BANFF – Organizers of public demonstrations, rallies or protests may be required to notify the Town of Banff of their events.
The notification requirement is one of several proposed amendments to a municipal policy that governs special events, which was before the governance and finance committee for discussion on Oct. 26.
Town of Banff officials say public demonstrations, such as this summer’s Black Lives Matter protest for example, are effectively unregulated.
“The idea is just to provide an opportunity for the Town to learn about demonstrations that are occurring … a requirement for notification,” said Jason Darrah, the Town of Banff’s communications and marketing director.
“This helps us manage safety, alert RCMP and coordinate with the organizers. We’re strong proponents of free speech, of course, but we also need to manage access and the experience for residents and visitors.”
Councillor Peter Poole had concerns about potential consequences for demonstrators expressing their civil rights if they didn’t have time to notify the municipality because of a last-minute event.
“Imagine something happens where they haven’t sought permission, or they haven’t informed you … say somebody organizes something very quickly and it happens on Sunday morning and there’s no problem with it,” he said.
“I want to try to understand to what extent there’s a light touch, or a heavy hand on this.”
Darrah said there would be no sanctions within this policy on that issue.
In addition, he said there are no application or fees required for a public rally.
“Therefore, in this policy, [there is] no recourse if that is not followed through,” he said.
However, other municipal bylaws, such as the community standards bylaw and the streets and public place use bylaw, govern behaviour at public demonstrations.
“They would have rules for things like using amplification; we have restrictions on that,” Darrah said.
“We have restrictions on impeding people from travel, so our bylaw suggests an individual cannot stop someone in the street or sidewalk.”
Darrah said that adding the notification requirement to the policy for public demonstrations is “more about putting an early-warning system in so we can assist organizations and steer them in the right way.”
He gave an example of an event proposal, which involved riding bicycles and skateboards as part of a public demonstration.
“We steered them in a more appropriate venue than down Banff Avenue main street,” Darrah said. “They were still able to have high profile and it was safer.”
The amended special events policy will be brought back to council for approval at a future date.
