Ontario's former chief justice will investigate the so-called secret law that governed police actions during this summer's G20 summit in Toronto. (Kimberley Gale/CBC)

Critics say the review of the controversial law that governed police powers during the G20 summit is too narrow.

"It may not prove much use to people in Ontario," prominent Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby said Wednesday.

He made the comment shortly after it was announced that former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry would examine the Public Works Protection Act.

Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government quietly dusted off the 70-year-old legislation to declare the summit security area in downtown Toronto a no-go zone. It was the first time that the Act had been updated, and information about the change was not widely released.

Critics called it a secret law. Ruby shares that view and believes what the government did violated the constitution.

"How did this happen?" he said. "Who was so stupid in the attorney general's department not to point this out? Why did the premier not know this? And why did the police not make it public that there was this law?"

Review results in spring

Even Jim Bradley, Ontario's minister of community safety and correctional services, admitted in a media scrum that the scope of the review is narrow, though he added that McMurtry has "a lot of breadth" in terms of what he can look at with the law.

A news release on the government website said the review will look at the historical context of the Act, how it has been used in the past, the definition of a "public work," the requirements for public notice, and the scope of authority given to police.

McMurtry, who was attorney general under former premier Bill Davis, will consult with lawyers, police and civil liberties groups, among others, before presenting his findings during the spring next year.

The law designated the downtown security fence used during the G20 summit in late June as a "public work," which allowed police to stop question, search, and arrest anyone inside of the fence.

However, the government and police allowed the public to believe it applied outside the fence until the summit was over.

More than 1,100 people were arrested during the summit, but only two were charged with violating the Act.

Nathalie Desrosiers of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says that means the review will leave many questions unanswered. The review will not deal with how the police handled peaceful protestors, accusations of police brutality or the decision to hold the summit in downtown Toronto.

She wants a full public inquiry at the federal level.

"I don't think we'll learn much about the G20 except that it was the occasion to use the Public Works Protection Act, a statute that nobody had heard much about," she said.

The Toronto Police Services Board is holding an independent civilian review into the summit. The board is scheduled to announce Thursday who will lead that review.

With files from The Canadian Press