TORONTO – The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating an altercation between Toronto police and a man in his 20s.
The cause of the incident: The man was climbing a tree.
Twenty-two-year-old Dylan Deziel was climbing a tree in Kensington Market last Thursday when he was ordered to come down by a Toronto Police Officer.
“I came down from the tree and he started to handcuff me,” Deziel said. “I pulled away, right. I didn’t want to be arrested.”
But it’s what happened next that infuriated Deziel and his mother.
“He tripped me and I fell face first into that puddle right there,” Deziel said while standing beside the tree he was at. “Scratching my nose, beating up my lips and breaking my collar bone.”
When he was on the ground, he said, he was handcuffed.
He was also handed a $356 permit for climbing a tree without a permit.
Climbing a tree is, in fact, illegal according to city by-laws.
“No person shall in a park: Unless authorized by permit, climb, move or remove the whole or any part of a tree, rock, boulder, rock face or remove soil, sand or wood,” according to Toronto Municipal Code 608-6-C.
Prior to Deziel’s fine, the city confirmed to Global News, that bylaw had never been enforced.
And there has never been a complaint filed about a person climbing a tree.
However, the oddity of the bylaw doesn’t stop – if you want to obtain a permit to climb a tree in Toronto – you can’t, according to city staff.
“The intent is to protect the trees and individuals and there are circumstances where we might have an arborist competition or a contractor may be doing work in our parks and a permit is required under those circumstances,” Ray Stukas a Manager with the parks division of the city of Toronto said.
The Special Investigations Unit continues to investigate.
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