Beefed up security turns Toronto City Hall into gated fortress

Nothing says “safe city” like the guarded wall of electronic security inside City Hall.

At a time of record shootings, Mayor John Tory and city councillors insist Toronto is a safe city.  Well, with the implementation of airport-style security screening at City Hall, it’s certainly now safer for them.

Toronto’s municipal headquarters has become a gated fortress, thanks to $350,000 from taxpayers.

 “Visitors to Toronto City Hall must go through a visitor screening — including a walk-through metal detector — upon entering the building, before being granted access to the rotunda, property tax counters, elevators, council floors, committee rooms, or the building and planning customer service counters,” states Toronto’s website.

It’s like going into a courthouse or jail.

“Nobody is happy about it,” admitted Tory.

So much for that safe-city spin. Not safe enough to have an open foyer at City Hall anymore.

They don’t have any of that kind of security protecting residents on TCHC properties. At City Hall, even brides in their white dresses now have to go through intrusive, humiliating security on their wedding day.

Visitors have to go through a metal detector and interact with a security officer who has a special wand used to search bags for weapons.

“Upon arrival, security staff ask visitors to place items, including cellphones, cameras, keys and sunglass cases into the trays provided and pass through the metal detector one person at a time,” says the city. “If an alarm is triggered, you will be asked to walk through again or will be screened with a hand-held wand.”

Of course, the mayor and city bureaucrats don’t have to submit to it.  Do you see the irony?  While there are many violent criminals in Toronto, it’s good citizens who are subjected to body searches.

“Do you have any firearms, knives or sharp metal objects to declare?” asks the officer.

So much for no carding in Toronto.

Cops are not allowed to ask that of those hanging around the rail tracks trying to block the Go Train. If they asked such questions of the thugs who shot up Nathan Phillips Square on Raptors Championship parade day in June, people would be screaming about racial profiling.

But go in for parade permit, you are considered armed until a screening shows otherwise.

Don’t blame the security officers. They are just reading a script handed to them.

“There are more dangers in 2020 than there were in 1920 or 1960,” explained Tory. “The world is, unfortunately, a more dangerous place.”

Soft-on-crime governments that fund safe-injection sites and promote easy bail and light sentencing take a bow!

Turns out, as Toronto spokesman Brad Ross explained, City Hall has become a hotbed for those wishing to conceal weapons.

Since bag checks began in 2018, more than 300 knives have been seized.

“Serous knives,” said Tory, adding some were carried by people with “bad intentions.”

Being “prudent,” Tory and councillors are erecting a security blanket to protect themselves.

People outside of City Hall won’t have that same protection.

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