Doug Ford says TTC special constables should be able to arrest drug users
The Ministry of the Solicitor General is considering changes to the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act
Premier Doug Ford is advocating for new regulations that would give TTC special constables the power to arrest riders who use drugs on the city’s transit system.
“One hundred per cent they should (be allowed to make arrests),” Ford said yesterday while at Queen’s Park, per CityNews.
“We want safe subways. We want safe transit everywhere in the city. And (if) someone’s using drugs or shooting up drugs on the subway, they need to be arrested and removed from the subway.”
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Under the proposed regulation change, the Ministry of the Solicitor General would extend arresting authority to special constables, increasing their authority to that of police officers while patrolling the TTC, under the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act.
Sarah Kennedy, president of the Ontario Special Constables Association, told CityNews that her organization is in favour of the proposed change. She said it could lead to “improvements in the efficiency of officers dealing with drug offences, less onerous penalties on offenders–which we believe would help to avoid recidivism, and a lightened burden on the court system in dealing with simple drug possession offences.”
Kennedy said it’s possible special constables could be given tasers.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
