Ontario's Arrest-Boosting Law for G20 - Updated

(Toronto, Ontario) Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair have been bombarded with complaints about the secretive expanded police powers of arrest. Abuse of governmental power has been claimed by opposition parties, city councillors, civil libertarians and regular Torontonians.

“These are police state regulations — we fought wars to protect freedoms like these,” thundered Councillor Howard Moscoe.

“Yes, (Blair) should have made the change public. Not everyone carries ID and they have a right to know if they’re breaking the law by going near a fence.”

At Queen’s Park, NDP justice critic and lawyer Peter Kormos said: “This law was not only passed in secret, it was kept secret.

“This is the stuff Kafka wrote novels about. Secret laws that the citizenry is not aware of are the hallmarks of tin pot dictatorships.”

The measure, carrying a penalty of up to two months in jail or a $500 fine upon conviction, was revealed after a 31-year-old York University master’s student refused to show identification near the fence and was arrested based on a regulation few knew existed.

The government contends that the new regulation wasn't kept secret since it was posted on the e-laws website on June 16. It's not their fault if no one noticed. Critics assert that the whole issue was kept low-key to avoid a guaranteed constitutional challenge.

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Ontario Imposes Secretive Law for G20
[Previous 6/25/10 post]
(Toronto, Ontario) On June 2, provincial authorities secretly passed a regulation allowing police to arrest people near the G20 security zone who refuse to identify themselves or agree to a search.

The regulation was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who wanted additional policing powers shortly after learning the G20 was coming to Toronto.

The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.

So, without debate a regulation was passed which expands law enforcement powers for the G20 summit conference and public notification will be made one week after the summit ends and the regulation expires. Interesting.