Justice committee  That is absolutely true. I was very impressed with how much engagement there is prior to an event. This engagement ensures that the enforcement, the security, and the protesters are all aware of what is going to be permitted and what is not, what is legal and what is not. We en

Justice committee  I can't see someone in that type of situation ever being arrested, because that would be ludicrous to go before the courts with.

Justice committee  Theoretically, it is covered by that provision.

Justice committee  Discretion is relied upon by policing everywhere, every time.

Justice committee  The biggest difficulty in those situations is there's a very large number of people. We have found both prior to having discussions with protesters and then in subsequent discussions with protesters afterwards that the common theme on that is the majority of protesters got caught

Justice committee  That is absolutely correct. My words were misinterpreted there. As I mentioned in my preamble, it has to be a declared riot or an unlawful assembly before anything in this bill even comes into any possibility of consideration. Only at that point would this become important. As I

Justice committee  That is absolutely true. In this type of situation, with a protest, when you are bringing in many members of the RCMP and municipal forces to a location, you're going to be putting the most experienced and the most trained ones in the front lines making the arrest. The rest are g

Justice committee  I believe it does, simply because this is a tool that could be used in that type of situation. If it's a peaceful protest, as I've seen so many times in my experience, then law enforcement agencies are more than pleased to just stand back and let it happen, guide traffic, and mak

Justice committee  That's absolutely true. I've had a lot of contact with people who are protesting. We are Canadian citizens as well. We want to be able to ensure they get their right to be heard. My experience is that the very few numbers of essentially anarchists out there to hijack it are makin

Justice committee  I think the biggest word to bring out here is the word “discretion”. In policing, with the RCMP we have community policing, which says that we could, if we had the budget and the numbers, put a police officer on every corner, every minute of the day, and crimes would still happen

Justice committee  Theoretically, they could be arrested, but in reality I cannot see that as being an outcome, simply because there would be an illogical result of trying to arrest somebody and charge them if they're wearing, as you said, a salmon suit.

Justice committee  The number one difficulty in every police action and every charge laid is when you appear in court you have to identify the accused individual. If someone is masked, generally speaking, their intent is to escape that identification. This happens all the time. On a normal basis so

Justice committee  Speaking as an experienced police officer, there is a clear difference to me, in that you would not be able to get the same effect on existing legislation, as opposed to when this is passed. Then it would be mandated and a lot more people would not be wearing masks. The ability t

Justice committee  Of the tools that we use, number one is communication. This is in any event, regardless of whether it's a one-on-one contact between a police officer and an individual or a riot situation. If you are at a point where you have to resort to batons, weapons, or tear gas, then that c

Justice committee  Yes, I am. During some of the planning I have seen for major events, preventive arrests are very important. I'm not speaking of hours and days ahead. That all depends on what the criminal activity is at the time.