People using the Leslie Street Spit should be told in advance about police training exercises taking place in the park, an advocacy group urges.
Last week, Friends of the Spit published a letter it received from Toronto police about an Emergency Task Force (ETF) training exercise held on November 27, 2024 at the far end of the spit, near the lighthouse.
Toronto police confirmed to TorontoToday that the letter is authentic but would not say what the training involved.
The letter makes it clear police officers organizing the exercise viewed it as potentially dangerous. The sergeant in charge cleared a 200-metre perimeter and posted sentries to keep trail users away from the training site.
Because it is one of the few relatively empty areas close to downtown, the Toronto police bomb squad, which is part of the ETF, uses the Spit as a place to safely blow up explosive devices.
However, police didn't tell the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), which operates the Spit’s Tommy Thompson Park, about November’s planned exercise.
The letter conceded that was a mistake.
“This oversight on the part of the ETF is regrettable and for that, the Toronto Police Service apologizes,” Det. Sgt. Peter Morris wrote. “In the future, all necessary notifications will be made.”
The cops also heard concerns about wildlife and the environment, per the letter.
“We want you to know that our specialized units carefully consider many factors in choosing their training locations,” Morris wrote. “As you can appreciate, finding locations for specialized training in a large city is quite difficult.”
The training conducted on the Spit was necessary to prepare specialized ETF members for “highly dynamic situations involving extreme risk,” according to the detective sergeant.
The Leslie St. Spit's lighthouse is seen in the summer of 2021. (PATRICK CAIN/VILLAGE MEDIA)
‘Bomb disposal is one thing, training practice is another’
"The communication was poor, very poor," Friends of the Spit spokesperson Garth Riley told TorontoToday in a phone interview.
Riley said his group received an email from a park user on November 27 asking “What's going on? The police are out here and they told us that we had to get off.'"
“We were concerned about public safety because we didn't know what it involved,” he explained. “We didn’t know anything about it.”
Ideally, Riley said, the police would notify TRCA about planned closures, and TRCA would pass that information onto park users.
"Bomb disposal is one thing, training practice is another. It's predictable. They should have a plan. They should know well in advance that they're going to do this."
Riley also stressed that his organization has a good relationship with the police, who are called on to deal with illegal raves and campfires on the Spit.
TRCA said it recognizes the importance of “ensuring emergency services have access to appropriate training opportunities to support community safety.”
"We maintain a collaborative relationship with TPS, particularly in our shared commitment to providing a safe and welcoming environment for visitors at Tommy Thompson Park,” the conservation authority said in a statement.
“However, in this instance, TRCA was not given advance notice of the ETF training exercise. TPS has since apologized for this oversight.”
"Moving forward, we remain committed to working collaboratively with TPS to ensure their training needs are met in a way that aligns with the environmental sensitivities of Tommy Thompson Park,” TRCA said.
“We welcome the opportunity to discuss suitable locations and approaches that balance public safety training with the protection of this unique urban wilderness."
