Council votes to extend mayor's emergency powers
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City Council’s nod to extending Toronto Mayor John Tory’s emergency powers came with some words of warning.
Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, speaking during Thursday’s virtual council meeting, expressed concerns over reports of heavy-handed and uneven social distancing enforcement by police and bylaw officers during the pandemic.
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“Recognizing that we’re in an emergency and recognizing that this was a move to try and keep people safe,” she said “How are we balancing the two needs?”
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Tory said the decision to amend the parks bylaw to include social distancing regulations wasn’t one that was made lightly, explaining he had a lot of time to think about it during his 14-day quarantine following his unpublicized early-March trip to the C40 conference in Copenhagen, followed by a two-day stopover in the U.K.
“Cases were rising, there was evidence of people not doing what the medical officer of health clearly said that they needed to do to stop the spread of the virus,” he said.
The number of tickets issued, he said, was “probably a bit in excess” of what he would have liked particularly after reports of fines handed out for questionable infractions.
“One of the only things I regret is that there was some unfortunate language used, I think inadvertently, by somebody describing what I called the ‘Doris Kravitz hotline,'” Tory said, probably a missed reference to Gladys Kravitz — the busybody neighbour to Samantha and Darrin Stephens on the 1960s sitcom Bewitched.
And while the anonymous, online reporting portal wasn’t very well received but conversely well-used by Torontonians, Wong-Tam pointed to the fact that few tickets were actually written from those complaints.
“In times that are desperate, people will probably relinquish some control over to government,” she said. “We have to be careful not to let that control slip into something that’s far more permanent.”
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In terms of oversight, the emergency management bylaw, city solicitor Wendy Walberg told Council, requires the mayor to report to the emergency management office within 24 hours of issuing any decrees, and report to Council within 30 days.
“The oversight, under the emergency management bylaw, is right here,” she said. “This is council’s opportunity whether to extend the bylaw, and to extend the mayor’s powers.”
A motion to extend the mayor’s powers until the end of the emergency passed unanimously.
bpassifiume@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume
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