I'm working on a pyromancer and am having trouble thinking of any defensive applications for his powers.  I thought of something similar to Ramirez's shielding, but using fire to pump energy into objects and shatter them rather than using water to disrupt them.  The other possibility I've thought of is using fire's purifying aspect to create an effect similar to hyperawareness (YS Pg. 294).  Beyond that I'm stumped.

A few of mine
Axe-crazy ex-thrall

Lycanthrope Outlaw

Pyromancer for hire

Heathen Holy Warrior (Asatru worshipper, Tyr specifically)

If anyone wants to hear more about one of them, let me know.

I don't even know what types of water count.  The canal looks stagnant on the surface but actually moves pretty fast underneath.  In Venice it's sea water I think.  The last time I remember running water being used in the books was back in Death Masks, and Harry was immersed in it.

There are a few problems I can think of with regards to the aboriginal pact idea:

Firstly, it's a little too much "Ottawa as the Capital" and not enough "Ottawa as a city", and you might want to think of this city in terms of all the stuff that goes on away from the direct business of government.  Instead of focusing on the plight of the Inuit and First nations as a whole focus on those that live in this particular area.  There's the Akwesasne reservation near Cornwall, and there are natives living in Ottawa, many below the poverty line.  I'd say that as a rule supernatural predators are going to strike against the most vulnerable prey, which might apply to those in the city but probably wouldn't apply to Akwesasne (too many guns).  The problems at Akwesasne tend to revolve around drug-related crime and violence, or at least that's what the RCMP's publicly available information on organized crime in the area seems to say.

Ok, but you have this national organization that tried to make a deal with supernatural entities, only problem is that non-supernatural human organizations (pre-Marcone) have no status under the accords, and little capacity to enforce the pact except by force.  Given that the only way to strike such a bargain would be in a negative way, by not providing protection, then possibly your national agency simply doesn't apply any force to protect reservations, maybe making a claim about lacking the mandate to enforce on Native land to justify non-interference.

I've tried looking at the role of natives in the history of Ottawa, but it gets a little confusing; the land Ottawa was built on was handed over by treaty in 1822, though there were already settlers here before that, but the group who were negotiated with, the Mississauga, never actually hunted around here.  There were Algonquin here, but they were either forced out or mixed in with white squatters when development got organized.

If you dan't want to post your ideas but still want feedback, feel free to PM me.  I'll just post my stuff here for the moment.

what Deadmanwalking and SoulCatcher78 said about missing persons, plus suicides.  Children abducted by trolls or the victims of house Raith are unlikely to show up in murder statistics.  I've been able to get a look at a crime map of Ottawa's missing persons cases and there are plenty, about 300 in the last 30 days.  Even given that most of those people will be found and the causes will be quite mundane in the real world, in the Dresdenverse some of those people may have been taken into the nevernever, or their bodies were disposed of and never found.  I haven't been able to track down suicide figures yet; and all I have to go on are the stories from some guys I knew on a rowing team and the number of times they saw bodies first thing in the morning on the canal or Dow's lake, but that may be a biased sample.

The low rate of violent death in Ottawa makes it unlikely we have any numbers of Black court vampires or ghouls around, but that leaves a lot of options.  There is a fair amount of variation in the styles of various Red court vampires; Bianca left a trail of bodies, while Ortega was very controlled in the matter of feeding.  He kept deaths to a minimum and kept a captive community for his vassals to feed on.  If the city does have Reds they probably act in a similar way, confining their feeding to poorer areas of the city (Vanier? Hintonburg?) and using cash and threats to buy the silence of their blood supply.  Or if you prefer a darker route, and don't mind borrowing from White Wolf, they may have simply grabbed people no one would miss and keep them caged like battery hens someplace secret; maybe someplace outside of town off a side-road.  The Raith don't have to go to those lengths, their feeding is usually non-lethal and when they do kill it probably doesn't look like murder.

One thing I can say is that if this city had a supernatural presence, they would not be sloppy.  Ortega or Lara could survive here, Mavra or Bianca would likely cause too much disruption and draw too much notice.  Subtler actors and manipulators would find it easier to move about here, provided they were careful enough in cleaning up after themselves.

As far as a element of conflict goes, Ottawa weather suggests we may be a battleground for the Winter and Summer courts.  I doubt either of them is responsible for hushing up the fallout of those battles, besides weird and unseasonal heat waves and cold snaps, but that still leaves plenty of options for string-pullers.  A government organization could be a potential candidate there, but given powers of the vampires and the sidhe I find it unlikely that such a group could remain [1] hidden, and [2] uncorrupted.  

I've been away for a few months to avoid spoilers for Changes, Hello all.

Ancalagon, Greetings to a fellow resident of Ottawa.

My personal perspective on government interaction with the supernatural is that the boot is likely to be on the other foot, supernatural beings may have need to manipulate public servants and others to ensure their secrecy and continued existence.  The vampires or the fae are likely to be better at this than wizards, for the simple reason that they have no restrictions on their ability to influence and control mortals with their powers, beyond the restriction on using police or public exposure against another accorded faction.  Consider the disappearance of Susan's Loup Garou tape, or Madeline's use of mind-control to move mortal agents in Turn Coat.  The later case was private sector, and the former may have been as well, but the only limitation preventing interference with the government is the reference to using mortals being equivalent to going "nuclear" and I think there may be limitations on when that applies.

Consider the Special Investigations Unit from the books; they are to an extent aware and Harry's assistance has helped them battle a number of supernatural threats, some independent and some tied to the larger groups.  Given that harry was able to use the help of the cops to bring down Kravos back in Grave peril it seems that the Nuclear option is permissable against anyone not covered by the Unseelie Accords.  He did not bring in SI, other than Murphy, when he was facing Mavra scourge or the Lord Raith in Blood Rites; and I think that using her presence to muscle other supernaturals is going to come back to bite him.  But in general, the limitation on making use or influencing the police only seems to come up when they are used against another signatory of the accords.  Taking steps to ensure the continued secrecy magic and vampires is probably just regarded as good business, and if they happen to use a thrall to send the cops after some troublemakers (non-wizard PCs) then it's not an accord violation, given Harry's precedent.

Police and related services (in Ottawa the RCMP leap to mind) are likely going to be a primary focus of both control and resistance.  Attempting to shush any stories about bodies drained of blood popping up in the Canal or the Ottawa river, or a rash of suicides or people who died from their endorphin or adrenaline systems overloaded with pleasure or fear, is much easier for vamps if they have a thrall or a mortal agent on the inside.  Health services are also another possibility; both for discovering the truth in the data and dealing with a controlled colleague ordered into hushing up incriminating data by inhuman masters.  Any characters functioning in such a setting have got to keep wondering about who they can trust; who have the enemy got to.  You could be in Public Health or Transportation and still feel like you're in a spy novel.

If you want to have a specialized agency that deals with the supernatural you have to think of a few things:

1) How far up does the knowledge go?  Has the Minister been briefed?  Has the Prime Minister been briefed?

2) Has the organization been compromised?

3) If not, how have they avoided it?

And on that note I got my first spellslinger character concept popping into my head after reading that description.  It may sound crazy, but I think I might just play a Chloromancer.

I'm still working out how to make that work but that's OK; so long as I can make long grass trip up my enemies I can wait to work out how to make a chlorofiend. 

What's the line between True Believer and Champion of God?

And in a universe where powers other than capital G God exist, will small g gods and godesses be able to field Champions, or do they get Emissaries of Power?