Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair defended a regulation that allows police to arrest and imprison people who fail to submit to a search and provide identification at G20 barricades.
Blair insisted the temporary regulation designating the G20 security zone under the Ontario Public Works Protection Act is necessary to maintain public safety during the international summit - and he maintained the law was not passed in secret when approved by Ontario cabinet June 2, but was published on the government's website."It was public by the province of Ontario, and if you go and Google Public Works Protection Act in Ontario, it's the second thing that will come up," Blair told reporters Friday, June 25.The regulation gives police the right to arrest and detain anyone who refuses to submit to a search and to present identification when moving within five metres of the security fence surrounding Toronto's downtown core.It is in effect over the course of the summit - from June 21 to June 28. Anyone convicted under the law faces a maximum of two months in jail and a $500 fine.Police have similar powers at other public buildings - including Toronto Police Service's headquarters on College Street. But this application is the first to come forward for an entire part of town.Blair said that Torontonians would not be forced to submit to a search or show identification. But they would have to leave the proximity of the fence."People will not be arrested," he said. "They have the right to not identify themselves. If someone comes to the fence and seeks entry, they will be asked to identify themselves. If they refuse and they have the right to refuse, then they leave and they will leave without being arrested. If on the other hand they try to force their way in, they will be arrested."Local Trinity-Spadina Councillor and Police Services Board member Adam Vaughan said he first heard about the regulation Friday, when he read about it in the newspaper.He said, however, the effects of the law were overblown - particularly in that it is merely an extension of existing legislation protecting other key infrastructure."The law isn't new - what's new is where it's being applied," he said. "It's been in effect at Union Station for a number of years now. And if you look at the fences as being an extension of Union Station then it's not as radical a change as that."He said that he suspected few people would find themselves arrested under the law."I think most people that have been at the fence and around the fence are aware that the police have asked for checks," he said. "People are being asked for ID for getting through the fence if there's a reason to be suspicious. My sense is that the fences are being respected, and people approaching the fences are being treated respectfully."Mayor David Miller wouldn't comment on the matter according to his spokesperson Stuart Green, but Deputy Mayor and mayoralty candidate Joe Pantalone said he was disappointed the law had been passed without any consultation with city officials."The city should have been consulted," said Pantalone. "We have the Toronto Emergency Management Planning Committee of which the mayor is chair and I am as deputy mayor vice chair - which is involved to make sure people's rights are protected and to make sure that safety is maintained in our streets. One would have thought the democratic process would have required prior consultation."However, Pantalone said he did believe that Blair would handle the powers judiciously."What I do not know is whether the police know something that we don't know," he said. "Therefore one's comment has to be weighed with that."Mayoralty candidate and city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti had a different take on the matter.He said that if the provincial government has the power to lift civil liberties of people simply approaching a fence, they should be able to do the same thing to suspected drug dealers in his York West neighbourhoods."If they've got the ability to pass legislation that arrests people for walking past the fence, why aren't they taking the gang members on in the street?" said Mammoliti. "What the hell are their priorities?"Mammoliti did say that the city - as well as the public - should have been consulted."How would the citizens of Toronto feel if we passed a bylaw early in the middle of the night, with nobody knowing, and allowed ourselves to do what we wanted? How would people feel? They'd be up in arms."