Despite saying she wasn’t protesting, Toronto lawyer Caryma Sa’d was arrested at the May 26 event ahead of the June 2 provincial election. A separate group of protesters were also told to leave, with police saying they were trespassing. Until now, questions have been asked of Hamilton police and Ford’s team, with critics questioning whether Hamilton officers were acting on orders from Ford’s security. But new questions raised at a recent airport subcommittee meeting reveal that Hamilton International Airport and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were both involved in decisions about how to respond to the protests. “I think it’s an important issue,” said Ward 8 Coun. John-Paul Danko said during the committee’s June 28 meeting, noting the use of security by the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (PC) in the past, including an instance where a journalist was barred from a PC event. “The airport is under lease from the city of Hamilton and I think there’s a bigger question here so hopefully there will be some answers from either the OPP or the Hamilton Police Service,” Danko said. Ward 8 Coun. John-Paul Danko said he has questions about what happened at the airport in May before a Doug Ford rally. (City of Hamilton/YouTube) Questions asked of the airport, the OPP, Hamilton police and the PC party by CBC Hamilton reveal that several of those involved are pointing the finger at who asked to remove the protesters. The airport says it was the OPP who approached them and asked the airport to have officers apply the Trespass to Property Act (TPA) “to remove the protesters from its property.” The OPP say the officers were just doing their jobs and enforcing the TPA, which states police must act on any activity designated by the airport as prohibited activity. In this case, the OPP says, it was the airport that said protests were prohibited. Meanwhile, Hamilton police, the agency responsible for arresting lawyer Sa’d on behalf of the OPP, will not answer questions about the situation, other than that officers are enforcing the TPA. Legal experts and Sa’d say more transparency and clarity is needed. Questions remain about her arrest, whether Sa’d’s Charter rights were violated and what influence the PC party may have had.

How May 26 unfolded

The controversy began hours before the Ford rally began. Sa’d said she had an RSVP to attend the event. She is known for creating cartoons and videos criticizing politicians and people protesting public health measures. Sand said she was not there as a protester but as a political commentator. She said someone from Ford’s group asked her to leave and called police when she refused. “You are not invited to this event … we know you are not here for the right intentions,” one person said to Sa’d in a video posted on Twitter. The person appears to be wearing in-ear headphones, but their relationship is unclear. So far, no one has come up with a legitimate reason why I can’t attend this event. pic.twitter.com/zXGPoZ7s3H —@CarymaRules Hamilton police previously said Sand did not leave despite numerous odds, prompting an officer to arrest her for trespassing — failing to leave the premises when ordered. Sa’d said she was removed from the property before being released and given a $65 ticket. Hamilton police spokeswoman Jackie Penman would not answer specific questions about the incident “out of respect for court procedures,” saying only that officers were acting under the TPA. The PC party and Cargojet did not respond to questions from the CBC. Asked about the situation, city spokeswoman Michelle Shantz said the city respects the decisions and actions taken by enforcement teams, saying that “enforcement teams at times have to make quick judgments in order to maintain safety in buildings owned by city”.

Airport and OPP agreed to remove protesters

Also outside the event that day was a small group of protesters, including environmental group Hamilton 350 and Anthony Marco, president of the Hamilton and District Labor Council. They were protesting at the corner of East Cargo Road and East Cargo Drive, which are both access roads leading to the Cargojet facility. Cole Horncastle, the airport’s executive director, said during the airport’s subcommittee meeting in June that East Cargo Road is under the management of the airport and said it is privately owned. Marco told the CBC about an hour after his protest, he was shown a trespassing order for the airport landings. CBC has seen an image of what appears to be a form showing the airport asking the OPP and Hamilton police to enforce the TPA on its property that day. None of those protesters were arrested, but Marko also has concerns about the possible influence of the PC party, saying a party official threatened to have the police arrest him and the protesters. A small group of protesters demonstrated along the access roads to the Cargojet facility, where PC leader Doug Ford was due to make a campaign stop. (Submitted by Anthony Marco) The airport told the CBC it complied with the OPP and asked officers to enforce the TPA “with the understanding that security was an issue and access to the airport’s tenants was impeded.” “[OPP raised] the safety concern regarding the volume of traffic on the road and access to the concerned and other tenants … who were raising [operational] concerns about their employees,” Horncastle said when asked what the concerns were during the subcommittee meeting. The airport also said in an email that protesting is “strictly prohibited” on its property and can only happen at the property line, but also said it “believes in safeguarding the right to protest.” “The airport is committed to reviewing internal policies and practices to ensure that decisions affecting protests in the future are made with full information and protect activity related to peaceful protests to the extent possible,” the email said.

The OPP says it does not take orders from politicians

OPP spokesman Bill Dickson told CBC Hamilton during the election The OPP’s Protective Services division protects the leaders of all three major political parties, but “does not take orders from the government or political leaders.” “Police operations are completely independent of political influence,” he said. Dickson said the OPP discussed security measures with the owner or occupier of the property — in this case, the airport — before any event with the leaders. One of these measures is the TPA. He said under the TPA the airport decided what activity — in this case, protesting — was prohibited. “Under the Trespass to Property Act, the police have the power to remove people who engage in prohibited activity on behalf of the owner/occupier of the property.” Dickson also said operational decisions are “always autonomous and based on safety and compliance with the law.” Sa’d, a Toronto lawyer, says she will fight the trespassing charges brought against her by Hamilton police. (Taylor Simmons/CBC) Sa’d said she wasn’t at the event to protest and doesn’t understand why she was arrested. It also questions the latitude a property owner or occupier has under the TPA. “If the police commit to this, then clearly it has the potential to open the door for political influence in policing to the extent that it is not a bona fide, bona fide, list of prohibited activities,” Sa’d said. “What prevents this political party from having criteria that are actually political?” She also said she is not sure about the security threat.

Rights Infringed? Lawyers analyze police actions

After Sa’d’s arrest, the Criminal Lawyers Association (CLA) and Women In Canadian Criminal Defense condemned the police and the PC party in a public statement. Cassandra DeMelo, CLA vice president and founder of DeMelo Law, said she believes Sa’d should not have been arrested. He said based on the TPA, Sa’d should have been allowed in because she had an RSVP to attend the event and had a reasonable belief that she was entitled to attend the event. “She clearly believes she has a right to be there and wants the police to come and clean it up, which is the irony of it all, the police come after and instead, they arrest her,” DeMelo said. Defense attorney Cassandra DeMelo says she believes Sa’d should not have been arrested. (Provided by DeMelo Law) DeMelo said the party should have had a better vetting process to determine who received an invitation, and police should have explained to Sa’d why she was uninvited. “Even the fact that they designated the protest as prohibited should concern citizens because essentially what they are saying is ‘you are only invited here if you support us,’” he said. “She’s a young woman of color and regardless of the intentions of the security and the police…it looks pretty bad when you consider what the police allowed to go on for weeks in Ottawa with a predominantly white population in attendance.” From a Charter rights perspective, Albertos Polyzogopoulos, a constitutional lawyer and founder of the Acacia Group, said he did not believe there were any problems with Sand’s arrest. “Whether she was protesting or not is, I believe, irrelevant … if she was asked to leave by the property owner and refused, it does not appear that the police here acted arbitrarily or inappropriately,” he wrote in an email. Errol Mendes, University of Ottawa…