Bouncers must meet standards in Canada

[WtD_Oracle]

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1176530.html

Bouncers at bars will have to be licensed and trained to do that work under a new law proposed by the Dexter government.

The province wants to create new standards for people working in private security, including guards, private investigators and the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires.

Justice Minister Ross Landry on Friday brought back the legislation he first tabled in November.

It’s basically the same bill but people affected by the proposal wanted to talk to justice officials about it and that’s what happened in the last few months, Landry said.

He said the law is about improving public safety.

"The private security industry is everywhere, and if we’re expecting our police services and other types of service providers to have standards of service delivery, this private-sector security should also have standards," Landry said at Province House.

"The community as a whole should know when they go into a licensed premise . . . that the people managing that have a certain standard of professionalism and skills."

It’s the first significant change in legislation covering the private security industry in 35 years, Landry said.

Currently, the province requires businesses employing private investigators, private guards or armed guards be registered and employees licensed.

What’s new for those businesses will be a required standard of training for employees. Landry said the training standards haven’t been developed yet.

The parents of a man who died after an altercation with a bouncer in 1999 were at Landry’s news conference. They said the new law would be an improvement.

"When you lose someone, as we have, through, I don’t know what kind of an act you would call it — pretty brutal — and I think anything we can do to help prevent it from happening again gives me, personally, a lot of satisfaction," said Cyril Giffin of Halifax.

His son Stephen, 38, was found in the parking lot of Captain Eli’s Restaurant and Lounge on Young Street on Dec. 23, 1999. He was taken to hospital and removed from life-support on Christmas Day.

Bar manager Roni Peter Labi and bouncer George Joseph MacDonald were charged with manslaughter but a jury acquitted them in 2001. The victim’s use of the antidepressant clomipramine was found to have been a factor in his death.

Giffin believes a choke hold caused his son’s death but medical evidence disputed that claim.

Liberal MLA Andrew Younger said he agrees with the idea of training those in private security but would need to see the regulations before throwing his full support behind it.

Regulations provide more details about how the law would work in practical terms but Landry said they won’t be ready for months.

"We don’t know what the use-of-force model will be and this entire bill can be changed just by using the regulations," he said.

The law, called the Security and Investigative Services Act, is similar to what’s in place in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, according to the Justice Department.