There are many responsible and even idealistic officers who are a part of the Ottawa Police.  However, it appears that these officers may not include Detective Isabelle Coady who coordinates elder abuse investigations for the Ottawa Police and Sergeant Chris Rolof.

It has been nearly one month since a son had witnessed his own Mom being assaulted by his father.  The son had reported the assault of his Mom to the Ottawa Police.  However, upon arrival, the Police improperly interviewed the Mom in front of the father as the suspect.  This was an apparent breach of police protocol.  The Mom under duress from the prying eyes of the father did not lay charges.  And, ever since that time things have gotten worse for the Mom.

The Mom has been tacitly denied access to her son as her primary care giver, and also denied access to others by the very father who has been described as having assaulted his Mother.

You see the Mom is not only over 80 years old but has also been diagnosed with having ataxia and a degenerative muscular condition alongside extremely high blood pressure.   As a result of this condition, the Mom has developed acute speech and mobility problems.  The father has resisted attempts the son and others to work toward reversing the Mom's medical conditions..

The son had been taking care of his Mom up to the time of the reported assault.  This includes the preparation of daily meals designed to meet his Mom's critical nutritional needs.  However, as a result of apparent incompetence under the auspices of Detective Coady, rather than the father being upbraided for perpetrating abuse, it was the father who told the police that he wanted them to immediately evict the son from the premises for having reported the incident.

It appears that the father did not want the son to witness any more abuse in the home that the son has been witnessing and the Police were quick to comply

As a result, the son who had been his Mom's primary care-giver for years was formally thrown out by Ottawa Police after 2 AM that early morning.

Detective Isabelle Coady has since that time apparently not medically verified the ailing Mom's health.  Her eventual promises of social service intervention has apparently to-date resulted in no redress on the monitoring of the vital needs of the Mom that the son had been seeking to safeguard.

For weeks now, Detective Isabelle Coady to-date has also not fulfilled the Mom's inviolable request to see her son.  The son has contacted Detective Coady who has yet to fulfill his Mom's request that she see her son and the son's correspondent request that he she his Mom that also is of a medically urgent nature. 

Back in the summer, the son had witnessed his Mom crouched beside her bed not breathing and unconscious.  The son called his father from downstairs and told his father that he would call 9-1-1 for help.  The father became upset and quickly accused his son of being an "alarmist" and that there was "no need" for emergency services.  But thanks to that phone call, the son was directed on how to get his Mom breathing and back to consciousness.  Since that time, the Mom has said that her son "saved her life."  This is the son who is now denied access under the auspices of Detective Isabelle Coady and Sergeant Rolof.

Requests to Detective Coady to facilitate the Mom and the son seeing each other over Mother's Day were also ignored alongside Sergeant Chris Rolof's own apparent negligence.

You might ask why?  That is because the father having gotten the police to evict the son then told police over a week after that the son would not be allowed onto the premises to collect anymore of his personal belongings and that he would not "allow" him to see his own Mother.  What?  According to Ottawa Police Office at the time, the father "has the right" to treat his wife as an extension of his property and "forbid" the son from seeing his ailing Mom.

You must forgive these police officers acting under the auspices of Detective Isabelle Coady forgetting that this is Canada and not some religious fundamentalist country in which women are "property".  This is Canada, and in our society, women, the elderly and all people have rights that are guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  These include freedom of association and mobility rights.

The father has been treating his wife as his property, and denying her the right of mobility and to freely associate with her son as guaranteed by the Charter.  Furthermore, the father's refusal of his wife to see her son (and other people) constitutes forcible confinement as defined by the Canadian Criminal Code.  Detective Coady and Sergeant Rolof has refused to protect the Mom's mobility rights as per forcible confinement.

The father appears to be exploiting his wife's medical condition by keeping her relatively confined to mostly the master bedroom of the house for months.  As a result, the Mom is getting little exercise that in turn is worsening her medical condition.

