fiendishlibrarian
Active Member
Related to this, upcoming changes to provincial regulations:
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- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
stevensontransit
Active Member
Northern Light
Superstar
I'm fine w/this, but my read of the proposal itself is that it doesn't' change anything substantive.
From the proposal itself:
Under the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019, special constables are appointed by police service boards or the Commissioner of the OPP. The authorities of a special constable employed by an authorized public transit special constable employer may include enforcing the Criminal Code, and Ontario provincial statutes such as the Mental Health Act, Trespass to Property Act, and Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019.
That means they already have the authority to trespass someone, which can include arrest if violating a trespass order. They also already have authority to charge under the criminal code; and possession is an offense. They can also charge under the Mental Health Act if someone is clearly not in their right mind; and presumably they can also charge for public intoxication which is under the above mentioned Liquor License and Control Act, if applicable.
I suppose 'use' might not be expressly covered under the above. But I think @lenaitch should be consulted on that.
My instinct is that any issue here is the management directive on escalation and use of force rather than a statutory one, but perhaps I'm wrong on that.
Amare
Senior Member
Nice in theory, but i'd love to see nothing is going to change unfortunately.
The court systems are already overburdened, they wont have the time to deal with any charges like this and charges would ultimately just get stayed and expire.
Until the province gets serious about addressing the court backlogs, clogged up prisons, mental health, and homelessness, we'll continue to see this.
Many posters here have noted seeing people drinking on the TTC, but at this point that's pretty much common occurrence. I've seen people literally smoking crack pipes on the subway, and lining up cocaine wide in the open during rush hour. The problems are spiralling, and unfortunately we have a useless premier who has and continues to exasperate the issue.
lenaitch
Senior Member
I'm not directly familiar with the Act but, based on a quick review; although the word "use" does appear in the legislation, the actual substantive section does employ the word 'consume':
3 (1) If an officer has reasonable grounds to believe that a person is consuming an illegal substance in a public place in contravention of subsection 2 (1), the officer may do one or both of the following:
1. Direct the person to cease consuming the illegal substance in the public place.
2. Direct the person to leave,
i. the public place, or
ii. a part of the public place, such as a structure being used as a dwelling where its use as a dwelling in the public place is not permitted by law.
Compliance
(2) A person who is the subject of a direction under subsection (1) shall promptly comply with the direction.
Offence
(3) A person who fails to comply with subsection (2) is guilty of an offence.
It's a little odd. Although Sec 2 prohibits the consumption, it does not create an offence. The offence is created when failing to comply with a request to cease/leave. 2 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), no person shall consume an illegal substance in a public place.