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Bubbles of Governance: Private Policing and the Law in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2014

George S. Rigakos  and
David R. Greener
George S. Rigakos
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Criminology, Saint Mary's University, Halifax (Nova Scotia), CanadaB3K 5S9, george,rigakos@stmarys.ca
David R. Greener
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax (Nova Scotia), CanadaB3H 3J5, dgreener@is2.dal.ca
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Abstract

In the last three decades, the public-private organization of policing in Canada has undergone significant change. It is now common sociological knowledge that there has been formidable growth in private security alongside evolving forms of private governance. These changing social relations have resulted in the prominence of actuarial practices and agents to enforce them. This paper examines how the Canadian socio-legal context affects and is affected by both private security and new, more aggressive, ‘parapolicing’ organizations. We update the state of knowledge on the powers of private security personnel by examining Criminal Code provisions in a post-Charter legal environment, comparing provincial trespass Acts, and analyzing how one aggressive ‘Law Enforcement Company’ as well as other private security firms, more generally, are both enabled and constrained by these legal provisions.

Résumé

L'organisation publique / privée des service policiers au Canada a subi une profonde modification depuis trois décennies. Il est maintenant de notoriété sociologique que la sécurité privée a connu une croissance formidable, accompagnée de formes évolutives de gouvernance. Ces relations sociales changeantes ont mené à une proéminence de pratiques actuarielles et d'agents pour les mettre en œuvre. Cet article analyse de quelle manière le contexte socio-juridique canadien affecte et est affecté tant par la sécurité privée que par les organismes ‘parapoliciers’ plus récents et plus agressifs. Nous mettons à jour l'état des connaissances sur les pouvoirs du personnel de sécurité privée, en scrutant les dispositions du Code Criminel dans un environnement juridique post-Charte, en comparant les lois provinciales et en analysant comment une ‘Law Enforcement Company’ ainsi que d'autres entreprises de sécurité privées sont à la fois habilitées et contraintes par ces dispositions juridiques.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , April 2000 , pp. 145 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2000

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References

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3 If there is one ‘truism’ about private security, it is that the size of this sector has been expanding at a considerable rate when compared to public police services in North America. In the United States, the private security guardforce overtook the public police around 1977. In 1990, private security agents outnumbered the public police by about three to one in the U. S. A., See Cunningham, W. C., Strauchs, J. J. & Van Meter, C.W., Private Security Trends 1970–2000: The Hallcrest II (MacLean, VA: Hallcrest Systems Inc., 1990).Google Scholar In Canada, there has also been a steady growth in private policing since the end of the Second World War. Current interpolations also suggest that private security officers outnumber the public police by over a three to one ratio in Canada. See Shearing, C. D., Farnell, M. P. & Stenning, P. C., Contract Security in Ontario (Toronto: Centre of Criminology, 1980)Google Scholar, Leclair, C. & Long, S., The Canadian Security Sector: An Overview, Report (Toronto: Industrial Adjustment Committee on the Security Sector, 1996).Google Scholar

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14 See also Ericson, R. V. & Haggerty, K. D., Policing the Risk Society (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997)Google Scholar for a description of how risk systems come to dominate the mobilizations of the public police in Canada.

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24 Poster, M., The Mode of Information (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).Google Scholar

23 Power of Private Security, supra note 2 at 17.

26 Seamayne (1604) 5 Coke 91; 77 E.R. 194 at 195.

27 We will discuss the specific sections of provincial trespass Acts that make this possible in a later section of this paper.

28 Anand, R., Task Force on the Law Concerning Trespass to Publicly-Used Property as it Affects Youth and Minorities (Toronto: Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, 1987)Google Scholar [hereinafter Task Force].

29 R.S.O. 1990, c. T-21.

30 See generally “Hyperpanoptics as Commodity”, supra note 11.

31 R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 [heinafter Criminal Code].

32 See R. v. Orban (1972), 8 C.C.C. (2d) 518 at 520 (Sask. Q.B.).

33 See Dendekker v. F.W. Woolworth Co., [1975] 3 W.W.R. 429 at 434 (Alta. S.C.) [hereinafter Dendekker].

34 R. v. Gonzalez, [1996] O.J. No. 761 (QL) [hereinafter Gonzalez].

35 R. v. McCarthy (1974), 6 C.C.C. (2d) 472 at 477 (N.S. Co. Ct.) [hereinafter McCarthy].

36 Gonzalez, supra note 34.

37 R. v. Biron (1975), 4 N.R. 45 [hereinafter Biron].

38 Ibid. at 53.

39 Karogiannis v. Poulus (1976), 72 D.L.R. (3d) 253 at 255 (B.C.S.C.) [hereinafter Karogiannis]. See also Mudry v. R.J. Hutchinson Ltd (1981), 24 Man. R (2d) 203 at 205 (Man. Q.B.).

