Normally, Canadians have the right to be left alone by police. Pedestrians generally don’t have to answer police questions and don’t have to identify themselves. They certainly don’t have to submit to searches by police. Not so this weekend in Toronto!

Following up on Pulat’s post regarding the legality of G20 police cordons in Toronto, if you’re going to be down near the G20 security zone in Toronto, you should be on notice. This weekend, police will have extraordinary powers to stop, search, and arrest anyone who comes within 5 meters of the zone.

The source of this power is the Public Works Protection Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.55. The Act allows the government to designate areas as “public works.” Once an area has been designated as a public work, police and appointed “guards” have special powers to secure the area. Police and appointed guards can:

• require anyone approaching the zone to identify themselves (s. 3(a));
• search, without a warrant, anyone who is approaching the zone (s. 3(b));
• search, without a warrant, any cars whose driver or passenger attempts (or is suspected of having attempted) to enter the zone (s. 3(b));
• use as much force as is necessary to prevent a person from entering the zone (s. 3(c));
• arrest anyone who refuses to comply with their directions (s. 5(2)).

But failure to comply with directions doesn’t just get you arrested. It is a provincial offence punishable by a maximum $500 fine and/or 2 months in jail (s. 5(1))!

So where does the “Secret Laws” part of my title fit into all this?

Well, as it turns out, the Ontario cabinet quietly designated a 5-meter radius around the G20 security area as a “public work” without really telling anyone.

The regulation authorizing these powers in relation to the G20 zone was filed on June 14, 2010 and went into force a week later. But to my knowledge, the government made no announcement of the regulation. Worse yet, it has not been published in the Ontario Gazette (it will only be published in July, after it is no longer in force). Since the regulation is not yet part of Ontario’s consolidated law, the only way to access the regulation is to look it up in the “source law” section of the e-Laws website here.

For all practical  purposes, this is a “secret law,” because of the failure of the government to publicize it.

This law authorizes extraordinary police powers, and it significantly derogates from our ordinary civil rights.  There is a real risk of people being arrested and charged when exercising the same rights to refuse to answer questions and submit to searches that apply everywhere else. In my opinion, the government should have been more forthcoming about the law to minimize that risk.