The Safe Streets Act, 1999 (SSA) (the act) is a statute in the province of Ontario, Canada. The act prohibits aggressive solicitation of persons in certain public places. It also prohibits the disposal of "certain dangerous things" such as used condoms, hypodermic needles and broken glass in outdoor public places.[1] It also amends the Highway Traffic Act to regulate certain activities on roadways. The act was enacted by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris and received royal assent on December 14, 1999.
The act was created in response to what was seen as the growing problem of squeegee kids on the streets. By 1999, it was very common to see squeegee kids on some of the busiest intersections where they would solicit motorists for spare change.
The act was affirmed by the Ontario Court of Appeal on a constitutional challenge after the Ontario Superior Court also upheld its validity in 2005. The Supreme Court of Canada has denied an application for review.
In 2004, the province of British Columbia passed its own version of the Safe Streets Act, substantially a word-for-word copy of the Ontario version.
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Youth Criminal Justice Act - Principles
Transcription
YOUTH OFFENDER 1: I don't really remember all of what happened the night I was arrested because I was intoxicated and stuff. YOUNG OFFENDER 2: I started drinking, doing drugs so I kept on getting in trouble with the law so I kept on going back and forth in and out of jail, in and out of jail... YOUNG OFFENDER 3: I was just like whoa, what have I done? You know, like, what have I become? PROGRAM TITLE: 'YOUTH JUSTICE - BUILDING SAFE STREETS AND COMMUNITIES' SR. PROBATION OFFFICER ANNE LYNE-HAUGHEY: You know, it takes a village to raise a child and I think that's the perspective of The Youth Criminal Justice Act is coming from. CONSTABLE JEFFREY WESTMAN: It's about real consequences happening right away and youth can relate to that. COMMUNITY PROGRAMS OFFICER RHONDA STAIRS: I think it is important to remember that it's kind of not a one-size-fits-all approach, that we have to pay attention to every youth that we come into contact with. YRAP ERIK BISANZ: They get to take responsibility for what they have done and really own up to it and for a lot of people that is really freeing. NARRATOR: The Youth Criminal Justice Act, or YCJA, is the federal law which governs Canada's youth justice system. The Act applies to Canadian youth aged 12 to 17 who get into trouble with the law. The YCJA came into force in 2003 and was amended in 2012 to strengthen its handling of violent and repeat young offenders. PROFESSOR NICHOLAS BALA: Almost every country in the world has some special legislation or provisions that recognize that children, adolescents, are not to be treated in the same way as adults. That they have a limited state of maturity, they have a limited state of moral development, intellectual development and they are often more amenable to rehabilitation. YCJA PRINCIPLES NARRATOR: The Youth Criminal Justice Act states that the youth criminal justice system is intended to protect the public by holding youth accountable, promoting the rehabilitation and reintegration of youth back into society, and preventing crime. It emphasizes that the youth criminal justice system must be separate from the adult system, and based on the principle that youth are presumed to be less morally blameworthy than adults. In other words, the law recognizes that youth must be held accountable, but in a way that takes into account their greater dependency and reduced level of maturity. PROFESSOR NICHOLAS BALA: A key objective, a key principal of the Act is to try to promote the protection of Canadian public. And that includes the short-term protection which may in some circumstance mean removing the young offender from the community but it also includes the long-term protection of society by rehabilitating young people, by dealing with their underlying problems. It also provides more structure to the decision making of judges, probation officers and others, and tries to ensure that custody is used as a last resort and it's largely been successful in achieving that. DEFENSE LAWYER PATRICIA YUZWENKO: This is a much improved situation than we had before under The Young Offenders Act because I am now looking more at not just representing clients but we have to look at trying to find ways to deal with underlying issues which the court might need to address in sentencing in order to assist in the rehabilitation of young persons.
Criticism
The act has been criticized by many anti-poverty groups such as OCAP (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) for being too strict and too vague in how it defines aggressive panhandling. The bill states that "aggressive manner" means "a manner that is likely to cause a reasonable person to be concerned for his or her safety or security." This could mean almost anything as different people have different standards for when their own safety has been compromised. The act has also been criticized by The Homeless Hub, which argues that it is bad policy and practice for reasons including that issuing tickets to homeless people is a counter-productive way of dealing with a poverty issue, as homeless persons cannot pay SSA fines, and that the Safe Streets Act is not cost-effective.[2]
The act was protested by a group of one hundred homeless in May 2006 in Ottawa who mostly identified themselves as anarchists[citation needed]. The march and protest was organized by the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union, a local branch of the Ottawa-Outaouais Industrial Workers of the World.
See also
References
- ^ "Safe Streets Act, 1999, S.O. 1999, c. 8". ontario.ca. Government of Ontario. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
- ^ Gaetz, Stephen (December 10, 2014), "It's time to repeal the Safe Streets Act!", Homeless Hub blog
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External links
This page was last edited on 13 October 2023, at 04:11