After the Progressive Conservative government announced plans this week to grant new powers to public-transit special constables so that they can arrest drug users, there was nary a word of protest from the opposition parties at Queen’s Park.
This was significant. It’s not as though Doug Ford’s counterparts are in a particularly conciliatory mood.
The premier has been blasted regularly in recent weeks over his aborted purchase of a private jet, his changes to Freedom of Information laws, and other assorted transgressions. Ford’s PCs are down in the polls, and there is a blood-in-the-water vibe at Queen’s Park.
So, when the government said on Monday that it was following through on a Ford promise to give transit special constables the authority to “stop individuals from using illegal substances on transit and in transit areas” and to “issue tickets or make arrests if individuals refuse to comply,” it wouldn’t have been all that surprising to see outrage from the opposition benches. They are of a mind to be pretty outraged these days.
But, no.
Through three sessions of question period so far this week, no one asked the premier, or his solicitor general, Michael Kerzner, why he was targeting people who were in the throes of addiction, or why he was singling out the homeless. No one complained that the real problem is the gaps in the social safety net that allow drug users to fall through.
Sure, there were some nods in that direction, with interim Liberal Leader John Fraser and the NDP’s Marit Stiles worrying about root causes and the like. But both were unequivocal that change was needed. Fraser told reporters that “people are concerned” about the drug situation on public transit, and Stiles said “everybody has a right to feel safe” on places like the TTC.
There’s not much else they could say, given the state of things. Anecdotes aren’t evidence, of course, but anyone who is a regular transit rider, in Toronto in particular, has seen a jump in the number of people who are either using drugs or under the influence of drugs. And anyone who uses social media with a Toronto focus will have seen similar: people smoking drugs, or in a drugged state, on vehicles or in stations.
