Statement on the acquittal of the officer in the death of Abdirahman Abdi

The not–guilty verdict in the trial of Ottawa Police Constable Daniel Montsion for the death of Abdirahman Abdi serves as a painful reminder that there is a need for systemic change in how we respond to mental health crises in Ottawa, Ontario, and Canada as a whole, especially in cases with racialized individuals, as more recently illustrated by the deaths of D’Andre Campbell, Caleb Njoko, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and Ejaz Choudry, who each died during a police interaction in Ontario while experiencing a mental health crisis, like Abdirahman Abdi. 

At CMHA Ottawa, it is our long-held and often-expressed belief that all communities in Ontario should have the resources to staff enough mobile crisis response teams to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to act as the first response to 911 calls related to mental health crises. Mobile crisis response teams typically include a mental health professional, such as nurse or social worker, who rides alongside a specially-trained police officer. If we use this approach to answer calls like the one police received on the morning of July 24, 2016, we’ll be more likely to see a positive outcome, so our communities may experience fewer tragedies like that of the preventable death of Abdirahman Abdi.