Farmers’ Market can set photo rules: City lawyer

The Saturday morning Peterborough Farmers’ Market can determine its own policy governing photography, the city solicitor confirms.

While the market is located on publicly owned land, the city has a landlord-tenant relationship with the market, so the market board can determine its own policies, city solicitor Patricia Lester said.

“The city is not dictating yea or nay in one way or another,” she said.

Market officials have stated that taking photos and videos is allowed at the market, as long as the person being photographed is OK with it.

Taking photos without permission is considered harassment, which the market has a zerotolerance policy for, president Cindy Hope told The Examiner previously.

The issue arose after The

Examiner reported on two people being told to leave the market for taking photos.

Laws differ by province and sometimes by city. Generally, you can take photos on your own property, on public property like sidewalks, on other people’s property with permission and, with permission, on private property or places where there is a “photography allowed” sign.

But the rules aren’t cut and dry when it comes to taking photos on public property, Lester said.

Photographers violate someone’s right of privacy only when the subject clearly has a “reasonable expectation of privacy,” such as if they are in a change room of the Peterborough Sport and Wellness Centre, she explained. That would be criminal voyeurism.

Someone standing on the street cannot have that same expectation of privacy. However, if they were inside their home and the photographer was photographing them from a sidewalk, they would clearly have a reasonable expectation.

“It’s not just black and white,” Lester said.

When it comes to the possibility of police involvement, it depends on the situation, said Lauren Gilchrist, the city police communications and public relations co-ordinator.

There is not much police can do about people taking photos of others in public without their permission, she said. However, that changes if the photographer’s behaviour could constitute criminal harassment. She said she has not come across such a case in her five years at the police department.

Gilchrist encouraged anyone who feels uncomfortable about someone taking photographs of them to call the non-emergency line at 705-876-1122. However, if they feel as though they are in danger, they should call 911, she said, adding that officers will investigate accordingly.

Two people were ejected from the market this season after taking photos or video. Hope, the farmers’ market board president, later issued a written statement explaining its position on photography.

Hope wrote that the market’s board “invites” photographers and videographers to “be respectful of individual privacy” on market grounds and stop when someone says they don’t want to be on camera.

“In instances where the Peterborough District Farmers’ Market Association (PDFMA) has received complaints of photographers and videographers persisting to take pictures or video in spite of request to cease doing so, the PDFMA has had to enforce its zero-tolerance policies with respect to harassment and violence,” she wrote.

One such incident resulted in a call to police, but no charges were laid.