Safety first
When my children were old enough to cross the street by themselves, I taught them to leap like deer for safety if they ever saw a car with red licence plates. Ottawa is Canada's capital and it is awash with embassies. The red plates are reserved for diplomats, many of whom apparently believe they are not obliged to obey the rules of the road.
To be charitable, what we see as reckless driving may be a lack of familiarity with the city's traffic laws or street plans. Still, many Ottawa residents have tales to tell of blind drunk or just plain incompetent diplomats behind the wheel of big, black limousines. In one of the most notorious car accidents in recent years involving a diplomat, a Russian who had been out fishing and drinking like a sailor on shore leave mowed down and killed a pedestrian and seriously injured a second woman. His embassy whisked him out of the country to avoid facing criminal charges here. After howls of outrage across Canada and protests from the Canadian government, he was eventually tried and convicted in his own country.
So it makes some sense, then, that in a recent survey asking Ottawa residents to name their greatest safety concern, a majority said speeding traffic. Mind you, they didn't say drunk diplomats, but then they weren't asked what class of drivers posed the greatest risk to their personal safety.
The real message of the survey, though, says Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan, is that in many other cities, the big safety concern is violent crime. Here, in orderly Ottawa, which has a population of about 1 million, it is traffic, followed by vandalism, and breaking and entering. Fourth on the list is theft of bicycles. I'm only guessing here, but fifth might be rudeness. Or it might be spitting on the pavement.
Seriously now, how safe is that? Can you imagine a tamer city than this? A major urban centre not 160km from the American border where people worry not about being shot, stabbed or kidnapped, but about having their bikes stolen? And you wonder why Canadians are described as terminally boring. Mr Bevan thinks the survey is a triumph, that we should be celebrating the fact that we all feel so safe. Maybe so. But it could also be seen as evidence that we're like that crabby neighbour who walks around complaining about litter, and the slightest hint of music or fun, coming from your apartment.
The survey results were made public on the same day that an outfit called Mercer Human Resource Consulting released its annual city rankings. Of 215 cities worldwide that were graded according to 39 criteria, which include personal safety, health, cleanliness, pollution and transport, Ottawa ranked 18th. Zurich took first place, Baghdad last. Okay, so maybe the Swiss are even more boring than us.
