{"id":24115,"date":"2019-06-28T11:50:59","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24115"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:51:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:51:07","slug":"new-rules-could-allow-bylaw-officers-to-enter-properties-without-search-warrant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-rules-could-allow-bylaw-officers-to-enter-properties-without-search-warrant\/","title":{"rendered":"New rules could allow bylaw officers to enter properties without search warrant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal bylaw officers could enter onto private property without a search warrant, following the passage of new rules by Council this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting at the\nCommittee level last Tuesday, local lawmakers approved a revised Private\nProperty Protocol that will remove the requirement to obtain a search warrant\nfor investigative purposes, replacing this rule with a new notification process\nfor property owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bylaw officers\ncharacterize the process to obtain search warrants to conduct investigations as\na \u201ccumbersome and resourcefully strenuous process\u201d and backed this claim with a\nnumber of examples, including one related to a dangerous dog incident this past\nspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecently, Animal\nServices Officers conducted a search warrant to seize a dangerous dog in\nrelation to a charge under the Dog Owners Liability Act,\u201d said Alexander Wray,\nManager of Bylaw Services for the Town of Aurora, in his report to Council.\n\u201cThe process to obtain the warrant began in March 2019 and required multiple\nsite visits, emails, telephone conversations and meetings with Regional\nprosecutors. Once the determination was made that a search warrant was the\nappropriate course of action, the investigating officer spent approximately\nfive working days compiling all evidence, appendices and information to present\nto a Justice of the Peace for approval. After waiting for approximately three\nhours for the Justice of the Peace to review the evidence and information, the\nofficer was granted permission to execute the warrant two days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to execute\nthe warrant to the requirements outlined, the Officer required the assistance\nof four York Regional Police officers, one veterinarian, one locksmith and two\nbylaw officers. During this time, staff resources were reallocated to ensure\ncoverage and service standards were continued to be met. Additionally, staff\nencountered a cost of approximately $1,000 to execute the warrant to pay for\nthe services of the veterinarian and locksmith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report notes that\nPower of Entry provisions do not infringe upon a person\u2019s rights under the\nCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as \u201cprovisions found in the various\nlegislation and in municipal bylaws have been held by the courts to be\nreasonable in that the legislation and bylaws state that entry onto the\nproperty is to be done at any reasonable time and in a reasonable manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to staff, a\nnotification process and protocol will \u201cbalance the rights of residents,\nimprove relations and maintain efficiencies with residents while ensuring\npublic safety is not compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe current process\nto notify residents that Bylaw Services has attended the property is to leave a\ndoor knocker indicating the nature of the visit (property standards, zoning,\nlong grass, etc.) The process is informal and does not necessarily provide\nresidents and\/or property owners an official notification that Bylaw is\nrequesting entry to property for the purpose of investigating a complaint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA formal\nnotification process and protocol would be beneficial for many reasons,\nincluding balancing the privacy of residents and property owners with the\nTown\u2019s rights to enter; allowing property owners to schedule appointments with\nthe officers if they would like to be present for the inspection; promote\ninitial conversations to occur that are not offensive and lead to better\nrelations and improved cooperation for voluntary compliance, [and] provide a\nsafer working environment for our officers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the proposed\nchanges received the widespread support of Council, Mayor Tom Mrakas had a\ndifferent view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI fundamentally have\nan issue with someone just walking into a backyard,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cTo me,\nit speaks to privacy of those residents. I understand it has gone to court on\nprevious occasions in other jurisdictions and municipalities and it has found\nthey are allowed to have that right of entry power and it is not an invasion on\ntheir Charter rights, but it is just me. That\u2019s the way I feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect\neveryone to feel that way, so I will be voting against this [but] staff did a\ntremendous job putting this together. I think if this was in front of us last\nterm when we decided to move forward with the pilot to have warrants executed,\nI don\u2019t think this would have happened. Whichever way this falls, I think as a\nTown and as staff, we\u2019re going to do whatever we can to ensure the residents\nare done right by.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chips fell in favour of staff\u2019s recommendations last Tuesday and this decision was ratified this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems to me,\naccording to all of the appropriate plans and policies, that we can do what is\nsuggested which basically is not making it more difficult for staff to properly\ninvestigate serious concerns on the part of residents,\u201d said Councillor Wendy\nGaertner. \u201cI think that the compromise that has come through in this report is\nright on. We tried it a different way, it really didn\u2019t work, so now we\u2019re\ncoming to move forward with this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Sandra\nHumfryes, said she was more on the fence on the proposed changes, but saw the\nmerits looking ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe process to get a\nwarrant is time consuming and I think it costs a lot of manhours,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor\nHarold Kim: \u201cI am glad we came to this conclusion. It is a delicate balance\nbetween health and safety and privacy concerns and residents of this Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel\nGilliland was of a similar mind, noting that property standards issues have\nproven to be a \u201creal thorn in people\u2019s sides\u201d in issues such as long grass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe report has balance and you\u2019re very specific\non the procedure and I think that is what we\u2019re all looking for \u2013 the procedure\nof entering a backyard when you are considering public health and safety and\nwhether or not people are put at risk,\u201d she said. \u201cI think what you\u2019ve\npresented today reflects what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Municipal bylaw officers could enter onto private property without a search warrant, following the passage of new rules by Council this week. Sitting at the Committee level last Tuesday, local lawmakers approved a revised Private Property Protocol that will remove the requirement to obtain a search warrant for investigative purposes, replacing this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6gX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 13:37:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}