Ontario Government: 1)Ontario to allow transit constables to arrest people using illegal drugs; 2)Ontario proposes changes to reduce vulnerable sector check wait times; 3)New Ontario law capping resale prices frustrates season ticket holders; 4)Ontario Court of Appeal rules dog walker was ‘owner’ in dog bite liability case

1)Ontario to allow transit constables to arrest people using illegal drugs

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Allison Jones, May 4, 2026

Ontario is planning to give special constables on some transit systems the power to arrest people using drugs on public transit.

Solicitor General Michael Kerzner says it’s about making people feel safe on their commutes, as interactions with people using illegal drugs in enclosed spaces like buses, streetcars, subways or trains can be frightening and dangerous.

He says the regulatory change will be part of a package of upcoming legislative measures.

It will also include banning the ownership of pill presses and precursor chemicals for the purposes of making illegal drugs.

As well, the government plans to make it an offence for commercial landlords to knowingly allow illegal drug production on their properties.

Special constables on GO Transit, the Toronto Transit Commission and OC Transpo in Ottawa would have the authority to stop people from using illegal substances on transit and issue tickets or make arrests if people don’t comply.

2)Ontario proposes changes to reduce vulnerable sector check wait times

Courtesy Barrie360.com

By Julius Hern, May 7, 2026

The Ontario government is proposing changes to streamline vulnerable sector police record checks in an effort to reduce wait times for people seeking jobs or volunteer positions working with children, seniors and people with disabilities.

The proposed amendments, announced as part of an upcoming legislative package, would modify the province’s Police Record Checks Reform Act to allow designated police services to process vulnerable sector checks for applicants who live outside their local jurisdiction.

“When those checks take weeks or months, the impact is real,” Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said at Barrie Police headquarters during Thursday’s announcement. “It can delay hiring, it can slow access to critical services, it can prevent people from volunteering. They are essential to ensure that those who will be working or volunteering with vulnerable people are carefully screened.”

Vulnerable sector checks require more detailed screening than standard police record checks, often leading to longer processing times for applicants due to sheer volume of demand.

“It would impact the person who wanted to volunteer for their kids coaching at school or something like that,” Barrie Police Chief Rich Johnston told Barrie360. “And organizations that we want to see way more people volunteer for because it makes our community better.”

Under the proposed changes, designated police services would be able to assist with processing during periods of high demand, regardless of where the applicant lives in Ontario.

The province said implementation would require coordination with federal partners, including the RCMP and Public Safety Canada, to provide designated police services with access to federal databases. Those police services would then be able to work together using that information to process the check across multiple jurisdictions.

Kerzner says cross-jurisdiction co-operation does not pose any risks to an applicant because the services would be following the same processes currently in place.

“Protections will remain in place and safeguarding vulnerable people will continue to be the highest priority,” Kerzner added. “This is about reducing wait times.”

Ontario police services process more than one million police record checks each year, with more than 70 per cent categorized as vulnerable sector checks.

In Barrie, a total of just under 14,000 criminal record checks were processed in 2025, with 11,354 of them categorized in the vulnerable sector.

“These numbers have been increasing year after year,” Johnston said. “Applicants included people starting new jobs, such as teachers, early childhood educators or personal support workers… The process of obtaining a criminal record or vulnerable sector check can sometimes be lengthy. But it’s absolutely necessary to have a record of the number of people who are needed of protect members of our community.”

3)New Ontario law capping resale prices frustrates season ticket holders

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Tara Deschamps, May 5, 2026

Ryan Van Horne has had season tickets for the Toronto Raptors for 12 years but for the first time, he’s considering ending his streak.

That’s because Ontario legislation that came into effect last month capped the price of resale tickets at face value, plus the cost of some taxes and service fees.

The move makes it harder for seat holders, like Van Horne and a pal he shares his subscription with, to offset their costs by selling tickets to games they can’t attend.

“I’ve told my friend I don’t know if I’ll continue with it,” said Van Horne, who pays his share of almost $5,000 a year for two aisle seats in the eighth row of Scotiabank Arena’s 300 level.

“Not that this was a for-profit thing, but the break-even makes absolutely no sense to me now.”

Van Horne’s dilemma offers a window into the complications fans and some of Canada’s most lucrative sporting franchises face as new legislation reshapes the playing field for ticket resales.

Up until recently, season seat holders have been able to off-load tickets for any price the market will pay. While some turned that flexibility into full-out businesses, profiting off their ability to snag seats to the hottest matches and then flip them for even more cash, many say they subscribed purely for their love of the game. They say they resell tickets only because of how demanding a team’s game schedule can be and how expensive seats have become.

