The only person charged under a controversial G20 regulation appeared in court Wednesday only to discover his charge has mysteriously disappeared.

Dave Vasey, 31, was exploring the G20 security perimeter June 24 when he was arrested and charged with violating a temporary regulation under the Public Works Protection Act.

Vasey, who had no knowledge of the law, was taken to the Eastern Ave. detention centre and held for about five hours. He was released with a summons to appear in court on Wednesday.

But when Vasey arrived at Old City Hall Wednesday morning, his name was nowhere to be found on the docket. The court also had no information about his case.

Vasey’s charge, it would seem, no longer exists.

“They didn’t have any record of it, either on paper or in the computer system,” Vasey said. “The justice of the peace herself looked and said, ‘This is highly unusual.’ ”

Vasey is now free of his charge for failing to comply with a peace officer under the Public Works Protection Act. But according to his lawyer, Howard Morton, the government or police still have five months to recharge Vasey should they wish to do so.

Morton said he has no idea why Vasey’s charge seems to have suddenly evaporated.

“There are only two possibilities. The first is there never was a charge,” he said. “The only other possibility I can think of is that the government simply didn’t want any further embarrassment over this regulation that was passed in secret and simply decided not to pursue it.

“If that’s the case, then they were just hoping the issue would go away.”

In an email to the Star, a spokesperson for the attorney general said Vasey’s charge appears to have never been filed with the courts and directed further questions to the police.

Spokeswoman Meaghan Gray said Toronto police are looking into the matter, although some of the officers involved in Vasey’s arrest are on vacation. She believes an “administrative” error may be to blame for the vanished charge.

“This has nothing to do with the fact that this was a G20-related case,” Gray said. “At this point, we believe this was an administrative issue.”

This development is just the latest twist in the ongoing fiasco surrounding the Public Works Protection Act.

On June 2, the provincial cabinet quietly passed a temporary regulation under the 1939 act which gave police the ability to search and demand identification from those suspected of attempting to breach the security perimeter during the G20 summit. Anyone who refused could risk arrest.

But the regulation only came to light on June 25, the day the Star first reported the story and three days before the regulation was to be officially revoked. While it was posted on an online legal database, the regulation wasn’t scheduled for official publication in the Ontario Gazette until July 3.

News of the startling regulation triggered a public outcry but the rule was defended by both Queen’s Park and Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.

More controversy followed, however, as the public was left with an erroneous impression that people were subject to the act if they were within 5 metres of the outer security perimeter — a misunderstanding that wasn’t corrected by the province or police chief until two days after the summit.

In the end, Vasey was the only person arrested inside the security perimeter for violating the Public Works Protection Act. Ontario Ombudsman André Marin is investigating the way the government passed and implemented the temporary G20 regulation.

For Morton, his client has been the “ghost son of a ghost regulation.” Vasey said he is actually disappointed to see his charges disappear because he was looking forward to challenging the law in court.

“The entire idea that they would pass secret laws out of the eye of the public is unconstitutional,” Vasey said. “Myself and a number of other people wanted to see how they would possibly legitimize this. They obviously can’t and don’t want to.”

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Meanwhile, Toronto police continue to make G20-related arrests. On Wednesday, they announced the arrest of Matthew McDonald, 33, who allegedly damaged a police car on June 26.

Amanda Hiscocks, one of the four alleged ringleaders of the G20 riots, was also released on $140,000 bail Wednesday. Police allege she and her co-accused are active members of the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance. Hiscocks will be back in court Aug. 23.

With files from The Canadian Press