40 Kendall v. Gambles Canada [1981] 4 W.W.R. 718 at 736 (Sask. Q.B.)[hereinafter Kendall].

41 In R. v. Huff (1979), 50 C.C.C. (2d) 324 at 328, the Alberta Court of Appeal decided that the ‘finds committing an indictable offence’ requirement could be satisfied if one found another committing a ‘hybrid’ offence, an offence punishable by indictment or by summary conviction on election by the Crown.

42 The New Parapolice, supra note 23 at 174–175.

43 Lebrun v. High Low Food (1968), 69 D.L.R. (2d) 433 at 440 (B.C.S.C.) [hereinafter Lebrun].

44 Campbell v. S.S. Kresge Co. (1976), 74 D.L.R. (3d) 717 (N.S.S.C., T.D.) [hereinafter Campbell].

45 R. v. Dean, [1966] 3 C.C.C. 228 at 231.

46 Campbell, supra note 44 at 719. See also Chaytor. v. London, New York and Paris Association of Fashion (1961), 30 D.L.R. 527 at 536 (Nfld. S.C.) [hereinafter Chaytor].

47 Sinclair v. Woodward's Store, [1942] 2 D.L.R. 395 at 397 (B.C.S.C).

48 Kovacs v. Ontario Jockey Club (1995), 126 D.L.R. (4th) 576 at 586 (Ont. Ct. (Gen. Div.)) [hereinafter Kovacs].

49 The New Parapolice, supra note 23.

50 Ibid. at 127.

51 Supra note 29.

52 Saskatchewan does not have a trespass act. Arrangements under the Co-operative Security Program (a Regina Police Service initiative) provide that if a security officer asks a trespasser to leave and if he/she resists with force, the security officer arrests for assault. If the trespasser refuses to leave but remains peaceful, the police are called and upon further refusal the trespasser is arrested for obstruction.

53 Supra note 29 s. 2(l)(a)(ii); Protection of Property Act, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 363, s. 3(l)(f); Trespass to Property Act, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, c. T-6, s. 2(l)(f).

54 Protection of Property Act, ibid at s. 7(b); Trespass to Property Act, Ibid. at s. 6(b).

55 In fact, we searched both for any regulatory definitions as well as any definitions in the Acts. We then reviewed cases citing sections in the Acts dealing with prohibited activity and perused the definition sections of the Interpretation Act and the Criminal Code of Canada. We then searched the Canadian Abridgement Case Digest on line as well as the Canadian Encyclopaedic Digest (Ontario). Failing there, we decided to look up the phrases in Words and Phrases and Black's Law Dictionary, as well as re-examining extant cases on Quick Law. We could find no definition.

56 This often includes oral declaration, or written notification.

57 Supra note 29.

58 Much to the consternation of Raj Anand and his Task Force, supra note 28 at iii.

59 Supra note 29 at s. 2(1)(b).

60 See Powers of Private Security, supra note 2 at 62–63, especially Dillon v. O'Brien (1887) 17 Cox C.C. 245 at 249–50, and Reynen v. Antonenko (1975) 30 C.R.N.S. 135. For post-Constitution Act rulings, see also Hoskins, F. P., “Search and Seizure” in Pink, J. E. & Perrier, D. C., eds., From Crime to Punishment (Scarborough: Carswell, 1997) 303Google Scholar, and the case of Cloutier v. Langlois (1990), 53 C.C.C. (3d) 257 S.C.C. where the court spells out that searches may be conducted on persons incidental to arrest in order to secure objects that may be used in evidence, weapons that may be a threat to public safety, or objects that may aid in escape.