“Whether it’s the time or money, or both, they can’t afford to go to all these games,” said Paul Beirne, a sports business consultant who has held senior positions at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and was once president of the Canadian Premier League.

Baseball seasons, for example, now stretch beyond 160 games, so it’s understandable that the average person often can’t make it to the 80 or so hosted at home.

Others bought their season seats years ago, but the price has grown so steeply that the only way they can afford to continue is by selling some of the tickets.

Some tickets sell below face value, but anything over the original price helps chip away at resale service fees and covers some of the subscription.

The new cap will force season seat holders to let their tickets go for no more than face value or consider riskier, unprotected sales on social media platforms or outside venues.

Asked about the predicament, a spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery Stephen Crawford said in an email that the province is making it “easier and more affordable for families to attend concerts, cultural events and sporting events.”

Giulia Paikin also said the new legislation applies “equally” to all resale platforms. The province is running a public consultation on the policy until May 10.

Sho Kalache, a season ticket holder with the Toronto Tempo women’s basketball team, felt the brunt of the legislation almost immediately.

When a friend offered Kalache access to her box for a game and work commitments cropped up conflicting with others, she listed her seats for some matches. They were taken down days before the team’s inaugural game, when the platform she listed them on removed seats on an interim basis to bring their systems into compliance with the new legislation.

“I wasn’t trying to make money. I just wanted to break even on the ones that I can’t go to,” Kalache said.

She’s resorting to giving away tickets through her wife’s real estate business but isn’t pleased with that alternative because it’s time consuming and she can’t guarantee they’ll go to a fan.

“It’s a little frustrating because the ease of off-loading tickets is gone,” Kalache said.

Many leagues and platforms are still working out how to allow season seat holders to post tickets while complying with the legislation.

Raptors, Leafs and Toronto FC owner MLSE and the Toronto Blue Jays said last week that they are working with the government and will have an update soon.

Beirne called the legislation “a blunt force” that will “penalize normal behaviour.”

“They choose to charge more for some games and charge less for other games because that’s the nature. Some games are more attractive than others,” he said.

“But if you cap everything the same, you risk making season tickets less flexible, less attractive, and that ultimately hurts the teams and the fans.”

Van Horne, who not only renewed his Raptors seats but also bought a season of tickets to the Tempo before the legislation was mentioned by the government, worked out that his Raptors seats cost him about $100 per game.

Typically, he and his friend each laid claim to the games they wanted and then offered the remainder to friends and family to “recover my costs and a little more.”

Attending them all is unthinkable. He lives outside the city now and has family obligations.

“Unless people have a really good network, a group of half a dozen friends and they’re splitting this all … they might be asking themselves, is all this extra burden now worth it?” he said.

4)Ontario Court of Appeal rules dog walker was ‘owner’ in dog bite liability case

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Canadian Press Staff, May 4, 2026

Ontario’s highest court has ruled that a dog walker who was bitten while working cannot seek damages from her clients since provincial law defines her as the animal’s “owner” at that time.

The Court of Appeal decision says the dog walker had been working part-time for two clients for a few months by March 2022 when she was bitten while trying to put booties on a dog named Forrest, who had no previous record of aggressive behaviour.

The dog walker suffered injuries to her abdomen, left upper thigh and both arms, and she sued the clients for $1 million in damages.

In February 2025, an Ontario judge dismissed her claim, stating that under the province’s Dog Owners’ Liability Act, the dog walker was considered Forrest’s “owner” at the time of the incident, which meant she was jointly responsible for any injuries it caused.

That judge ruled that under provincial law, the “owner” of a dog includes a person who “possesses or harbours” it, and the law does not require the owner to have ultimate control over the animal.

The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the ruling, saying the dog walker was “unquestionably” the person in a position to control the behaviour of the dogs at the time of the incident.

The dog walker argued she was not a true owner because she was “passively carrying out the wishes” of the clients who instructed her to put the booties on Forrest before allowing him outside, according to the ruling.

But the Appeal Court judges rejected that argument, finding it “had no legal significance.”

“The person in possession of the dog is best placed to assess whether, when and how such instructions are to be carried out,” the Appeal Court decision said.

The dog walker also argued that the attack took place in the clients’ home, and as both the homeowners and owners of Forrest, they should be liable for the injuries.

But the appeal panel said that liability isn’t governed by the location of the incident.

“It would defeat this legislative objective if someone meeting the definition of owner could escape liability merely because they were in someone else’s home at the time of the incident,” the decision said.

The higher court also found that under provincial law, liability isn’t restricted to those with the highest level of authority over the dog.

“The legislature chose to impose liability on those persons who are best placed to control the dog and prevent damage to persons and other animals,” the decision said.