Throwback Thursday: Reopening Ontario Act, Human Rights Code and The Charter of Rights and Freedoms
We will be dedicating our social media posts on Thursdays to reminding Canadians of their rights and the current laws and legislations in place in Canada. Make sure to save and share these posts so you can refer to them when exercising your rights in public.
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Police are being asked to balance the Reopening Ontario Act, the Human Rights Code, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that we have sworn to uphold, this includes Section 7 of the Charter – Life, liberty and security of the person. Section 7 states:
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice”.
We must ask ourselves, does section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide protection against mandatory masking? We at
Police on Guard for Thee do not have that answer, but we’d like to get it from the courts.
We have received many questions from the public with regards to businesses denying entry to person(s) with a mask exemption. The Reopening Ontario Act speaks to the businesses with regards to exemptions.
Furthermore, there have been several incidents where police are being called by business owners who believe they are acting under the Trespass to Property Act, and thus want the patron removed from the premises due to their mask exemption. Police are then, once again, put in a very difficult position. Does the Trespass to Property Act now supersede the provincial Reopening Ontario Act? Does the Reopening Ontario Act supersede the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
This situation highlights the exact reason why police across Canada need clarification from the courts. It is not fair to put the public and police in this position whereby we are left to navigate several laws without clear direction.
To help the public we have written up a brief document outlining the present exemptions, we hope you will download it, print it, read it through, and carry it with you on your next encounter. https://policeonguard.ca/…/POG-Mask-Regulations-in…
And to our fellow officers, if you agree we must respect the law as it is written, we ask you #RememberYourOath and join your support to our cause.
You can read the most up-to-date regulation including masking exemptions here: https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/200082
#TeamKnowledge #RememberYourOath #CanadianPoliceOfficers #ThrowbackThursday
Subsection 4 states that persons need to wear masks in indoor places unless b) is attending a school……
I’m not sure how to interpret this part.
Students don’t have to wear masks?
Surely stores are a public accommodation. Trespass involves unlawful entry. If the store is ‘open to the public’, they cannot randomly / arbitrarily exclude peaceful individuals. Excluding someone on the basis that they have a disability involving a need for unimpeded access to oxygen is discriminatory and thus a human rights violation. What’s next, no wheel chair access? Also, article 52 of the Charter proclaims the supremacy of the constitution over all other laws: “52. (1) The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of Canada, and any law
that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect”. I therefore consider the relevant clauses of the Re Opening Ont act to be of “no force or effect”. Seems to me that anyone swearing an oath to uphold the constitution should be expected to be cognizant of this.