Re-Imagining Policing in Canada

J.L. Granatstein, Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus,
York University, served as Director of the Canadian War Museum from 1998
to 2000. His latest works are Who Killed Canadian History?, Who Killed
the Canadian Military, and Hell’s Cor

This volume of essays is the product of studies undertaken by the Law
Commission of Canada, an independent federal agency, as part of a
project on public and private policing. Policing is changing and the
state no longer has the monopoly of force. Private security firms are
everywhere, sometimes outnumbering the police, and even internationally,
private corporate “armies” expand almost daily. So what is to be
done now that security has been unhitched from the state?

This volume, by and large, argues that the uncoupling of state and
security has been somewhat overstated and has as its goal to move beyond
“the binary public–private distinction” and toward “complex
networks of policing that reflect a mix of public and private security
providers.” The jargon is sometimes heavily sociological, but the
problems discussed are real and important ones. These papers for the Law
Commission, edited by Yukon’s Deputy Minister of Justice, suggest that
Parliament and the provinces soon will be looking at ways to draft
legislation to reflect the new realities.