The website of the Law Office of Alexander Ejsmont based in Vancouver elaborates the following on forcible confinement:

"A charge of Forcible Confinement requires only a minimal deprivation of freedom of movement: A person can be charged with Forcible Confinement for any conduct that restricts the liberty of another person – everything from standing in a doorway and refusing to let someone leave a space, to locking a person out on an apartment patio against their wishes."

In the last contact that the son had with his Mom when he was collecting some of his stuff weeks ago, his Mom wrote down that she "misses his and Dad treats her wicked."  The Mom had previously written down before the reported incident of assault that "Dad abuses her".  This note was shown to me in his Mom's shaky handwriting and was written on the bottom of a box of chocolate.

Detective Coady's response has been to deny that there had ever been abuse based upon the Mom's inadmissible statement that she made in front of her husband that she fears and apparently for good reason.

The father's treatment of his wife amounts to forcible confinement in Canadian law.

According to Stats Canada, In 2007, about half (48%) of all victims of forcible confinement were held against their will by their spouse or other intimate partner, such as a boyfriend or girlfriend. Most incidents occurred in conjunction with another violent offence, such as assault (70%) or uttering threats (28%). Seven in 10 victims (71%) were in a current relationship with the perpetrator.

The apparent lesson here for any Ottawa residents who seek to report elder abuse specifically and abuse in general is that the police may be directed to turn against you for reporting the incident.

The father's abuse has not just been physical.  The son apparently documented to police on-going neglect.  This includes neglect in the preparation of food in general and nutritional requires specifically needed by his Mom that is designed to treat and remedy his Mom's medical condition.  The son who was out on meetings and errands came into the house after 8 pm.  When his Mom heard him coming in, she got out of the Master Bedroom that she has been confined to to wave for her son's attention to come up the stairs.  When the son approached his Mom, she then revealed that she had not eaten all day, as the father watched TV and sipped tea downstairs.

In another incident provided to The Canadian, when the son asked the father if he had been taking daily checks of his Mom's high blood pressure, the father's reply was "Go to Hell".

The father has also refused to provide his Mom's with speech therapy that was recommended by a local hospital,

The son's attempt to take his mother out on medically prescribed walks was also blocked by the father who became enraged a couple weeks before the reported incident of assault. The father reportedly threatened his son with "legal action" as 'next of kin' of his Mother.

This was not the first incident of domestic violence in the home.  In January 2013, the father who was sitting at the kitchen table at the time, sprung out of his seat to charge at the son for raising concerns about the way that he was treating his Mom.  The enraged father took a knife out of the kitchen draw immediately beside the fridge and pointed it at his son's stomach.  The son who was concerned about possibly being stabbed in the stomach, then grabbed the knife with his left hand as the father continued to push the knife at his son.  The immediate result of this incident was the the son's left finger almost severed and he was immediately rushed to Ottawa Hospital for surgery that would require several months of rehabilitation.  The son was not able to work for months since that time.  He could have moved out but did not want to leave his Mom to contest with such a hostile environment on her own.

In spite of the forensic evidence of the assault, Sergeant Chris Rolof has to-date refused to lay any charges or to support any remedial action.  Full details of the incident were not disclosed at the time out of fear of retribution by the father against the son.  However, the son has now reported the full details of the incident after being urged by the responsible members of the Ottawa Police to do so.

Is the father suffering from some kind of mental illness you might enquire?

The son reported that the father -- who is also over 80 years old and over 6', which is nearly twice the weight of his 5' Mom -- has had a worsening pattern of "disorientation" during driving.  This has included often driving in two lanes; not knowing where he is exactly and witnessed going through a red light.

How can any senior citizens expect any substantive relief for abuse from the Ottawa Police when their response to such a case has been so negligent, irresponsible, apathetic and without human decency under the direction of the two prime investigative officers discharged with redressing abuse.  Having received information on this incident, I was outraged and seek to share a critical awareness about this case with fellow Ottawa residents.