Thank you.
I want to make it clear that this is a real response to a real problem. You mentioned the existing provision in the Criminal Code, section 351, that deals with disguises during the commission of an offence. I can tell you that I've spent a lot of time talking to police officers, police chiefs, and those directly responsible for riot squads, in dealing with these kinds of situations in a number of cities and communities across Canada over a number of years. They tell me that the biggest problem they have in dealing with these situations, both in trying to prevent and deter them from happening in the first place, is also in laying charges to ensure that people are brought to justice when they do commit crimes like destroying property, looting, and assaulting innocent bystanders. The biggest problem they are facing is trying to identify the individuals involved when so many of them are wearing masks and disguises. They'll see these individuals masking up and they'll see them removing disguises, but in the middle of that there's a period of time where there's been damage and assaults have taken place, and the police are not able to identify with clarity who was involved.
You mentioned the existing section. They're telling me that they're not able to apply that section. It's more geared to instances like armed robbery, those kinds of offences. They find they're not able to successfully lay charges when dealing with individuals involved in disguising themselves in a riot situation. There is a need to have a specific offence underneath the provisions in the Criminal Code, sections 65 and 66, which deal specifically with riots and specifically with unlawful assembly, so they can deal with what's involved in those situations.