Peter John Michael Sloly (born 5 August 1966) is a Canadian former police officer who served as the chief of police for the

Ottawa Police Service The Ottawa Police Service (OPS; French: ''Service de police d'Ottawa'') is the municipal police service of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as well as most of the north east Ontario side of the National Capital Region. As of 2022, this police service ...

(OPS) from 2019 to 2022. Before joining the OPS, Sloly was a member of the

Toronto Police Service The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police se ...

(TPS) for 27 years, including as a deputy chief of police from 2009 to 2016. Prior to his police career, Sloly played soccer professionally, and made an appearance for the Canada men's national team in a 1984 friendly against Egypt.

Early, personal life and education

Sloly was born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

and moved to

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

at the age of ten. He has a wife and two children, a daughter and son. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in Sociology from

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

in 1989 and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

from

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

University's

Schulich School of Business The Schulich School of Business is the business school of York University located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The institution provides undergraduate and graduate degree and diploma programs in business administration, finance, accounting, bus ...

in 2004. Sloly also earned a Criminal Justice Certificate from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, an Incident Command System Certification from the

Justice Institute of British Columbia Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) is a public, post-secondary educational institution in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, that is focused on training professionals in the justice, public safety and social services fields. JI ...

, the Major City Chief's Police Executive Development Program,

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

's Rotman Police Executive Leadership Program and is a graduate of the

FBI National Academy The FBI National Academy is a program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Academy for active U.S. law enforcement personnel and also for international law enforcement personnel who seek to enhance their credentials in their field and to ...

Soccer career

He is also a former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who earned one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Canadian national side against

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in a friendly match on 2 November 1984. He also played with the Canada men's national under-20 soccer team in the

1985 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship was the fifth edition FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 24 August to 7 September 1985. The tournament took place in ten venues within eight host citie ...

. In 1986, he played in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

with

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

. In 1987, he played for

North York Rockets The North York Rockets were a professional soccer team based in North York, Toronto, Ontario that competed in the original Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992), Canadian Soccer League. They were one of four teams to participate in every season of ...

in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; ) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL). It is a non-FIFA league previously ...

. In 2011, he was the recipient of the

Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2024, the Canada Soccer Ha ...

's Brian Budd Award for leadership on and off the field.

Police career

Toronto Police Service

After retiring as a soccer player, Sloly joined the Toronto Police Service in 1988, where he served for 27 years. In 2001 and 2002, Sloly served two tours in the

United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Привремена административна мисија Уједињених нација на Косову, Privremena administrativna misija Ujedinjenih na ...

(UNMIK) as a Command Staff Officer and the Canadian Contingent Commander. He was named deputy chief for Divisional Policing Command and Operational Support Command on 22 September 2009. At age 43, he was the youngest deputy chief in the history of the Toronto Police Service. In 2015, he was a candidate to succeed outgoing police chief

Bill Blair William "Bill" Sterling Blair (born April 9, 1954) is a Canadian politician and former police officer who served as the Minister of National Defence (Canada), Minister of National Defence from 2023 to 2025. A member of the Liberal Party of Can ...

, but was passed over in favour of Mark Saunders, who was seen as more popular with members of the service. In January 2016, Sloly gave a speech criticizing the size of the police budget as excessive, in which he said: "Until policing stops being focused and driven on that reactive enforcement model, it will continue to be exponentially costly." His comments were criticized by the

Toronto Police Association The Toronto Police Association (TPA), founded in 1944, is a labour organization representing the approximately 8,000 civilian members of the Toronto Police Service in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. While police officers in Ontario are prohibited by ...

, who also filed a formal complaint, and were viewed as a criticism of Chief Saunders. On 10 February 2016 it was announced that Sloly had resigned as deputy chief and that he had approached the

Toronto Police Services Board The Toronto Police Service Board (TPSB) is the civilian police board that governs the Toronto Police Service (TPS). The board is responsible for approving the annual police budget, defining objectives and policies for TPS, and hiring Toronto's p ...

several months prior with a request that he be released from his contract, which was to have ended in December 2017. The head of the Toronto Police Association celebrated Sloly's departure. During his time in Toronto, Sloly developed a reputation as a progressive reformer reluctant to use harsher policing tactics.

