It took nine days for Nelson Getson to die.
The 38-year-old had been shot on Oct. 15 at his Ottawa rooming house, finally dying from his grievous injuries on Oct. 24. He went into the books as the capital’s 17th murder of 2025.
When I was on the police desk attheOttawa Sunthree decades ago, we were like the Maytag repairmen. It was rare that the hoi polloi went off the rails, with only about one murder a month.
SOFT ON CRIME
So you’d look for connections, no matter how tentative they might be, particularly on a weekend. I once wrote that late Outlaws president Taco Bowman, on the run from just about everyone at the time, could be hiding in Canada.
That was then. Like the rest of the country, the nation’s capital has suffered over the past decade when it comes to rampant crime and an indifferent political and bureaucratic class.
And homicide is touching all the bases.
Joshua Qiyuk, 21,was a hard-working Algonquin College student who dreamed of becoming a chef and whom co-workers called a “sweetheart.” Not enough. He was found stabbed to death in the east end on Oct. 22.
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SHOPLIFTING UP 384%
On Monday, the Ottawa Police Service reported a staggering increase in crime between 2015 and 2024. Those years were, of course, the salad days for Justin Trudeau’s soft-on-crime regime.
According to CTV News, there was a shocking 63% hike in criminal offences from the year Trudeau was elected and 2024. More troubling, violent crime soared by 58%, with 8,200 offences, while property crime climbed 64%, with 35,800 offences.
Shoplifting? That saw an eye-watering 384% increase compared to 2015. Only mischief was down 13% and that’s likely only because cops have charged just a sliver of those screaming “Death to Jews” and “Death to Canada” on the streets over the past two years.
Police Chief Eric Stubbs fingered organized criminals targeting jewelry stores or high-end fragrances in big box stores, to teenagers stealing on their lunch breaks, to people who can’t afford food. There was also the population hike (Hello, Justin!), and the pandemic.
GAZA GANG
“Some businesses said they hesitate to call police because of the time involved in filing reports, while others stressed the value of preventative measures and direct engagement with officers,” Stubbs wrote in a report.
Elsewhere, the document echoed police chiefs and union leaders across the country: Sick leave is up 34%, O.T. is up 226% (Hello, Gaza!), and absenteeism is up 3%. Calls to police are up 11%.
Clearance rate? 26%, down 10 points from 2015.
It is unlikely the criminal justice philosophy that got us to this point has ebbed one iota in the corridors of power.
NO INCREASE (LOL!)
Reliably anti-cop CBC went to the plate in late August to make sure criminals and their advocates, activists, and academic allies jumped the reality cue. Violent crime? What violent crime?
Housing, the environment and others on the progressive wish list were angrily suggested instead of increased police budgets. Didn’t the feds sink about a gazillion bucks into green initiatives that went nowhere save for stopping Ghanians pooing on their beaches and lining the pockets of the Liberal-friendly green industry?
Still, Angela Keller-Herzog, of Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability, toldCBC Newsthat,really, crime is down.
“We have not seen a dramatic rise in crime,” she told the state broadcaster with a straight face. “If anything, the trend is down.”
And that’s the view from Ottawa.
One that’s not likely shared by the families of Nelson Getson or Joshua Qiyuk. Or the rest of us, for that matter.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
