 2023 than in the two previous years, Statistics Canada said.

— with files from Uday Rana and Sean Previl

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