The Case of Bylaw Officers & Bar Room Brawls

This is the interesting case of Bylaw Officers & Bar Room Brawls, or to use its correct legal name, the case of R. v. Turko.  It is the story of Mr. Gerald Turko who decided to have a cigarette, the four bylaw enforcement officers who tried to issue him a ticket for violating the Clean Air Bylaw and the physical altercation that ensued, along with that altercation’s legal consequences.  The case was decided in the Provincial Court of British Columbia in November of the year 2000, but the incident in question occurred nearly a year before.

On October 19th, 1999, Gerald Turko visited Big Bad John’s, a bar located in the Strathcona Hotel in downtown Victoria, British Columbia.  Mr. Turko had a beer and was smoking a cigarette.  On January 1st, 1999, the Capital Regional District (which is a regional government with jurisdiction over the southern end of Vancouver Island, including the city of Victoria) had enacted a Clean Air Bylaw which prohibited smoking inside public buildings, but the staff of the bar were allowing their patrons to contravene the bylaw[1].

That evening, a team of four bylaw enforcement officers employed by the Capital Regional District happened to attend Big Bad John’s, looking for violations of the Clean Air Bylaw.  This team included Chief Bylaw Enforcement Officer Miles Drew, Bylaw Enforcement Officer Janie Thomas, Bylaw Enforcement Officer Ian Fraser, and Bylaw Enforcement Officer Stefan Drouin.

On entering the bar, Officer Thomas witnessed Mr. Turko smoking.  She approached him to advise him that he was violating the bylaw and that she intended to issue him a $50 ticket.  She then asked him for his driver’s licence so she could use the information to fill out the ticket.  He replied that he did not have one, so she asked him for his name and address, but he refused to provide them.

Officer Thomas and Mr. Turko then engaged in a back-and-forth conversation where Mr. Turko challenged her authority to demand his identity.  Officer Thomas explained that she was a peace officer and, if he did not identify himself as she had requested, he would be guilty of the crime of obstructing a peace officer.  Mr. Turko’s response was to say, “You’re not peace officers.  I don’t have to tell you anything.”

Mr. Turko then decided to stand up and began to walk away, leaving the bar room and exiting into the lobby.  The four bylaw officers followed him into the lobby.  The officers stood around him and continued to try to convince him to identify himself so a ticket could be issued.  Mr. Turko asked if he was being detained.  Officer Thomas did not directly answer but told Mr. Turko that he couldn’t leave until he identified himself and warned that he could be arrested for obstructing a peace officer. 

Mr. Turko continued to refuse to identify himself and proclaimed that he was leaving.  When Chief Bylaw Enforcement Officer Drew, who was standing in front of Mr. Turko, put up his hands and told Mr. Turko to wait, Mr. Turko instead pushed into Chief Bylaw Enforcement Officer Drew, knocking him over.  The other officers then intervened, physically grappling Mr. Turko, taking him to the floor and handcuffing him.  The officers informed Mr. Turko he was under arrest for obstruction, and he was cautioned on his right to remain silent, though he was not explained his right to contact a lawyer (apparently because the bylaw officers presumed the police would handle this when they arrived).

As an unfriendly crowd was beginning to gather round and taunt the bylaw officers, the officers then decided to take Mr. Turko outside to wait for the police to arrive.  Outside, there was a little more drama as Mr. Turko threatened to kick one of the officers and made a kicking motion with his foot, but it failed to connect with anyone.  It’s not entirely clear whether Mr. Turko intended the kick to strike anyone or if he was simply going through the motions of defiance. 

After some time, the police arrived and took custody of Mr. Turko, and the incident came to a close.

In the weeks and months that followed, Mr. Turko was charged with obstruction of a peace officer and assaulting a peace officer, contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada.  The case went to trial in the Provincial Court of British Columbia in 2000 and, at the trial, Mr. Turko and his defence counsel raised several issues. 

For one thing, Mr. Turko testified he had trouble hearing what Officer Thomas was saying and understanding what she wanted when she approached him in the bar room.  However, the trial judge found that Officer Thomas properly identified and explained herself, and that Mr. Turko had heard her.  The judge noted that Mr. Turko had testified he had been speaking to some other persons in the bar earlier and had apparently not had trouble hearing or understanding them.

