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Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, an Ottawa Centre MPP, organizes the game annually and said its aim is to bring the community and the police together.

Doing the ceremonial the tip-off was Chief Bordeleau, who described the event as “an opportunity for us to interact with the community — specifically the young Somali community.

“I think it’s these types of events that have helped us build that relationship of trust between the police and the community and we recognize that that’s been breached right now, we have to work hard at it,” Bordeleau said.

When asked about controversy surrounding alleged biases within the police force, Bordeleau said it’s an issue the OPS has been addressing with the launch of a training program he called the fair and impartial policing program.

“It’s an outstanding program that speaks very much to those unconscious biases that every human has and to ensure that you recognize those and that those biases don’t impact your decision-making,” Bordeleau said.

“We all have biases around different things. We’re human beings, we’re wired that way, but it’s to be able to recognize those and to make sure your decision-making doesn’t get influenced by those.”

Later, at the demonstration outside the police headquarters, demonstrator R.J. Pate read out a list of demands for the Ottawa police. They called for the SIU report into Abdi’s death to be released publicly once it’s complete; they urged police to put the officers involved in the altercation with Abdi on unpaid leave for the duration of the probe; and they demanded that Ottawa police officers be required to wear body cameras.