Police in cities in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, on Saturday refused to be stopped at random by the provincial government to impose a stay-at-home order amid an increase in COVID-19 cases.
Toronto, the country’s largest city, Ottawa, Hamilton, Windsor and at least 19 other municipal police forces, said they would not do random vehicles or individual stops, even though they were given the power to do so.
“The Toronto Police Service will continue to engage, educate and enforce, but we will not stop at random with people or cars,” the force said on Twitter. Mayor John Tory supports the move.
Ontario, home to 38% of Canada’s population, had 4,362 new infections on Saturday after a record 4,812 cases on Friday, and projections suggest the virus could rise to 10,000 a day in June without strict health restrictions.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who was increasingly under fire for mismanaging the province’s pandemic response, gave police on Friday the power to stop someone driving or walking, to ask them why they were the left home, explain and enforce them if they break the rules. read more
Steven Del Duca, the Liberal Party’s opposition leader in Ontario, said Ford was introducing ‘martial law’ and that the move was a ‘dangerous attack on racial Ontarians’ that would be unfairly targeted.
The expanded police forces run the risk of causing a “result of racial profiling and overarching police powers, which assumes that everyone outside is guilty until proven otherwise,” the Civil Liberties Union in Canada said.
Ford also said it would block non-essential travel from neighboring provinces from Monday. Ontario provincial police said Saturday they are preparing to enforce the order.
In recent weeks, Ontario has restricted schools, restaurants, retail stores and canceled elective surgeries because an increase in admissions threatens to overwhelm hospitals. On Friday, it also closed construction work, but not warehouses or factories.
Critics say Ford abandoned a previous home order too soon, making the current increase in cases that put hospitals under pressure possible. On Friday, Ford blamed the federal government for the third wave, saying it was too slow to incite vaccinations and lift it to the limits.
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