A message from Ken Rubin:
As the founder and initial funder of the grassroots Ottawa People’s Commission on the Convoy Occupation (OPC), I regret to publicly announce that I am resigning, effective today, as co-chair and member of the OPC steering committee.
I have had the honour of getting OPC underway, but health challenges facing my wife, Debbie, must take priority at this time.
I am hoping that the OPC can aid in the healing that Ottawa needs from the trauma it experienced during the convoy occupation last February. I and others have spent an intensive several months full time in recruiting others to this cause and getting the Commission up and going.
We have a solid group of highly capable individuals on the OPC steering committee, a key operational and funding partner in the Centretown Community Health Centre, and a tremendous team of commissioners preparing to launch this important public process next month.
I remain available to give help and advice and especially want to continue working towards a permanent inner-city stakeholder citizen committee to get the necessary public safety, counselling services and compensation so badly needed in the wake of the occupation.
The funding, staffing, volunteering and running of the Ottawa People’s Commission remain challenging. All such novel community initiatives are fragile endeavours, but they can succeed — and I am confident this one will.
As the Commission goes forward in its efforts to organize and carry out the public hearings at the heart of this endeavour, and to produce reports that help our city better understand what it experienced last winter, how to fully recover and how to confront future challenges of this kind, I wish those in charge of the OPC and those volunteers supporting its mandate the very best of luck in accomplishing the Commission’s goals. I continue to urge attention to maintaining the highest standards of transparency and accountability that I have attempted to introduce in initiating the Ottawa People’s Commission.
I would, of course, be grateful to be kept abreast of the Commission’s progress.
However scaled back, my work as a public investigative researcher/advocate and columnist will continue locally and nationally on many issues, and I will continue to be available for comment.
Cheers,
Ken Rubin
August 23, 2022
