What would you do if you arrived home from work this spring to find a stranger poking around in your backyard? What if this stranger was peering into the windows of your home?
Would your first reaction be to call the police?
Well the Gruesome-Twosome Council of the Town of Newmarket is about to make it legal for its bylaws officers to enter your property without a search warrant to investigate whether homeowners are cutting grass or have an illegal accessory dwelling unit (ADU) such as a basement apartment.
These extraordinary powers for bylaws officers go well beyond what the real police have the authority to do. If the police suspected a drug lab in a basement, they would first need to go before a Justice of Peace to get a search warrant before they could legally breach the homeowner's right to privacy.
We need to think of what is in the public's best interest when it comes to law enforcement. Are people in imminent danger? Is an indictable offense being perpetrated? Of course not.
So why can't our bylaws officers simply knock on your door and make an appointment with the homeowner to view the property? Wouldn't common courtesy and respect for privacy trump the need to creep around and snoop without the homeowners consent? If there was an urgent need to inspect a property, shouldn't the bylaw officer justify their case (just like police officers do) and get a search warrant?
Instead of being decent and respectful, our municipal government is considering Gestapo tactics to deal with alleged rule breakers, such as people who don't cut their grass in their own backyard to the standards of a nosy neighbour. This change is to be considered by Council on March 27th,
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