Part of your question goes back to the question that Mr. Cotler asked earlier. I'll address that part first.
The bill does provide for lawful excuse. Lawful excuse would apply in the situations you identified. If someone requires a head covering for religious purposes, if someone has a legitimate need to wear medical bandages, which in some way obscures the person's face, those kinds of situations, I think, would certainly apply and could be considered lawful excuse.
With respect to the first part of your question, we're talking about situations where, as I indicated, the Criminal Code defines very clearly that people have reasonable grounds to fear that the peace is going to be disturbed tumultuously, which essentially means they are now afraid to be on the streets of their own city.
If we're talking about a lawful public gathering, often these kinds of events can stem from a lawful public gathering of some type, where individuals have infiltrated a lawful public gathering. Sometimes a very small minority of the group is looking to cause trouble and uses the situation to disturb the peace. Individuals who are there for legitimate peaceful reasons are also going to be afraid and will be looking to flee the area, because they could become victims themselves.
The intention of the bill is hopefully to strengthen the ability to legitimately gather, whether it be for a demonstration or other public gatherings, because it protects the individuals who are gathering for those kinds of purposes. It protects their right to do that. In protecting others, it ensures public safety by protecting individuals who would be assaulted in those kinds of situations and by protecting businesses, which often face the majority of the damage in these situations, whether it be store windows being broken, looting taking place, or stealing of their merchandise. Also, with respect to public property, it protects the taxpayers. Police cars are often torched in these kinds of situations and other public property is damaged.
It protects the public from this kind of criminality. With respect to individuals who are looking to legitimately gather, it protects them from a criminal element that would look to infiltrate those kinds of situations.