#wrps — Public Fediverse posts

KITCHENER APPROVES WRPS SURVEILLANCE PILOT PROJECT

In May 2026, the City of Kitchener approved a one-year police surveillance camera pilot program, which allows the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) and automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems on municipal infrastructure. 

The program’s initial deployment sites include downtown Kitchener along King St. and the Fairview Park Mall […]

While #WRPS has started collecting for its annual backpack campaign, I want to remind everyone that there are great local community-led, police-free organizations already doing similar work. If you're interested in donating to a backpack campaign this year, please consider Send'em Off Smiling. https://sendemoff.ca/

I love that restorative justice is in the news but there is a seemingly major omission from these discussions - where is Community Justice Initiatives? This makes it sound like this was #WRPS's idea when #CJI (and the Crime Prevention Council when it existed) have already been doing this work. https://bsky.app/profile/dtkmelissa.bsky.social/post/3moql4nvzjc2h

Police say they want to do more to build trust with the community so they initiate a series of presentations "to explain how the service is tracking and responding to racism in policing." When few actually attend, how does one draw this conclusion: “I wouldn’t say any of the apathy is apprehension to work with police."? #WRPS https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/police-waterloo-community-advisory-panel/article_f88f5a05-7f67-58a7-8155-a36ebf3099db.html

Hey, if anyone has seen Elias Wood, let me know?

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQDYWQgisB6/

He's an MSW student who my boss is supervising and he's been missing since Sunday. It's very possible he skipped town; hopefully he's not been hurt. Please boost.

@waterlooregion @WaterlooEvents #MissingPerson #WRPS #Waterloo #Kitchener #WaterlooRegion

ONTARIO GOVERNMENT INTRODUCES BILL 33, CONCERNS RAISED

On May 29, the Ontario government introduced Bill 33 to legislation. 

The Bill offers more power to the premier’s office over school boards while tightening oversight of children’s aid societies, colleges and universities.  

The Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025, Bill 33, would amend four major laws—including the Education Act and the Child, Youth and Family Services Act.  

First, Bill 33 introduces new administrative and fiscal oversight measures for children’s aid societies, such as providing information about the Ombudsman to children and youth, reviewing by-laws and making them available to the public, obtaining ministerial approval for financial decisions that impact approved budgets, and expanding the definition of “institution” to include maternity homes.  

It also makes changes to the residing Education Act, where there will be more ministerial oversight and new cooperation requirements for Ontario school boards, with requirements such as: submitting to increased ministerial authority, where the education minister has more supremacy to investigate school boards, issue binding directives to the public and establish guidelines on board expenses.   

Other requirements include obtaining ministerial approval for the name of a new school or changing the name of an existing school, collaborating with police services on school programming, and implementing internal audits conducted by the ministry to enhance financial accountability.  

Scott Miller, director of education for the Waterloo Region District School Board, said the board will continue to work with local police and the community if the legislation passes.  

“The Waterloo Region District School Board [WRDSB] prioritizes safe, inclusive and welcoming learning environments for all students,” Miller said. “As a school board, we work closely with the Waterloo Regional Police Service [WRPS] to support the safety and well-being of WRDSB school communities. Bill 33 is still under review but if the bill is passed, we will continue to engage thoughtfully with our community partners, staff, students, parents and families to ensure decisions reflect the needs and values of WRDSB school communities.”  

Beyond K-12 schools, the bill also targets Ontario’s colleges and universities.  

The Bill amends the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities Act, focusing on admissions practices, research security and fee regulations. They plan to implement publicly accessible, merit-based admission standards, with details to be defined through regulation, develop and implement research security plans to safeguard and mitigate the risk of harm to or interference with research activities, and comply with government regulations regarding ancillary student fees, which may restrict fee structures and affect funding for student services.  

The Ministry of Colleges and Universities also received a new name: the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security. This change, along with the new requirements for colleges and universities to develop and implement research security plans, reflects heightened governmental focus on research security.  

“At this point, the university, along with our Ontario post-secondary education peers, is closely monitoring the legislative discussion of the proposed Bill 33 and its potential impacts on universities,” Aonghus Kealy, Communications and Media Relations Officer at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) said.   

Bruce Gillespie, President of the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association (WLUFA), emphasized that there are more risks involved in this bill than benefits.  

“It centralizes control over admissions, enables ministerial directives for research security, and broadens authority over student fees,” Gillespie said. “Universities already publish admission standards and safeguard research; layering new directives and fee controls adds red tape and cost without fixing chronic underfunding.”  

He added that the bill will burden staff and students at post-secondary institutions such as WLU.  

“It increases compliance workload and puts student-funded services at risk, while the real issue-operating funding—goes unaddressed,” Gillespie said.  

He also explains that if provincial rules destabilize student-funded services (from peer supports to transit and campus media), the unmet need doesn’t disappear; it shows up in classrooms and office hours. Faculty across ranks, and especially contract faculty, will end up doing more informal advising, crisis triage and support with fewer resources.  

Gillespie said he opposed the bill, arguing it undermines the autonomy of admissions and fees, risks weakening equity initiatives, and expands oversight that bypasses normal scrutiny, without improving teaching, research, or student supports. He hopes that Bill 33 will either remove or substantially amend the bill to protect equity-based admissions in statute, avoid fee controls that destabilize student services, and provide transparent, consultative research-security guidance.  

“On governance, the province should explicitly preserve Senate authority over academic matters and commit to meaningful consultation with students, not just anonymous surveys,” Gillespie said.  

As Bill 33 moves through legislative debate, its impact on Ontario’s education and child welfare systems remains a central concern for educators, administrators and policymakers alike. 

#AbdullahZafar #bill33 #BruceGillespie #childWelfare #DougFord #educationAct #fordGovernment #ontarioEducation #SangjunHan #senate #WaterlooRegionDistrictSchoolBoard #WaterlooRegionalPoliceService #wilfridLaurierUniversityFacultyAssociation #WRDSB #WRPS

@esvrld I’d love them more if #WRPS didn’t criminalize PoC four times as often as white people. I’d love them more if they weren’t strangling out all local social services with their out of control budget that grows faster than anything else, taking a bigger percentage of our taxes year after year after year. I’m sure your uncle is a great guy but we need to have some frank discussions about policing in North America. We need more police criticism. We need policing reform.

At a few minutes past noon, I came across the scene of a cyclist casualty where an SUV from the Waterloo Regional Police Service had run over the front half of a bicycle. It was on Weber, in the plaza adjacent to the gas station on King. It appeared that it must have happened very recently. There was still medical supplies on the ground but the victim had been moved to the ambulance.

Paramedics were tending to the victim who looked to me to be in their 20s. They were alert and looking pissed off but had blood coming down their forehead. They did not wish to be photographed so I didn’t.

The bike is the kind of junker that you only ride when you have to to get by in life. It’s totally destroyed.

It appears to me from the positioning that the cyclist was riding on the sidewalk, though they could have been turning into the plaza or legally on the street. Wherever they were when they were hit, the cop did not react very quickly! You can see that the rear wheel is completely beyond the sidewalk. They probably went at least a full car length before they were able to stop.

Probably they will still charge the cyclist with unsafe operation or something.

Attached are a bunch of untouched photos straight off my phone. Please get in touch to use them. I have more.

#waterloo #wrps #police #cycling