‘BEING HOMELESS NO EXCUSE’ FOR NOT STAYING-IN-PLACE, SAYS COP
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — Fears about police enforcing stay-at-home orders are real — if rare.
A young woman in Gravenhurst was stopped on the main street Saturday night by three officers, one of whom told her “being homeless is no excuse” for not staying-in-place and being on the street instead of where she would normally look to couch surf and sleep.
It’s a preventable lament mental health and housing advocates say the emergency order puts on the vulnerable.
This after a Simcoe, Ont. mom was fined $880 last week for dropping her kids off with their grandparents for babysitting while the woman shopped for groceries.
She said police told her the fine stemmed from a neighbour complaint.
It has people out on the streets nervously looking over their shoulders wondering who should and shouldn’t be out doors at what hours and for what purpose or pleasure.
Employees at McDonalds in Gravenhurst got a letter to show police in case they got stopped on the way to work. They don’t need that.
It’s an issue that has plagued police since the provincial order went into effect last Thursday.
Police across the province — including the OPP who said as late as Friday that aren’t actively looking to stop people — are only supposed to be responding to complaints and doing random checks on businesses in order to enforce the order.
Numerous news stories this week quote other police services and legal experts who say police can’t randomly stop you for being out of place.
And if you are stopped, you don’t have to tell a police officer where you are going or what your reason is for being on the street, says Ontario’s solicitor general.
It’s none of their business.
Only that you are doing so for an essential reason.
The same applies for being in your home.
An Ontario Ministry of Health spokesperson told the Toronto Star that the government can’t determine what is “essential” for each person.
That includes leaving home or going to your cottage — both of which the government and police and health experts officially warn against.
And it had at least one “citizen journalist” on the weekend alleging in a social media post that Premier Doug Ford was at his Port Sydney cottage.
Her widely shared video — which wasn’t independently verified by us — claimed Ford’s white SUV was in a Muskoka driveway.
Or it could have — as the vigilante videographer did reluctantly admit in passing during her brief drive-by — belonged to his brother, Randy.
She also didn’t say why she was stalking the grey lakeside cottage of undetermined ownership or why she was on that road or whether she was coming or going from home while on “essential” business.
Which in this case could have included keeping the premier honest.
Maybe he was checking on his pipes, again, wrote one wag.
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