A rioter stands in the intersection of Hamilton Street and Georgia Street after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in Vancouver,Wednesday, June 15, 2011.Rafal Gerszak
Hiding one's face behind a mask or bandana during events like the Stanley Cup riot, or at a protest, should be a criminal offence, says Victoria Police Chief Jamie Graham.
Such a measure would have greatly assisted police trying to control unruly crowds during the three-hour rampage of looting, burning and assaults that followed the Vancouver Canucks' loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, said Chief Graham, who headed the Vancouver Police Department for five years.
"It would have been an additional tool that officers on the street could have used," he said in an interview Wednesday.
"You could see the ringleaders with these bandanas on, and [such a law]would be important at an early stage of a demonstration or an event like the riot, where things seem to be getting out of hand."
When trouble starts, miscreants often "balaclava up or mask up" to hide their identities," Chief Graham said. "We think the act of putting on a mask should be an offence."
A law could even have targeted those who "pull a blood-stained jersey up over their nose and mouth," he added. "It's the intent of why they're doing that."
The Victoria police chief trotted out the proposal while talking to reporters at an unrelated event in Vancouver. He said he intends to make a motion calling for the move during this summer's conference of the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs.
Michael Vonn, policy director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, was perturbed by suggestion.
She noted demonstrators often take bandanas to protests as a matter of course to guard against the unleashing of tear gas or pepper spray by police. "It's part of the manual."
There would also be problems defining what type of headgear would be included within a mask law. "It's very complex. Even categorically, the catchment is vexed. It would be pretty problematic, under the Charter."
Chief Graham agreed the measure would face constitutional and "balance of fairness" issues. "A very uphill road lies ahead."
Ms. Vonn said she was more interested in not allowing police to hide their identities, as some did during the G20 street protests in Toronto.
Meanwhile, Chief Graham and other police expressed support for Vancouver Police Chief Chu's controversial refusal to publicly release the department's staffing levels on riot night.
"It's pretty well standard practice around the world for police not to disclose tactical numbers," he told reporters.
Otherwise, individuals intending to cause trouble at future events would study the numbers closely and prepare, according to Chief Graham. "So it's common sense not to give out deployment figures."
He acknowledged providing precise police staffing levels for Friday's Canada Day festivities.
"But that is a family-friendly event. There's not an organized element there that shows up to cause harm," he said.
Calgary police take a similar view.
"We never disclose manpower numbers publicly for operation reasons," said Jill McCormick, spokeswoman for the Calgary Police Service. "We don't want to give those numbers away to those who may wish to subvert the peace."
Ms. McCormick said she didn't know where Vancouver police learned that 350 Calgary police patrolled street celebrations during that city's 2004 run to the Stanley Cup final. The number was referred to in a police report to Vancouver city council.
""We never disclose manpower numbers, even after an event has happened. We're unaware of where [the VPD]may have learned of those numbers. We can't confirm or deny what the number is," Ms. McCormick said.
Rob Gordon, a former police officer and now head of Simon Fraser University's department of criminology, called VPD deployment levels the night of the riot "a relatively trivial issue. It's been politicized and blown way out of proportion."
Focusing on police numbers misses the main lesson to be learned from the riot, and that is the need for a regional police force, said Prof. Gordon.
The Greater Vancouver area should be serviced by a single, coherent policing system, which would not only be larger but have "common training, common practices, and common procedure, with a single leadership," he contended.
"Chief Chu didn't have enough police on the ground" to handle the huge crowds swarming into downtown Vancouver from surrounding suburbs, Prof. Gordon said.
"It shouldn't be Chief Chu's budget to handle these crowds. It should be regarded as a regional event."
With reports from Sunny Dhillon and Vivian Luk