‘Blanket powers’ for police raise alarm
Lawyer says new powers could open the door to a ‘return to carding’
Advocates say arbitrary enforcement will cause ‘rash of racial profiling,’
In a move that been called a “Black Friday of rights slashing” by a civil liberties group, the Ontario government has given police the power to randomly stop vehicles to ask about an individual’s reasons for leaving their home.
Police, along with bylaw officers, will also be able to require an individual to provide a home address and purpose for not being at their residences for the duration of the stay-at-home order, now expected to last until May 20.
“This additional enforcement tool will only be in effect during the Stay-at-Home order and exclusively to enforce the Stay-at-Home order,” according to a news release from the province.
In a news conference, Solicitor-General Sylvia Jones said refusing to answer would result in a $750 fine.
Toronto Police Service spokesperson Allison Sparkes said via email that the service is reviewing the new orders and “prior to any change in our enforcement strategy, we will notify the public on how we plan to implement” them.
The new police powers were immediately criticized by lawyers and anti-racism advocates as unconstitutional, arbitrary and likely to lead to further over-policing of racialized individuals, particularly young Black and Indigenous men.
Despite the province’s assertion that pulling over vehicles will only be done to enforce stay-at-home rules, criminal defence lawyer Daniel Brown, vice-president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association expressed doubt.
“A concern exists about how racism and bias, even unconsciously, can infect how police use these detention powers,” he said. “And they can be used as a pretext to investigate people where there is otherwise no lawful authority to do so.”
He added it is unclear if, or how, police will retain the information they collect during such stops.
“It is an invitation for the police to potentially return to carding the most marginalized members of our community and will breed distrust of the police within these communities,” Brown said.
A spokesperson for Jones said the stay-at-home order does not apply to the homeless.
In a statement, Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the “blanket powers for police to stop vehicles like this bends our constitutional freedoms too far, and will cause a rash of racial profiling.”
The CCLA dubbed the day of the order’s announcement “Black Friday” and Bryant said the new rules, including limiting interprovincial travel, could face a court challenge because they cannot be “demonstrably justified.”
Fines may also be ineffective in deterring unsafe behaviour, said Alexander McClelland, an associate professor of criminology at Carleton University, who has been researching the use of fines during the pandemic with Alex Luscombe, a PhD candidate in criminology at the University of Toronto.
“Despite endless calls for evidence-based pandemic policy, there very little evidence that fines deter unwanted behaviours, and there is absolutely no evidence that fines work in a COVID-19 context,” McClelland said in an email Friday.
“There is, however, lots of evidence that fines will negatively impact people made marginalized, including poor people, and Black, Indigenous and other people of colour.”
Stay-at-home order notwithstanding, essential workplaces remain open.
The Star has estimated there are two million people in the GTA who remain allowed to work in person, including in sectors hard hit by COVID-19 outbreaks, such as warehouses, manufacturing and construction.