2010-06-29
The Ontario government says police were never granted special powers to detain and arrest people who came within five metres of the G20 security perimeter.
The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services insists a change to the Public Works Protection Act, legislation that governs most public space in Ontario, that was made behind closed doors by Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet on June 2, applied only to the inside of the security fence.
“The Ontario government did not pass a secret law that gave police additional power to arrest people during the G20 Summit in Toronto,” said Laura Blondeau, a spokeswoman for Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci.
“What the Ontario government did do, in the same way we process all regulations, is to create a regulation to ensure all areas within the security perimeter, were equally considered public lands under the Public Works Protection Act.”
She said police made no arrests under the Act.
“They have authority for that under the Criminal Code. Anything that was employed this weekend outside the perimeter was under existing powers. There was not one arrest using the Public Works Protection Act. There were no sweeping powers.”
The Public Works Protection Act dates back to 1939 and is applied every day in courthouses and other designated public areas.
This morning, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair told the Canadian Press that he was aware that there was in fact no five-metre rule to do with the outside of the fence.
Ms. Blondeau said the five-metre distance mentioned in the regulation applied to a “strip inside the fence, where the fence runs along two places that are not streets or sidewalks, specifically, land near a Rogers Centre Parking lot and the land behind a building near the Rogers Centre.”
Despite today’s clarification from the ministry, Premier Dalton McGuinty seems to have made little effort to clarify the widely-reported measures.
“I think most Ontarians understand that there is something extraordinary happening inside our province. There is a real concern that is heightened at this point in time related to security and that’s why this special measure is there,” Mr. McGuinty said Friday.
“These are all special public spaces where security is a heightened concern and police are going to be entitled to ask for ID and to search your bag as a condition for being there. You’ve got a choice. You can comply. You can refuse. If you refuse, then you will have to leave.”
An interview request with the Premier today has not been granted to the National Post.