Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill in­cludes a clause where “threat­en­ing” or “as­sault­ing” po­lice of­fi­cers in spe­cial op­er­a­tions zones could in­clude things such as go­ing up in of­fi­cers’ faces or threat­en­ing to tape them with cell phones, and that car­ries a $50,000 fine and one year’s im­pris­on­ment, says Op­po­si­tion MP Do­minic Ro­main.

“That’s why con­sul­ta­tion with the pub­lic was need­ed on this bill – to help them un­der­stand!” Ro­main said dur­ing last Fri­day’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives de­bate on the Bill.

The 26-clause Bill al­lows for the de­c­la­ra­tion of ar­eas as spe­cial op­er­a­tions zones to tack­le crime. It is pro­posed to re­main in ef­fect un­til Sep­tem­ber 2028.

It was passed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Sat­ur­day af­ter 13 hours of heat­ed de­bate be­tween Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion. It will be de­bat­ed in the Sen­ate on Wednes­day.

Speak­ing in the House de­bate, Ro­main cit­ed neg­a­tive pub­lic com­ments on the Bill.

He said pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion should have been done so cit­i­zens could un­der­stand how the Bill’s claus­es could im­pact them.

“We need to be mind­ful, we’re not mak­ing leg­is­la­tion for our­selves – it’s for the coun­try as a whole, and the ma­jor­i­ty of cit­i­zens aren’t go­ing to read this (Bill), or go to the Gazette to get a copy or check on­line – and it’s not go­ing to be print­ed in the news­pa­per.”

“My con­cern with 18A is what con­sti­tutes a ‘threat’ or ‘as­sault’. I learned (about this) for the first time in this House a few months ago when we had the in­ci­dent with the tak­ing of a pho­to a (Par­lia­ment) staff mem­ber... The av­er­age cit­i­zen doesn’t know that ‘as­sault’ un­der the com­mon law doesn’t re­quire phys­i­cal in­ter­ac­tion with some­body,” Ro­main said.

“We know cit­i­zens when they have in­ter­ac­tions with po­lice, and it es­ca­lates; they pull out their phone (and say) ‘Ah tap­ing you, you know, you go­ing an lose yuh job!’ We hear things like that, and that could con­sti­tute ‘as­sault’!

“If you come up in the of­fi­cer’s face and he feels threat­ened, most cit­i­zens don’t know that could be con­sid­ered ‘as­sault’. And the fine for that is $50,000 and one year’s im­pris­on­ment!

“The same with ‘threat­en’ an of­fi­cer. That’s why we need­ed con­sul­ta­tions for cit­i­zens to un­der­stand this. So when they in­ter­act with po­lice in a closed zone of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions, they know how to con­duct them­selves. Oth­er­wise you could find your­self pay­ing $50,000 and sit­ting in jail for one year.”