Dahabo Ahmed-Omer makes a statement to the Standing Committee on Justice Policy at the Ontario Legislature on behalf of the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition.

28
Feb

2018

Justice for Abdirahman Coalition Makes Statement Before The Standing Committee on Justice Policy at the Ontario Legislature

Written by Justice for Abdirahman

Published in News

On February 22nd, the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition (JFA) reached a major milestone. We were called to appear before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy at the Ontario Legislature.

After the gruesome death of Abdirahman Abdi, our community could not stand idle. In August 2016, the Justice for Abdirahman Coalition was born. With the support of so many local and national organizations and grass roots love, our Coalition has been able to achieve so much. See our work here.

But this milestone is huge. This step, is step towards long term meaningful change to systemic problems.

With the recent news concerning the verdicts in the cases of Boushie and Fontaine, its no secret that our justice system is flawed and biased. Our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said it himself: “ there are systemic issues in our criminal justice system that we must address."

While we remain hopeful and positive that justice will prevail in the Abdi case, its heart breaking to continue to witness verdicts like these. And so our efforts as a Coalition have been to put our weight behind long term lasting change through legislation on the systems that reek havoc on our well being.

Though the Abdi trail is not set to begin for another 12 months, our Coalition has been actively involved in the Government of Ontario's efforts to review the Police Services Act and Ontario's policing oversight model. Bill 175, The Safer Ontario Act, which was first tabled on November 2nd, 2017, has incorporated many of the recommendations our Coalition made to the initial review process and we believe these would deliver much-needed improvements to the police accountability frameworks in our province that greatly impact our criminal justice system.

Our dedicated team has poured many hours of hard work, research, consulting and crafting the right message for this appearance and forthcoming written submission.

Our message was delivered by our very own Dahabo Ahmed-Omer, with the beautiful presences of our sister Samiya Ahmed by her side. And with that, JFA’s position on Bill 175 was officially deposited into the public record.

Alhamdulillah, all Praise to the Creator.

Our work continues! Please stay tuned! You can read JFA’s official statement here. Thank you for your continued support.

With appreciation,

The Justice for Abdirahman Coalition

Justice for Abdirahman

The Justice for Abdirahman (JFA) Coalition (“the Coalition”) is a group formed within days of Mr. Abdi’s death. The Coalition is based in Ottawa and supported by local and national advocacy groups. The Coalition’s objectives are to obtain greater transparency, challenge racial inequity, increase support for mental health needs and bring positive change to our law enforcement institutions. The Coalition asserts that fairness, transparency and accountability in our law enforcement institutions are critical to ensuring all of our safety and security.