That evil, dictatorial Stephen Harp...

...wait a minute...

The Ontario government acted in haste and should never have passed the infamous G20 Regulation 233 without at least alerting the public, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin has sharply criticized the decision of the Community Safety Minister to invoke an obscure war measures bill that gave police extraordinary powers to bring a state of what he described as virtual Martial Law to the downtown streets of Toronto last June.

The government made a decision not to advertise the new police powers, aware that there could be concerns about their scope, he said.

Regulation 233 stems from the 1939 Public Works Protection Act which gives police the right to stop, search and even arrest people if they don't identify themselves as they approach public works sites such as a water treatment plant.

It was used to designate the G20 security perimeter as a public works.