On April 18th, 2021, two Peterborough County OPP officers approached nine adults with their children at the Havelock Community Centre park. A video taken by one of the mothers shows the officers encouraging the parents and children to social distance if masks are not being worn (even though provincial orders don’t require masks to be worn outdoors).
The officers then threatened the parents by telling them that in “some of these situations we are being asked to call CAS [Children’s Aid Society] to advise them.” Later, when asked about the officer’s statements by the media, the community safety and media officer of the Peterborough County OPP defended the statements by saying “We are in a public health pandemic and stay at home order. Public health encourages social distancing and wearing masks… If a parent is making a decision for a child that is not consistent with this, then we may continue to liaise with CAS on a case-by-case basis.”
As a mother of a five-year-old, I was outraged upon reading the media report. So, on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2021, the first opportunity I had in the speaking schedule of Question Period at the Ontario legislature, I asked the government two questions about this situation:
- Does this government believe that it is the job of the OPP to spy on parents in parks with their children, collect their information, and go running to children’s aid if, in their opinion, the appropriate mask wearing, or social distancing, is not occurring?
- … Since the news report, has this government instructed children’s aid and the OPP to back off when it comes to how parents are parenting their children on things like mask wearing and social distancing?
The answers to each of my questions should have been easy for anyone of Doug Ford’s ministers to respond to. Unfortunately, Doug Ford’s Solicitor General and government House Leader, each respectively declined to commit to ensuring the situation at the Havelock Community Centre park didn’t happen again somewhere else in Ontario.
Parents are the primary educators and caregivers of their children, not the OPP, not children’s aid, not the Premier, and not his ministers. Any government that doesn’t understand those fundamental principles and is unwilling to ensure parents are not threatened by the police or children’s aid during provincial lockdown orders over a virus, is a government that has clearly lost its way.
Belinda Karahlios
MPP Cambridge, North Dumfries & North Brant
