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Increasing security at Ontario courts may be overblown, limits access: expert

Increasing security at Ontario courts may be overblown, limits access: expert

A bill that presents a shift in how security is conducted at courthouses, electrical generating facilities and nuclear plants across Ontario goes into affect Monday, leaving one legal expert wondering if the new measures are overblown.

Bill 35, Security for Courts, Electricity Generating Facilities and Nuclear Facilities Act, grants officers at courthouses the right to search people entering without a warrant. If someone refuses a request to be searched, she or he can face fines or imprisonment.

Courthouses, electrical generating facilities and nuclear plants aren’t the only places that are seeing amped up security measures.

Starting Sept. 14, anyone attending public meetings in Calgary’s council chambers will be subjected to security screenings that includes metal detectors and a bag search by guards. Those new measures are said to cost $100,000.

Physical pat downs won’t be performed and shoes, belts and jackets don’t have to be removed.

At the Ottawa courthouse, X-rays and metal detectors are now being used at one main entrance, while the other two entrances have been turned into emergency exits. Items like alcohol, knives, tweezers and nail clippers are not allowed inside the building.

Leo Russomanno, a criminal lawyer and member of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa, says he noticed a significant change when entering the courthouse on Monday.

“I saw this coming off the heels of the (October 2014) attack on Parliament Hill,” he says. “So I’m not sure how well this legislation is tailored to any actual threats to the Ottawa courthouse.”

He says people shouldn’t have to submit to a search unless there are reasonable grounds to think they’ve done something wrong or are in possession of something illegal.

It also limits from people entering the courthouse and causes delays. Access cards were meant to be issued to people who work at the courthouse, yet officials ran out of cards on Monday and they are on back order.

“I know today was the first day but it looked like the security area of an airport,” he says. “It was a complete gong show. It’s almost comical how ill-prepared they appear to be.”

Russomanno says security is by no means any solution to a perceived problem, referring to a 2014 shooting in a Brampton courthouse, which had security measures in place.

“(Bill 35) gives them way too much discretion in the name of public safety,” he says. “It seems to limit access to open courts. How are courts considered to be open to the public if we surround them with police officers who can indiscriminately question people? That just seems really not in keeping with some of our democratic ideals.”