The Safe Streets Act
The Safe Streets Act was introduced in 2000 in response to the rising number of instances of people who were clearly homeless in Canada's major cities, including Kitchener, Kingston, and Barrier, among other sizable cities in the province of Ontario. Panhandling and squeegeeing are two examples of the various types of solicitation that the Act was created to handle. People appeared to be reasonably afraid about their safety and security as a result of these actions. (British Columbia. 2005). However, the Act's wording has gotten more ambiguous over time, giving law enforcement officials a lot of leeway in how they choose to apply it. There are a number of reasons that provide sufficient evidence that the law is no longer appropriate and are deemed as harmful to the many residents of the cities in Ontario.
Reasons to abolish the law
One of the reasons why the law should be abolished is based on the fact that the issuance of tickets to homeless people does not offer a suitable means of dealing with poverty. Those who are homeless do not choose to be so hence the government should work towards providing safe and affordable housing as opposed to using law to deal with poverty (McGreal, 2017).
The second reason is that cases of panhandling and squeegeeing have been declining in the major cities but the number of tickets being issued has been on the rise. The trend simply means that the law is more concerned with the visibility as well as the status of individuals who have the challenge of homelessness as opposed to dealing with their violations.
The third and final reason is that the homeless people are not in a position to pay the fines that are due to SSA. As a result, close to 95% of the tickets normally goes unpaid. This simply means that the government is wasting a lot of taxpayers' money in printing the tickets that go unpaid by the targeted individuals. With these reasons, I strongly support the scrapping of the law since it not beneficial to the citizens of Ontario.
References
British Columbia. (2005). Frequently asked questions: Safe Streets Act and amendments to the Trespass Act enforcement. Victoria, B.C.: Ministry of Attorney General.
McGreal, R. (n.d.). Raise the Hammer. Retrieved June 29, 2017, from https://www.raisethehammer.org/article/2614/making_ontarios_roads_safer_act_passes
Ontario's Safe Streets Act should be dumped: Editorial. (2014, December 18). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/12/18/ontarios_safe_streets_act_should_be_dumped_editorial.html
S. (n.d.). Ontario's Safe Streets Act - Ontarios Safe Streets... Retrieved June 29, 2017, from https://www.coursehero.com/file/9851233/Ontarios-Safe-Streets-Act/
The legislative assembly of Ontario: Repeal the Safe Streets Act. (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from http://www.change.org/p/the-legislative-assembly-of-ontario-repeal-the-safe-streets-act
The Penalization of Homelessness in Ontario and British ... (n.d.). Retrieved June 29, 2017, from http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=158C13096B2C45B782D00804F1D9E77D&CID=088182A22A5E6B4A336E88122B586A9C&rd=1&h=fgC2sfjQhyjWr_T8zaJcEqj42S0zBU9leLjeshnTfLk&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fmuse.jhu.edu%2farticle%2f504222&p=DevEx,5439.1