Consulting

On 28 April 2016 Sloly was hired by

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

Canada to serve as a consultant handling risk and forensic practices projects.

Ottawa Police Service

In August 2019, it was announced that he would become Chief of the

, effective 28 October 2019. A video emerged of an Ottawa police officer pulling over a Black man and accusing him of having expired plates in September 2020, resulting in public criticism of the Ottawa Police Service. The man filmed the encounter, including when he and the officer went over to the licence plate, revealing that it was in fact valid. The man accused the officer of racism, and both the officer and the Ottawa Police Service apologized. In response, Sloly directed every member of the Ottawa police to complete trainings on conscious and

unconscious bias An implicit bias or implicit stereotype is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Implicit stereotypes are thought to be shaped by experience and based on learned association ...

, anti-Black racism and

racial profiling Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the offender profiling, selective enforcement or selective prosecution based on race or ethnicity, rather than individual suspicion or evidence. This practice involves discrimination against minority pop ...

. In June 2021, Sloly, in a personal capacity, sought $150,000 in damages from ''Ottawa Life Magazine'' for alleged defamation over a story in the publication's 10 March 2021 edition, which criticized his handling of misogyny within the force after women came forward with sexual harassment and sexual assault claims after a Deputy Chief was internally charged with harassment. It alleged that Sloly planned to only reveal the names of officers found guilty of misconduct against women in the force if their actions also impacted women outside the force. Sloly denied the allegations as false and malicious, and said that if he won his lawsuit, he would donate the earnings to the local

Boys and Girls Club Boys & Girls Club may refer to: * Boys & Girls Clubs of America * Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada * Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Clubs, Bronx, United States * Essex Boys and Girls Clubs, in Essex and East London, England * The Boys' and Girls' Clubs ...

. In August 2021, ''Ottawa Life Magazine'''s lawyer, Mark Bourrie, said that the magazine would seek to have the suit dismissed under Ontario's strategic lawsuit against public participation law. In 2022, the OPS and Sloly faced criticism for their handling of the

Canada convoy protest The Canada convoy protest, known as the Freedom Convoy (French: ''Convoi de la liberté'') was a series of protests and blockades across Canada in early 2022, initially organized to oppose COVID-19 vaccination in Canada, COVID-19 vaccine man ...

, where thousands of protestors occupied much of

downtown Ottawa Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the east, ...

, resulting in the desecration of monuments, street and business closures, as well as intimidation and harassment of residents. Sloly resigned on 15 February 2022, following weeks of criticism for his handling of the protests. His OPS contract was due to end in 2024, and he was paid the remainder of contract in full. Sloly has been described as a

scapegoat In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...

for the situation, by Ottawa Councillor Catherine McKenney, noting various key city staff that did not offer support during the occupation.

Honours

* Officer of the

Order of Merit of the Police Forces The Order of Merit of the Police Forces () is an honour for merit that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the only such fellowship reserved for only members of Canada's various police forces. Created in 2000, the order is administered by ...

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal () or The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. There are four versions of the medal: one iss ...

* Police Exemplary Service Medal *

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

& Canadian

Peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities, especially military ones, intended to create conditions that favor lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed w ...

Medals —

UNMIK The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Привремена административна мисија Уједињених нација на Косову, Privremena administrativna misija Ujedinjenih na ...

Kosovo * Brian Budd Award: 2011

References

External links

* *
The Governor General of Canada > Honours > Find a Recipient > Peter Sloly

Peter Sloly's biography at Toronto Police Service
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sloly, Peter J. 1966 births Living people Toronto police officers Canadian men's soccer players Canada men's international soccer players Jamaican emigrants to Canada Canadian police officers Canada men's youth international soccer players Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993) players North York Rockets players Canadian National Soccer League players Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992) players Sportspeople from Scarborough, Ontario Soccer players from Toronto McMaster University alumni York University alumni Footballers from Kingston, Jamaica Deloitte people Black Canadian men's soccer players Men's association football defenders Ottawa police chiefs Canada convoy protest Officers of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces 20th-century Canadian sportsmen