Ottawa’s National Capital Commission Conservation Officers and the Policing of Public Park Sex

The National Capital Commission (NCC) is an organization responsible for so-called ‘beautification’ and land development around Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. This paper examines surveillance of public sex by NCC conservation officers in Ottawa’s parks. Conceptualizing NCC conservation officer work as policing, I analyze conservation officer occurrence reports obtained through federal-level access to information requests to examine how public male with male sexual activity is problematized and criminalized. This case study of NCC conservation officer work demonstrates how notions of so-called ‘appropriate’ sexuality and space usage can be shaped and reinforced through policing and surveillance conducted by governance agents who have peace officer status. Conservation officers have been excluded from studies of policing because of a bias towards conventional municipal officers in the policing literature as well as the marginal status of specialized enforcement agents. Contributing to the literature on policing of public sex, my analysis of conservation officer occurrence reports suggests that even when bylaws and park regulations concerning erotic acts are written in gender-neutral and innocuous language, these bylaws are enforced in ways that discriminate against public homoeroticism. Though NCC officer policing is integral to attempts at purifying urban space, because of their mandate to promote the spirit of Canada in the lands surrounding Ottawa I argue that sexuality is also a matter of national character for the NCC.