Let's look at the most recent example of the Vancouver riot. We have a huge crowd there, 100,000 or 150,000. Some people we impeded before the riot began, but many people we didn't, because the crowds were so large. What has this cost our department and the local citizenry, including London Drugs and the business community? Investigations have run into the millions because we have had to electronically unmask people who were masked up during that assembly.
The power to tell people they can't mask up because there is a law, with fines and penalties, operates as a deterrent. Instead, we're looking at millions of dollars of investigations, millions of dollars in damages, and the subversion of police resources that we should be spending on other criminal activity. This law, which sets forth responsibilities at the onset of a public assembly, will help the police in a number of tasks.