Justice committee  There is mandatory training in most provinces—I believe it's in all provinces now. It's a minimum of 40 hours. It contains a range of topics, from report writing to the basis of authority, and it was put together by the registrars in the provinces, in consultation with the police

Justice committee  The uniformed security guards you find at gates and things like that hardly ever—ever—make arrests. A lot of them aren't trained in the use of force and are forbidden to make arrests anyway. However, with regard to loss prevention personnel who work in these malls and work in the

Justice committee  Absolutely. However, law enforcement prioritizes the calls. I can tell you that minor disturbances—shop thefts, belligerence, drunk and disorderly—are not top-priority calls.

Justice committee  I would put it to you that the genie came out of the bottle back in the 1970s. Up until that time, the industry was an “observe and report” industry, and large segments of it still are. However, observing and reporting just didn't cut it anymore. The police response was too slow.

Justice committee  No. Those also are under way now, but I think most rank and file officers will tell you that they spend a huge amount of downtime just dealing with this. In fact, just the pressure of this has led to various ad hoc arrangements. For instance, Peel Regional Police have an arrange

Justice committee  I don't see really any new effect. There's a whole area of law here. There are lawyers who specialize in this. I'm the head of our association, but I also own an agency that historically, over the last 30 years, has been a vanguard agency in doing proactive security work. We've

Justice committee  It's available from many sources in the community, but what's continuing is the work among the provincial registrars of the private security industry, working with agencies like ours who represent the industry, to promulgate training and testing standards and to bring in higher l

Justice committee  It's very, very important. It's one of these things that has been growing and going on under the public radar. If you suddenly brought an end to it, it would lead to real chaos in shopping centres, in retail environments, in semi-public/semi-private spaces, and in housing project

Justice committee  Our association doesn't provide any direct training as an association, but there are new and enhanced provincial regulations on training. It's an ongoing thing. Our association meets with the registrar, and the registrars all across Canada have formed their own association. We're

Justice committee  We have two bases for arrests as security guards. One is the citizen's arrest, just as any other citizen in the age of majority can do. The other is as the owner of private property dealing with, say, a trespass issue in an apartment building, or even in a mall, where we have the

Justice committee  No, the changes are extremely subtle. I've tried to deal with them from our perspective, because we see that technology is becoming a big thing—now and in the future.

Justice committee  I don't think it will experience a really broad interpretation. Right now everything has to be fairly immediate. There has to be fresh pursuit.

Justice committee  No, I don't see that happening. There is a second aspect to your question about the relationship with the police. You suggested that perhaps I was lobbying for enhanced powers. I certainly was. The police, in turn, are lobbying to leave it to the professionals. The police can't

Justice committee  Yes. Our piece was submitted in due time, and I understand it has been translated so that your committee will have it. I'll make just a few remarks and give a broad overview, and then—I think the devil's always in the details—we'll leave it for the questions. In our piece we t