Ontario Proposes New Legislation for Community Safety

The Ontario government has introduced a new legislative proposal aimed at enhancing public safety across the province. The proposed Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act includes several measures targeting public safety near supervised consumption sites, auto theft, and careless driving. It also aims to improve the tools available to police for managing sex offenders and to tackle illegal cannabis sales.

Key elements of the proposed legislation include:

• Prohibiting the operation of supervised consumption sites within 200 meters of schools and child-care centers.
• Requiring municipal approval for new supervised consumption sites.
• Introducing penalties for vehicle identification number fraud and addressing careless driving.
• Enhancing police tools for monitoring sex offenders and investigating sex crimes.
• Amending the Limitations Act to remove the limitation period for lawsuits under the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.
• Prohibiting the advertisement and promotion of illegal cannabis sales.

The government is also considering measures to improve the collection of bail statistics as part of ongoing calls for Criminal Code reform.