Toronto currently has a policy banning photography at city parks.
Resident Bill Andersen was recently trying to take photos of skaters at Greenwood Park when he says he was told by a “young lady in a safety vest” that he needed a permit to carry on.Except they don't. It confused half of the city, apparently.
“I went into the recreation office to see about the permit,” he wrote on his blog. “The R.F.A. (???) on duty said, ‘It’s complicated.’ I would need to have every skater come in and sign. Uh huh.”
The response eventually came from Richard Ubbens, the city’s director of parks, who attempted to clarify what he admitted was a foggy bit of sentence structure in the 311 post.Look, I can make this easier for Bill Anderson, Richard Ubbens, Jacques Gallant, and young ladies in safety vests. Only commercial photography is prohibited in Toronto parks, and it "does not include current affairs, news casts, street interviews or home movies."
The answer is no, you don’t have to request staff permission if you want to photograph landscapes or people in your own party at a park, although he said you should try to ensure that other people don’t appear in your photographs without their consent. If they complain, staff will attempt to broker a solution, he said.
Next time a woman in a safety vest comes to harrass you in a park, in Toronto or Calgary or anywhere, tell her that she's a government agent and you want her to fuck off.
