The justice system is where the imbalance of power between the state and the individual is at its most stark. Courthouses have been used throughout the world to justify atrocities or to perpetrate them. So who watches the watchmen? We do. Ordinary Canadian citizens do.
The Ottawa courthouse is going from three public entrances to one, where members of the public will be screened and pass through metal detectors. The Police Services Act already gives police the responsibility to ensure the safety of people in the courthouse. Giving police the power to search people inside a courthouse is one thing; making such searches universal at the door is another.
A government bill before the Ontario legislature may not actually increase the scope of what police can do under the law, but following a general recommendation of the Roy McMurtry report on the security of public institutions, it adds a layer of specified detail. This entrenches expectations of tighter security. It specifies, for example, that security staff can require people entering a courthouse to give their names and “to provide information for the purpose of assessing whether the person poses a security risk.” Staff can also turn people away.
Ottawa Centre MPP and community safety minister Yasir Naqvi, who introduced the bill, seems to have no problem allowing the police to make the call about what level of security is appropriate at the Ottawa courthouse, where security is already tighter and police are asking people to state their business.
The check on the state’s power is the open court system: any one of us can go to the courthouse and watch the proceedings. That is our place. The courthouse is not just an institution for processing cases; it is the venue for the community at large to see that justice is done. As Jeremy Bentham put it, “where there is no publicity, there is no justice.”
It is particularly important that the justice system be seen to be impartial when judging the actions of authority figures, and that it is seen to be free from bias. So it ought to be obvious that there is a inherent conflict in setting up authority figures at the door, to pass judgment on who gets to come inside to monitor how the system is working.
Ottawans know, all too well, that public institutions and the people in them can be targets, and there is nothing wrong with taking reasonable measures to protect the public. But police or security staff demanding that citizens justify their presence in the courthouse is a step too far. If the argument for sweeping security measures boils down to “trust us,” we’re in trouble.
