Council poised to sideline Toronto City Hall security crackdown
Executive committee voted to proceed now only with barriers to stop a vehicle invading Nathan Phillips Square.

Thestar.com
David Rider
Nov. 28, 2017

Visitors to Toronto City Hall will not face metal detectors, bag inspections or politicians behind glass barriers any time soon.

Mayor John Tory’s executive committee backed away Tuesday from a staff-advocated crackdown after speakers blasted the proposals as heavy-handed and anti-democratic.

Dave Meslin, a prominent activist, said he fell in love with the bustling building in the 1990s when all doors were open and visitors giving politicians an earful got “cookies in the committee rooms.”

Tightened security, especially after the 2014 fatal attack on Parliament Hill, has eroded that welcome and the staff proposals would destroy it, he said.

“Politicians in North America are three times more likely to get hit by lightning than be hurt in a political attack,” Meslin thundered.

People targeted by safeguards in the name of security are disproportionately from Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities, argued Desmond Cole, another activist.

“I'm not opposed to politicians having security ... but I think we need balance,” he said.

Recommendations for metal detectors and bag inspections at City Hall’s front doors, and big glass walls separating public visitors from council members are in a secret city staff report to council. Details became public only because the Star viewed the confidential report and revealed them.

Recommended changes would cost $774,000 a year for extra security plus another $500,000 in one-time capital costs.

Drawing on threat assessments from Toronto police and Public Safety Canada, it warns that the famed curved towers and Nathan Phillips Square outside are a “target for serious threats” from “lone wolf terrorists, organized terror groups, and other individuals with grievances.”

But Tim Maguire, the union representative for thousands of city employees working in those towers, called the crackdown unnecessary “overkill.”

His members are not demanding metal detectors, he said. Asked by a councillor about past concerns, he recalled “an employee who felt intimidated by the previous mayor” Rob Ford but that situation was addressed.

City councillors said threats are part of public life. A resident warned Gord Perks they’d “gut him life a fish” while another threatened to hunt down Mary-Margaret McMahon’s children.

But they both argued against fast-tracking obstacles to public participation, even after a security official promised the plan would give visitors a “very different, more customer-friendly” experience than that of airports.

Tory proposed that only a proposal to use barriers to protect Nathan Phillps Square from charging vehicles move ahead now. Changes for City Hall itself should go back to staff for study and public consultation, the mayor said.

"This is the public's building ... our order of government and our building is seen as the most accessible and I think we want to protect that," while ensuring city staff who work in the famous building and visitors who stream in and out of it are kept safe, Tory said.

Executive committee overwhelmingly agreed with the mayor, who wants the second look done by March and most or all of the report which city staff wanted kept secret permanently made public by city council next week.

Council will have final say over the security plan but, with council’s left-leaning wing supporting right-leaning Tory’s motion, it is almost certain to pass.

Not everyone, however, feels safe with the status quo, where people breeze in and out of city hall’s front doors and bags are searched only in the council chamber.

Councillor David Shiner sided with staff, saying terrorist attacks have changed the world and Torontonians already accept security checks at hockey games and concerts.

“We’re democracy, we’re the symbol of government, we’re a symbol of freedom, we’re a symbol of Canada ...that people want to disrupt, they want to bring down a system that’s here that they don’t agree with,” Shiner told colleagues.

“I support the recommendations because I believe we need to protect our employees, I believe we have to protect the public.”