色色啦 has unveiled its website听for those seeking 鈥渂ubble zones鈥 limiting protests within 50 metres of schools, daycares and places of worship听鈥 but it鈥檚 the unexpected group of city employees tasked with enforcing the controversial new rules that鈥檚 raising some eyebrows on council.
The legislation was听more than a year in the making听and was the听subject of recurring debate at city hall听before being approved in May.
As of Monday,听no institutions were listed on the听听of bubble zones approved by the city. Roughly 3,000 institutions across 色色啦 are eligible.
“City staff will make every effort to respond to requests promptly, but exact timelines are unknown as we don鈥檛 have a sense of how many requests will be submitted,” said听Russell Baker, 色色啦’s manager of media relations and issues management, in an email to the Star.
Baker said the city intends to use “graduated enforcement actions,” for the bubble zones. That means the city plans to use education, a verbal notice or warning, written notice or warning and trespass notices before charging people with a bylaw infraction and issuing a court summons听under the Provincial Offences Act. The maximum penalty for violating the bylaw is a $5,000 fine.
Who’s enforcing the bubble bylaw?
The , as the city calls it,听was written under the Municipal Code’s section on the use of streets and sidewalks. That means the head of the city鈥檚 transportation department is responsible for approving any zones. Which city division was best fit to lead enforcement of the bylaw was one of many points of contention during .
Senior bureaucrats in the municipal licensing and standards (MLS) department told councillors they were not equipped to enforce it, because they are not first responders.听Carleton Grant, head of MLS, told council his bylaw officers’ response times range from one to 10 days.
In the end, the council directive said only that an “enforcement officer” would be administering the bylaw.
“I, like most everyone, inferred that it meant bylaw (officers), given that council was debating a proposed bylaw,” said听Coun. Josh Matlow听(Ward 12, 色色啦-St. Paul鈥檚), who voted against the bubble zone legislation, citing likely Charter violations and what he called its overall inadequacy to protect the community.
According to the city鈥檚 new website, transportation standards officers are responsible for enforcing bubble zones 鈥 employees who typically deal with rules around the public right-of-way such as听complaints about construction encroachments and landscaping permits, as well as ensuring organizers of city festivals follow traffic management plans and that road closures are managed properly.
These transportation officers will be 鈥渟upported by the 色色啦 Police Service when needed,鈥 says the website.
Like MLS staff, transportation standards officers听are not trained to deal with crowd control and do not have the power to arrest, according to the city.
That has some on council questioning the city鈥檚 approach.
‘Expect there’d be a learning curve’
“Unless police are there to create a safe buffer, and protect the transportation standards officers so charges can be laid, the bubble zone bylaw will not be enforced,” said Coun. James Pasternak (Ward 6, York Centre), who pushed for the bylaw. “In fairness, I expect there’d be a learning curve and some growing pains to enforcing this.”
However, relying on any sort of municipal staff to enforce the bylaw is “absurd” and “ineffective,” Matlow added. “They neither have the training or tools to do a job like this.听A city bylaw was never the way to deal with any legitimate concerns of targeted intimidation, harassment or hate.”
Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19, Beaches-East York), who also pushed for the new bylaw, said it might be “challenging” for transportation staff alone to implement the bylaw without help from police.
“I think a lot of stuff doesn’t necessarily fit neatly into a silo division but requires cross-divisional collaboration,” he said.
Coun. Dianne Saxe (Ward 11 University-Rosedale) said听council didn’t receive “a comparison” of the different relevant training, if any, between transportation services and MLS staff.
“I’m sure they will do their best,” she said of city staff. “We don’t know how much enforcement will be necessary.”
Bubble zone response times unclear
With 62 transportation standards officers employed by the city, said Baker, it’s also unclear what their response times would be. Neither the听new bylaw nor council’s directive听mention it’s necessary to have them on standby.
“We don’t have the best solution in place here,” Bradford said of the city staff leading enforcement, “given this was passed around so much with no leadership from the mayor.”
Mayor Olivia Chow did not speak at the in May that saw councillors disagreeing over what changes to make to city staff’s original version of the bylaw. While she was on the losing side of voting against , Chow ultimately voted for putting the bylaw on the books.听
Coun. Rachel Chernos Lin听(Ward 15,听Don Valley West), who moved the omnibus motion, said it doesn’t matter to her who enforces the bubble zones, “as long as it’s enforced and it’s done in a respectful way.”
Some members of the Jewish community have called for these protections after a few protests were held outside of GTA synagogues and churches, outside of service hours, where there were real estate expos inside听offering听congregants听advice on moving to Israel or into illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. They followed听other local protests听against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
Supporters of the new bylaw say 色色啦 needs protest-free 鈥渂ubble zones鈥 around centres of religious and cultural importance to keep them from being targeted by demonstrators with harassment and accessing the buildings.听
Critics of the bylaw 鈥 including some police representatives, city officials and constitutional lawyers 鈥 have argued the legislation is unnecessary, potentially dangerous for municipal staff and would limit civil liberties.
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