Mr. Turko also asserted that he didn’t assault Chief Bylaw Enforcement Officer Drew and a witness for the defence – who was working in the establishment that night – gave testimony stating she hadn’t seen Mr. Turko push him.  He also claimed that he continued to not identify himself because he never had a clear understanding of who the officers were or what their authority was.  The trial judge however was satisfied that Mr. Turko did shove into the bylaw officer and that it had been clearly explained to him that he needed to identify himself or else face legal consequences.  In general, the judge did not find Mr. Turko’s testimony persuasive, commenting in his judgment as follows: “Generally, his evidence was evasive and inconsistent.”

The defence also raised multiple legal questions, the most important being whether the bylaw officers qualified as peace officers under the Criminal Code.  After reviewing the text of the Code and relevant caselaw, the Provincial Court judge determined that bylaw officers did qualify as peace officers under the definition found in section 2 of the Criminal Code.  Specifically, the judge cited paragraph (c) of the definition which refers to “a police officer, police constable, bailiff, constable, or other person employed for the preservation and maintenance of the public peace.”  The judge found that bylaw officers, by the nature of their duties, were persons employed to preserve and maintain the public peace and therefore met the definition of peace officers.

Considering these findings, the judge convicted Mr. Turko of the two crimes he was charged with, obstructing and assaulting a peace officer.

At this point, I’d like to dig a little deeper into the issue of peace officer status for bylaw officers which this case dealt with.

It is worth mentioning here that the Turko case is often cited by bylaw enforcement officers in British Columbia as proof of their peace officer status.  This is because, from time to time, people will challenge the authority of bylaw officers to enforce laws, much as Mr. Turko did, and when they do this an argument often arises as to whether bylaw officers are peace officers, again as it did in R. v. Turko.

This argument is pertinent because, under Canadian law, persons with peace officer status have certain legal protections when enforcing the law that other individuals do not.  As an example, if you interfere with a peace officer who is doing their job, then this constitutes the crime known as “Obstructing a Peace Officer” contrary to section 129 of the Criminal Code.  What qualifies as obstruction can be wide ranging, including things like lying to an officer or refusing to identify yourself when an officer makes a legitimate demand for your identity.  Likewise, if you assault a peace officer while they are doing their job, this constitutes a special crime entitled “Assaulting a Peace Officer”, contrary to section 270 of the Criminal Code.

It is also worth mentioning that, while having persons question the authority or peace officer status of bylaw officers is not uncommon anywhere in Canada, I suspect it happens a little more often in British Columbia.   This is because, unlike some other provinces, there is no provincial legislation in BC which specifically states that bylaw officers have peace officer status. 

For example, in a province like Alberta, there are provincial laws which declare bylaw officers to be peace officers.  This applies both to Alberta’s community peace officers (which was a class of enforcement officers created in 2007 that could be employed by government and quasi-government bodies, but with more powers than traditional bylaw officers), as well as to traditional bylaw enforcement officers.  There is Albertan legislation which declares both these categories to be peace officers; for more information, see section 7 of the Peace Officer Act and section 555 of the Municipal Government Act in Alberta respectively.

However, British Columbia lacks anything that is equally clear to Alberta’s legislation[2] and therefore this forces officers to direct people to go read court judgments.

And even having court judgments which pronounce bylaw officers to be peace officers doesn’t satisfy some people.  I am personally aware of some persons who still deny that bylaw officers are peace officers, even when shown the relevant court cases. 

These people will have various reasons for denying peace officer status.  One reason is that they will claim that court judgments which support peace officer status, like the one in R. v. Turko, only come from lower courts and not appellate courts – which is true – and consequently they will claim that this means the decisions are not persuasive.  Alternatively, they will claim there are court decisions from other provinces where the judges came to different rulings, finding that bylaw officers were not peace officers; and that is true as well, there are some such cases from other provinces, although the ones I’ve found tend to be rather old and to have rather unusual factual and legal scenarios meaning they probably don’t have wide application.

