TTC special constables will be allowed to arrest drug users on transit
Critics say vulnerable Torontonians will be targeted
The Ministry of the Solicitor General is moving ahead with a plan to give arresting authority to special constables on transit, increasing their authority to that of police officers under the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act.
The expanded power is intended to allow special constables to arrest transit riders who use drugs on the TTC. Anyone convicted could face a fine of up to $10,000, and potentially six months in prison.
Related: Just 64 per cent of riders are satisfied with TTC service
“Far too many Ontarians are encountering individuals whose behaviour is affected by these substances in their day-to-day lives, on their way to work,” Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told reporters yesterday. “If somebody’s riding on the subway, they have every right to feel safe.”
On social media, Premier Doug Ford said, “Ontario transit riders have had enough of dangerous, illegal and open drug use on our subways, buses and streetcars.”
But some say the policy will target and victimize vulnerable Torontonians. Andrew Pulsifer, executive director of TTCRiders, a transit advocacy group, told CBC News he is against the bill.
“We’re very concerned that it’s going to lead to racial profiling, criminalization of poverty and other things,” he said.
“A more compassionate approach to people who are in crisis is always, I think, a better approach,” said Pulsifer. “We have to realize that there are several people who are taking the TTC that will feel less safe with an increased police presence.”
The regulatory change will take effect in July.
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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.
