Friday, June 25, 2010

Authority to close streets during G20

"s. 10.1(2) of the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act (FMIOA), charges the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with the security of "intergovernmental conferences" in Canada. Section 10.1(2) of the act expressly grants the RCMP the power "to take appropriate measures, including controlling, limiting or prohibiting access to any area to the extent and in a manner that is reasonable in the circumstances." The Integrated Security Unit that includes the RCMP is responsible for securing G8/G20 events. The RCMP's role is "the Summit site and surrounding areas," so presumably it is the RCMP that has cordoned off a part of downtown Toronto."

From a really good post on the Law is Cool blog: http://bit.ly/aZRKq4

2 comments:

Skinny Dipper said...

This authority is already being applied: http://section15.blogspot.com/2010/06/breaking-rights-banned-within-g20.html.

I don't know if this law/regulation is constitutional. If found to be unconstitutional, the G20 Summit will be long over.

James Bowie said...

I wonder also if the "public works" order made by the McGuinty government is important.

If it is the case that the RCMP has a special jurisdiction, then would that effect encounters between individuals and, say, the City of Toronto Police? Or the OPP?

For an issue this public and this obvious, the law seems very dubious.