Despite these denials from some quarters, most legal and law enforcement professionals are satisfied that bylaw officers are peace officers.  Certainly, that is the position of the Local Government Compliance and Enforcement Association of BC (formerly known as the Licence Inspectors and Bylaw Officers Association of BC), which is an association which advocates on behalf of bylaw officers in the province of BC.  It also is the position multiple lawyers I’ve encountered and has also been the repeated finding of the Provincial Court of British Columbia multiple times in cases other than R. v. Turko, such as Woodward v. Capital Regional District and, more recently, in R. v. Dennis Lawrence Harrison in 2021.

Alright, so, in closing, what would one say is the main lesson to be learned from this case, other than the whole peace officer status issue? 

Well, the primary take away is that if a law enforcement officer is asking for your identification and has a legitimate work-related reason for it, then you’re probably better off just cooperating with that request.  Sure, you may get a ticket – and perhaps you don’t deserve it – but you’ll avoid unnecessary conflict, and you can always choose to fight that ticket later, through a hearing in a court or tribunal of some kind.  That’s much better than facing the possibility of criminal charges which are far more serious than a ticket.

END NOTES:

[1] An employee who was working at the Strathcona Hotel on the night stated in her testimony during the trial that staff were not making guests comply with the Clean Air Bylaw.

[2] Section 36 of the Police Act in British Columbia does allow bylaw enforcement officers to be appointed for communities in BC and to have peace officer status explicitly recognized by the Police Act, but only if these bylaw officers are under the control of a municipal police board or local chief of police. Most local governments in British Columbia do not make use of this provision, instead appointing bylaw officers under the authority of the Community Charter, which does not explicitly mention peace officer status for bylaw officers.

SOURCES:

Capital Regional District. (n.d.a). Clean Air Bylaw. CRD.bc.ca. Retrieved on February 15, 2024 from https://www.crd.bc.ca/project/past-capital-projects-and-initiatives/clean-air-byla

Capital Regional District. (n.d.b). What is CRD. CRD.bc.ca. Retrieved on February 15, 2024 from https://www.crd.bc.ca/about/what-is-crd

Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46. https://canlii.ca/t/56690

Gangl, T. (2023, January 19). Bylaw officers can't arrest - Re. Brian Kettle's letter: Fix lighting, fight crime [Letter to the editor]. Castanet. https://www.castanet.net/news/Letters/407134/Bylaw-officers-cant-arrest

Government of Canada. (2013, August 1). Public Security Peace Officer Program (Details). Public Safety Canada. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/plcng/cnmcs-plcng/ndx/snpss-en.aspx?n=128

Local Government Compliance and Enforcement Association. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions. Bylawbc.ca. Retrieved on February 14, 2024 from https://www.bylawbc.ca/faq.htm

Local Government Compliance and Enforcement Association. (2023, August 24). The License Inspector's and Bylaw Officer's Association of BC (LIBOA) is proud to announce a name change to Local Government Compliance & Enforcement Association of BC (LGCEA) [Press Release]. Bylawbc.ca. https://www.bylawbc.ca/docs/lgcea_media_release_2023-08-24.pdf

Municipal Government Act, RSA 2000, c M-26. https://canlii.ca/t/565qg

Peace Officer Act, SA 2006, c P-3.5. https://canlii.ca/t/55pjc

Police Act, RSBC 1996, c 367. https://canlii.ca/t/56606

R. v. Dennis Lawrence Harrison (2021, April 29), Vernon 53553-1 (BCPC). https://www.bylawbc.ca/docs/218282.apr_29_21.rfj638125688387323832.pdf

R. v. Turko (2000, November 20), Victoria (BCPC). https://www.bylawbc.ca/docs/turko_case_law.pdf

Stuckert, K. (2020, July). Requesting ID – Bylaw Enforcement Officers’ Scope of Authority. CircuLAWr. https://civiclegal.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CircuLAWr-Jul-2020-Requesting-Id.pdf

Woodward v. Capital Regional District (2005, February 9), Victoria C02-0723 (BCPC). https://www.bylawbc.ca/docs/woodward_case_law.pdf

Zamzow, S. (2023, February 14). Bylaw officers can arrest - Re. Troy Gangl’s letter Bylaw officers can’t arrest [Letter to the editor]. Castanet. https://www.castanet.net/news/Letters/411500/Bylaw-officers-can-arrest

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