61 Cannon v. Hudson's Bay, [1939] 4 D.L.R. 465 (B.C.S.C).

62 Conn v. Spencer, [1930] 1 D.L.R. 805 at 808 (B.C.S.C).

63 Sinclair, supra note 47 at 397.

64 Kovacs, supra note 48 at 587.

65 Chaytor, supra note 46 at 536. See also Campbell, supra note 44 at 719. In R. v. Therens (1985), 18 C.C.C. (3d) 481 [hereinafter Therens], the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed a person could be subjected to ‘psychological control’ sufficient to constitute detention.

66 See Dendekker, supra note 33 at 434, Hayward v. Woolworth. (1978), 98 D.L.R. 474 at 476 (Ont. H.C.J.) [hereinafter Hayward]; Kendall, supra note 40 at 727; Kovacs, supra note 48 at 585.

67 In Newhook v. K-Mart (1991), 363 A.P.R. 102 at 115–116 [hereinafter Newhook], the Newfoundland Supreme Court (T.D.) held that the defence against a claim of false imprisonment failed because the defendants failed to establish an intention on the part of the arrestee to defraud. Thus their arrest was not justified. Here the Court seems to be requiring the arresting citizen to determine the intention or mental guilt of the arrestee as part of the ‘finds committing’ requirement. By contrast, in Banerjee v. K-Mart. (1983), 127 A.P.R. 252 at 255 the Newfoundland District Court maintained that the influence of s. 25(l)(a) on the ‘finds committing’ requirement was to require only that the defendant[s] make out a prima facie case; that is, it seems, they need only prove the act of theft, not the guilty intent of the person arrested for the offence. This also seems to be part of the reasoning in the decision by the Nova Scotia County in McCarthy, supra note 35. The Newfoundland Court of Appeal in Sears Canada v. Smart (1987) 36 D.L.R. (4th) 756 at 761 [hereinafter Sears Canada], seemed to reject the interpretation of s. 25 present in Banerjee.

68 Otto & Otto v. Wallace & Meyers [1988] 2 W.W.R. 728 (Alta. Q.B.).

69 Hayward, supra note 66 at 355. See also Kovacs, supra note 48 at 590.

70 See Kendall, supra note 40 at 727, Newhook, supra note 67 at 119.

71 Dandurand v. Pier 1 Imports (Canada) (1986), 55 O.R. (2d) 329. At p. 330, the Court of Appeal, in an oral judgment delivered by Lacourciere J.A., maintained “A private person does not have the same liberty as a peace officer to act on reasonable and probable grounds that an offence has been committed.”

72 This section of the Criminal Code, along with s. 494(1)(b) have been re-enacted so that the words “and probable” immediately preceding the word “grounds” are now deleted.

73 Banyasz v. K-Mart Canada Ltd. (1986), 33 D.L.R. 474 at 476.

74 Hayward, supra note 66 at 354.

75 Kovacs, supra note 48 at 590.

76 Kendall, supra note 40 at 736.

77 Karogiannis, supra note 39 at 256.

78 Dendekker, supra note 33.

79 Lebrun, supra note 43.

80 McCarthy, supra note 35 at 477.

81 Kovacs, supra note 48 at 591.

82 Hayward, supra note 66 at 354.

83 Sears Canada, supra note 67 at 760.

84 Ibid. at 759–760. See also Briggs v. Laviolette (1994), 21 C.C.L.T. (2d) 105 at 111.

85 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part 1 of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Sechedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (U.K.), 1982, c. 11 [hereinafter Charter].

86 McKinney v. University of Guelph, [1990] 3 S.C.R. 229 at 266 [hereinafter McKinney].

87 Eldridge v. British Colombia (A.G.), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 624 at 660 [hereinafter McKinney].

88 R. v. Lerke (1986), 24 C.C.C. (3d) 129 at 135 [hereinafter Lerke].

89 The constitutional questions surrounding the inclusion of evidence obtained by parapolicing organisations under contract with public housing, port, or parks authorities (or other public places) are not trivial. The expansion of contracted private policing firms is central to the organisation of securing places and spaces in late modernity.

90 Lerke, supra note 88 at 135–136.

91 R. v. Wilson (1994), 29 C.R. (4th) 302 at 309 [hereinafter Wilson].

92 R. v. Dean (1991), 5 C.R. (4th) 176.

93 Ibid. at 181.

94 Ibid. at 183.

95 Wilson, supra note 91.

96 Ibid. at 313.

97 Ibid. at 313.

98 Ibid. at 314.

99 See Sawler, supra note 19, and Tyab, supra note 19.

100 R. v. Shafie (1989), 47 C.C.C. (3d) 27 (Ont. C.A.) [hereinafter Shafie].

101 Sawler, supra note 19 at 413.

102 Tyab, supra note 19.

103 Shafie, supra note 100 at 28–29.

104 Therens, supra note 65. At page 505, the Supreme Court maintained that detention could occur as the result of psychological coercion where “the person concerned submits or acquiesces in the deprivation of liberty and reasonably believes that the choice to do otherwise does not exist.”

