A back-up to remember

“Thirty-one-O-two... thirty-one-O-two... Attend the drug store at Weston Road and Finch. A man causing a disturbance.”

Seemed like a routine call and I wasn’t too far away. A man causing a disturbance was a routinely-heard radio call but there’s no telling what you might face on arrival.

Canada's newest police service hits the streets

!/articles/canadas_newest_police_service_hits_the_streets/cover.jpg!As the sun peaks over the horizon, Cst. Don MacKenzie finishes his last shift as an Oxford Community Police Service officer.

His in-coming shift relief, while reporting for duty at the same Dundas Street headquarters in the City of Woodstock, dons a different badge, shoulder flash and attitude.

At 7:01 a.m. on Oct. 19, 63 officers of the now defunct Oxford Community Police Service (OCPS) became members of the bornagain Woodstock Police Service (WPS).

“Everything we have been waiting for has come to fruition,” says MacKenzie, whose dad was the last chief of the former WPS. “It’s nice the political turmoil is done and we know where we are going... we know what our future is.”

Switched on

With an elevated threat of danger and risk to their personal safety, protection for heads of state, dignitaries and other VIPs isn’t an option. The U.S. Secret Service and Papal Swiss Guard are highly visible and well known names in personal protection. Others, such as Israel’s Shin Bet, whose very name translates to “the unseen shield,” are more covert and not as well known to the public.

In Canada, the RCMP’s Personal Protection Group (PPG), is responsible for protecting the prime minister, governor general and certain VIPs in the National Capital Region.

Investigative detention triggers right to counsel

Addressing an issue it would not answer in R. v. Mann, Canada’s highest court now holds that a person subjected to an investigative detention has the right to a lawyer, as guaranteed in s.10(b) of the Charter.

In R. v. Suberu, 2009 SCC 33, two men tried to buy a $3 bottle of beer using a $100 gift certificate purchased with a stolen credit card earlier that day at another Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) store. An employee stalled the men until police arrived.

One officer approached Suberu as he walked towards the exit; another spoke to the other man.