Understanding Use of Force Training Requirements in Ontario

Courts follow best practices when determining if a person is properly “trained” but this is not legislated.  What the courts do look at is, based on a balance of probabilities, did the person remember their training, and did the employer go far enough to ensure that the guard had proper refresher training within a period of time. 

There are also standards within parallel professions for “competency and confidence” as subjectively evaluated by a certified trainer.  Instructors are supposed to verify that the security guard actually can perform the skills properly and most won’t confirm that beyond the training day let alone a year later.

The PSHSA as per recommendations from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ministry of Labour published a Security Toolkit containing Training Content Requirements as per the PSISA (2005) and a Training Checklist for Security Guards in Healthcare Institutions.  The Training Checklist clearly states annual refreshers are required for handcuffing training. This is what they now use for audits.

The Policing Standards Manual and the Police Services Act in Ontario both dictate the Provincial standard for use of force retraining as an annual requirement. Since there is no legislative requirement to even have use of force training at all in Ontario, it is the “best practice” as it is a standard dictated by the same government that issues a Security Guard license. This is the standard that the inspectors use during audits. 

Regulation 926 Police Services Act 14.3 (1) Subject to subsection (2), every chief of police shall ensure that, at least once every twelve months, 

(a) every member of the police force who may be required to use force on other persons takes a training course on the use of force.

The Ministry can’t force people to do a refresher within the year of course but if there are problems they can take other action such as suspending licenses, order training to be done or suspend an agency license etc. Usually this only happens when there is an incident and the Ministry investigates.

Courts can lay blame on an individual Security Guard, their employer or both when an incident occurs and training standards have not been met that are comparable in other professions.

Retraining can be completed ONLINE.  Contact us to organize Use of Force and Passive Handcuffing Retraining for your team today.