Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Richards, for your presentation and the initiative.
The intent is certainly laudable, but we do have concerns, as you've already heard. I think it's important to reiterate that this is not just with respect to disguise or masking in riot situations. It would also apply when there is unlawful assembly.
You've made that clear, but I want to make sure that everybody understands that the threshold for what constitutes an unlawful assembly is much lower than the threshold for a riot. If somebody ends up still being around, masked, when something at as low a threshold as an unlawful assembly is going on, that's of even greater concern, from my perspective, from the civil liberties side. I just want to put that on record.
I spoke to some police officers who were involved in the policing in Toronto during the G-20. What they wanted to emphasize was the transition issue. It's all well and good for us to define what constitutes an unlawful assembly or a riot. You've done that well. It's in the code. It's how everybody on site knows that, at a certain point in time, a peaceful demonstration has become either a riot or an unlawful assembly.
They can be large. You can be in one part of a crowd and not know what's going on in another part of the crowd. You could end up being legitimately there for either protest reasons or other reasons, with some kind of facial covering, and not even know that you're now automatically committing an illegal act.
If this provision goes forward, it needs to be amended to include a very clear provision on a reasonable opportunity to disperse after clear notice from the police. Have you given any thought at all to whether we need something along those lines? There is police practice, but it's not written into the Criminal Code.