103 Shafie, supra note 100 at 30.

106 Therens, supra note 65 at 504.

107 Shafie, supra note 100 at 32.

108 Ibid. at 34. It would be interesting to know whether the Court intended the term ‘non-governmental persons' to be extended to ‘corporate’ persons.

109 R. v. J.C., [1994] B.C.J. No.1861 (QL).

110 Shafie, supra note 100 at 34.

111 Lerke, supra note 88.

112 McKinney, supra note 86.

113 Eldridge, supra note 87.

114 R. v. Paglialunga, [1995] O.J. No. 512 (QL) [hereinafter Paglialunga].

115 R. v. Brandt (1991), 118 A.R. 8.

116 R. v. Voege (1997), 31 V.M.R. (3d) 293, 48 C.R.R. (2d) 344 (Ont. Gen. Div.) at 10.

117 Ibid.

118 R. v. Miskuski, [1993] A.P.W.L.D. (Alta. Q. B.).

119 R.S.C. 1985 (1st Supp.), c. 33.

120 Lerke, supra note 88 at 139.

121 Ibid.

122 Ibid. at 139.

123 Ibid. at 140.

124 R.S.A. 1980, c. P-6, s. 4.

125 Lerke, supra note 88 at 141.

126 Ibid.

127 R. v. Kozuchar-Thibault, [1994] M. J. No. 449 (QL).

128 R. v. MacKenzie (1995), 392 A.P.R. 345 at 369.

129 Ibid. at 370.

130 R. v. Sandhu, [1992] B.C.W.L.D. 1342 (B.C.S.C), Aff'd (1993), 82 C.C.C. (3d) 236, 28 B.C.A.C. 203 (B.C.C.A.), Leave to appeal to S.C.C. refused (1993), 84 C.C.C (3d) (Note), 45 B.C.A.C. 238 (Note).

131 R. v. Williams (1994), 367 A.P.R. 8 (N.S.S.C.) [hereinafter Williams].

132 Ibid., at 17–18.

133 R. v. Colarusso (1994), 87 C.C.C. (3d) 193 at 222 [hereinafter Colarusso]. At p. 222, the Court wrote “the criminal law enforcement arm of the state cannot rely on the seizure by the coroner to circumvent the guarantees of Hunter, supra, as any seizure by the coroner pursuant to s. 16(2) [Coroners Act (Ont.)] is valid for non-criminal purposes only.” One might extend this logic to reason that searches by private actors be valid for private (e.g., non-criminal) purposes only.

134 Sawler, supra note 19.

135 See Re Drug Trading., supra note 19.

136 R. v. Fegan (1993), 80 C.C.C. (3d) 356 at 365 [hereinafter Fegan].

137 R. v. Finch (1995), 93 C.C.C. (3d) 185 at 190–191 [hereinafter Finch].

138 Ibid. at 191.

139 R. v. Caucci (1995), 43 C.R. (4th) 403 at 407–408.

140 R. v. Meyers (1987), 52 Alta. L.R. (2d) 156 at 165 [hereinafter Meyers].

141 Ibid. at 161.

142 Ibid. at 166.

143 Ibid. at 164–165.

144 Ibid. at 165.

145 Colarusso, supra note 133.

146 Williams, supra note 131.

147 Fegan, supra note 136.

148 Finch, supra note 137

149 Blair, I., “Where do the Police Fit Into Policing?” (Speech to ACPO Conference, Birmingham, 16 July 1998) at 2–3 [unpublished].Google Scholar

150 R.S.O. 1990, c. P-15. Competitive bidding was made possible by Ontario's Bill 105, which received royal ascent in June, 1997. Section 5 of the Act empowers municipal councils to “adopt a different method of providing police services.”

151 Normandeau, A. & Leighton, B., A Vision for the Future of Policing in Canada: Police-Challenge 2000 (Ottawa: Solicitor General, 1990) at 69.Google Scholar