City council needs to improve security in light of Ottawa shooting, says councillor
Toronto Council needs to brush up on its security protocols says Scarborough Centre Councillor Michael Thompson, in light of the fatal shootings in Ottawa and Quebec City this fall.
Toronto Council needs to brush up on its security protocols says Scarborough Centre Councillor Michael Thompson, in light of the fatal shootings in Ottawa and Quebec City this fall.
Thompson is asking Toronto Council to approve a plan to devise emergency evacuation protocols in the event of a gunman or other threat to emerge in city council chambers or committee rooms.
"In light of ISIS members calling on Muslims to take revenge on Canada… we are a high profile environment, the largest city in the country, we have meetings and we trust that people will come in and observe meetings and leave peaceably and that’s generally the rule," said Thompson.
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"But there is an off chance that something could happen. The question is do we plan for these things?"
Thompson is bringing a notice of motion to the Dec. 11 meeting of Toronto Council, asking that the city’s Chief Corporate Officer make a closed-door presentation of the city’s latest emergency evacuation policy to council, and also conduct a security exercise involving members of council, clerk’s staff and other staff at city council meetings.
Thompson said in an interview that he believes Toronto City Hall needs to be more security conscious—moreso even, perhaps, than the current moderately heightened security measures put in place earlier in the fall.
Currently, the north doors of city hall are only accessible by card entry and security guards watch the front door.
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Thompson wouldn’t say what security measures he’d recommend, but he said he would like to see city staff recommend a tighter security protocol.
"The reality is that things are changing," he said. "We don’t really know who the enemy is, so often it’s important for us to have mechanisms in place."
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