Provincial checkpoints start today
`We have to trust that people are going to be honest': police
Police roadblocks went up on the five bridges that connect Ottawa and Gatineau early today as Ontario's strict new stay-at-home order took full effect.
The Ottawa Police Service announced it would launch around-the-clock checkpoints on the bridges at 12:01 a.m. today to restrict the movement of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
Officers are also to be stationed at the Quyon and the Bourbonnais ferries.
Ottawa police will question Ontario-bound travellers while Gatineau police are expected to screen those bound for Quebec, which has also announced interprovincial border control measures.
Ottawa police will not be demanding doctor's notes or letters from employers.
“We have to trust that people are going to be honest. This is not a police operation, it's a public health operation with the support of the police,” Ottawa police Insp. Michel Marin told reporters Sunday.
Marin said Ottawa police will only be stopping private vehicles, not commercial ones.
“We're trying to plan this in a way such that it will be a very short conversation,” he said, “and people will be allowed on their way.”
According to the new powers granted police, anyone can be questioned about their reasons for entering Ontario. Individuals will be required to provide their name, address and reason for travelling.
The province has said only those travelling to Ontario to return home, to go to work, to transport goods, to exercise Aboriginal treaty rights or to obtain health-care services will be allowed to cross the border. Some cross-border travel will also be allowed for compassionate and humanitarian reasons.
If an officer reasonably believes a traveller is not complying with the stay-at-home order, the individual can be ordered to return to Quebec.
Ottawa police said they will focus on education during the first three days of the operation.
All officers will be wearing personal protective equipment, and the service has asked that members of the public wear masks when speaking to officers.
Before the pandemic, on an average day, more than 180,000 trips were made between the two cities that face each other across the Ottawa River.
It's the second time during the pandemic that Ottawa residents face restrictions in travelling to Quebec. Last April, the Quebec government shut border crossings with Ontario to all but essential travel — a move that was criticized as unnecessary at the time by Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson.
The Ontario Provincial Police said they will also have officers stationed on Highway 417 just west of the Ontario- Quebec border and on Highway 401.
The new border restrictions are part of a sweeping stay-at-home order unveiled Friday by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his government.
That order closes outdoor recreation facilities, including golf courses and tennis courts, prohibits outdoor social gatherings except with members of the same household, closes non-essential construction sites and shuts interprovincial border crossings to all but essential travel.
Over the weekend, after being bombarded with criticism, Ford softened two elements of the order by opening park playgrounds to children and by curtailing some of the powers previously handed police.
On Saturday, Ford said Ontario's stay-at-home order was intended to stop the large park gatherings that can spread COVID-19, not to punish children. “Our regulations will be amended to allow playgrounds, but gatherings outside will still be enforced,” Ford said.
The move was welcomed by parents like Brendan Hickey of Alta Vista. He was at Mooney's Bay Park on Sunday with his nine-year-old daughter, Claire, who wore a mask on the playground.
“I'm just glad some common sense came into the decision-making,” he said. “Children should be able to play in the playground — the risks are quite minimal.”
Solicitor general Sylvia Jones continued the government's rollback of its stay-at-home order on the weekend, announcing that police officers will no longer have the right to make random stops of pedestrians and motorists to demand an address and a reason for their travel.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Associations had decried that extension of police power and warned of its potential abuse. Even many police services were uncomfortable with the new rules: The Ottawa Police Service was one of many in the province that announced it would not be making random stops of pedestrians and motorists to enforce the stay-at-home order.
Jones said the new police powers were made to stop illegal gatherings and crowds.
She said police and provincial offences officers will still have the ability to demand information from people they suspect are engaged in public events or social gatherings held in contravention of the stay-at-home order.
Meanwhile, data released Sunday by the province shows a record number of Ontarians are in hospital with COVID-19.
Government figures showed that 2,107 people were in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19, a single-day record, with 741 of them in intensive care. Of those, 506 are on ventilators.
CHEO CEO Alex Munter said Sunday he has been told that Toronto will send more than 200 seriously ill COVID -19 patients to hospitals across the province this week. Dozens are expected to arrive by air ambulance in Ottawa hospitals.
The province reported 4,250 new cases of COVID -19 on Sunday, down slightly from the previous day's total (4,362).
Ottawa Public Health reported 283 new cases of COVID-19 in the city on Sunday, with 110 people in hospital and 30 of them in intensive care.