Promising Practices and Recommendations

  1. Ontario’s Public Order ‘Hub’ model should be formalized and made permanent.

  • The inspection noted an effective communication and coordination strategy throughout the province to mobilize public order deployments, known as the Ontario Public Order Hub. After the historic events in January of 2022 related to the Freedom Convoy, the OPP in collaboration with municipal police public order units, initiated the POU Hub model to ensure public order units could be concurrently deployed across the province in an integrated, strategic, and risk-based manner to prevent injury, preserve life, and protect critical infrastructure.

    At the time of this inspection, the Ontario Public Order Hub included all 11 individual police service POUs within Ontario. These services are also represented at the OPOAC, a sub committee of the OACP. that meets regularly, and its members share recent public order experiences, best practices, upcoming service needs, and discuss how the various POUs can assist one another. We have learned that the success of the Hub model has generated interest by other police services outside of Ontario, including among the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

     

  • To expand upon this success, the IG strongly recommends that the current Hub model to be formalized and enhanced to ensure its long-term sustainability, effectiveness and permanence. This includes:
    • the Ministry of the Solicitor General considering making the Hub model a permanent entity within Ontario’s public order maintenance system, through amendments to the relevant Regulations under the CSPA;
    • establishing clear Terms of Reference for, and a defined access path to the Hub that would enhance its operation and ensure ease of access for police services across the province; and,
    • formalizing the responsibilities for the Hub within the OPP, with an OPP representative serving as its Chair, and retaining the discretion of each Hub member to accept or not accept a specific request for POU assistance. 

 

  1. A standardized Public Order Risk Assessment Tool should be developed to support effective decision making for public order deployments.

  • An additional area of standardization that could continue to drive improvements is the development of an overall public order risk assessment tool to be used by all police services across the province. 

     

  • A consistent assessment tool used by all Ontario police services would assist in decision-making standardization across provincial POUs that considers risk levels and appropriate levels of response. The tool should be designed in a way that takes relevant local factors into consideration, but the overall approach to how POU deployments and risks are determined should be consistent across the province.

     

  • The IG strongly recommends that the Ontario Public Order Hub and the Ministry of the Solicitor General collaborate in the development of this tool.  Once a tool is developed, the IG strongly recommends that its consistent use by police services become a compliance requirement under the CSPA’s Regulations.

     

  1. Additional training offerings should be made to assist police officers who engage in Public Order functions. 

  • Following the conclusion of the inspection, the IoP became aware that additional training was being provided to officers about the historical and political reasons behind recent protests. The IG is supportive of this supplemental training, as it may assist with supporting policing approaches that are culturally sensitive that further support effective communication and management during public order events. 

     

  • In addition, the IG strongly encourages police services to continually access and contribute to the continued development of training to assist police officers performing public order functions in properly applying the full range of existing provisions in the Criminal Code, provincial law, and municipal by-laws in circumstances where hate-based offences and other offences related to protests, demonstrations and occupations are occurring. While much attention is paid to the hate speech provisions in the Criminal Code, there are a range of other offence provisions that police could apply in appropriate protest, demonstration or occupation situations (e.g., mischief to property; mischief relating to religious and other property connected to an identifiable group; blocking or obstructing a highway; disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence; etc.).   

     

  1. Specialized resources and technology should be further integrated into Public Order Response.

  • Although it was not a focus, the inspection did note additional promising practices and resources utilized by Ontario’s POUs:

     

    • Police Liaison Team (PLT) officers work with demonstration organizers or groups to maximize the peaceful facilitation of events. Police services that had PLT officers routinely expressed their value with regards to helping to manage public order events. This role was profiled during the 2022 Public Order Emergency Commission as being a front-facing tool to look at strategies, planning, and building front-end relationships with participants during demonstrations.[1] The inclusion of a PLT, with consistent training in building trust, engaging demonstrators, and understanding crowd-dynamics could provide a valuable tool for intelligence and managing demonstrations to ensure lawful, peaceful and safe events. Given their promising results and the importance of their role, the IG recommends that chiefs of police embed PLTs into their public order training to support their readiness for integration into public order responses, where appropriate.

       

    • Most POU services had external partners such as Fire services, Paramedic services, and other medical professionals. Partnering with external emergency services and medical professionals required enhanced training but increased public and police safety during deployments. The police services that did use Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in particular spoke of their positive contributions to their POUs. The IG is supportive of police services continuing to develop and enhance their partnerships with external emergency services and medical partners and recommends that Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) detailing the nature and expectations in these partnerships become a body of work that the Ontario Public Order Hub explore with these external partners, with assistance from the Ministry of the Solicitor General. The IG also recommends to the Ministry of the Solicitor General that these MOUs eventually become a compliance requirement contained in Ontario Regulation 392/23 Adequate and Effective Policing (General).

       

    • Finally, the inspection noted that POUs are utilizing a blend of new and old technology, with the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems to issuing fluorescent ball caps to their POU members on the ground, all with the aim to improve visibility and the management of POU operations.

       

[1] Public Order Emergency Commission,” Interview Summary: Inspector Marcel Beaudin (Ontario Provincial Police), February 17, 2023, http://publicorderemergencycommission.ca/files/exhibits/WTS.00000037.pdf