A registered sex offender, apprehended after exposing himself within the vicinity of children.

Two men charged for engaging in sexual activity, in a car at a busy parking lot over the lunch hour.

A male park patron observed naked near a popular splash pad in broad daylight.

Numerous men caught with their pants down in the bushes off a well-used cycling trail.

Those are just a few recent examples of the alleged “lewd” behaviour going on at south Etobicoke’s Marie Curtis Park that officers at 22 Division have been cracking down on in recent weeks as part of “Project Marie.”

The month-and-a-half-old police operation, aimed at “taking back” the park, has netted 84 charges against 65 individuals in just the last few weeks alone, said Const. Kevin Ward of 22 Division’s Community Response Unit.

“We started Project Marie off with high-visibility presence in the park: stepping up our patrols, riding through the trails, and talking to everybody about what’s been going on and what we’re doing about it,” Ward said.

“Then we stepped into the enforcement period of the operation, where we have been operating in plainclothes in the park. And what has happened is that male patrons have been approaching our officers and soliciting them for sex.”

Some undercover officers, including Ward himself, have even had male patrons expose themselves to them in the Forty Second Street park’s secluded trails, pond area, and busy parking lot.

“Others have actually attempted to physically (engage our officers) without having been given permission, and that’s where it’s alarming,” Ward said, noting police have received similar complaints from local residents.

“I want to make it very clear, that the purpose of this project is not to target any one specific orientation or anything like that . . . But there have been a lot of unacceptable occurrences going on down there for quite a long time . . . and the community’s had enough. They’re not going to tolerate it any more.”

Jake Yoo, who lives close to the park with his wife and 21-month-old son, is one of those frustrated residents who has decided to work with 22 Division officers to help “take back” Marie Curtis Park.

“As a kid, my parents used to let us go to the local park on our bicycles unsupervised at a fairly young age. I would love to be able to do that with my son when he gets older, but if things stay the way they are, we won’t be able to,” said Yoo, a member of the Long Branch Neighbourhood Watch.

“It’s been years of tolerated lewd behaviour . . . and I think that if you leave that sort of thing unchallenged, that it will just breed and fester into something worse.”

In response, Yoo is encouraging his neighbours to stand alongside his family, as well as local police, Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Mark Grimes, and city officials on Saturday, Nov. 19 during 22 Division’s Walk the Beat initiative at Marie Curtis Park, 2 Forty Second St.

The event, which will run from 1 to 6 p.m., will include a park cleanup, activities for the kids, hot chocolate and snacks, and a candlelight march through the park at dusk.

The purpose of the event, Yoo said, is threefold: to clean the park of litter, to build community, and to take a stand against lewd behaviour.

“I’m not naïve (enough) to think a one-time event like this is going to change something that’s been years in the making, but we need to send clear messages consistently that it’s not acceptable,” he said.

Grimes agreed, noting that he’s been working with neighbouring Mississauga Councillor Jim Tovey to come up with solutions to the problems at their shared park.

He also vowed to continue working alongside police and city bylaw officials to ensure that those using the park to partake in inappropriate activities are prosecuted to the “full extent of the law.”

Charges against such offenders, Ward said, could include bylaw offences for nudity and/or engaging in sexual behaviour in a park — which total fines of up to $520 — or criminal code charges of indecent exposure and/or indecent acts, which could potentially carry jail time.

Ward said many of those individuals charged in Project Marie so far have hailed from Mississauga and Toronto, but there have also been charges against alleged offenders from Guelph, Cambridge, Brampton, Orangeville and even one from Calgary — leading him to believe Marie Curtis has become a destination park for this type of activity.

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“That’s why we’ve really got our work cut out for us. This has been something that has been so ingrained in the area for decades, that it’s going to be hard to change,” he said.

“But I want anyone engaging in these illegitimate activities to know that this is no longer a safe place for this to happen. We are going to be at the park every day and we will not be tolerating it.”

Correction, Nov. 14, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled the first name of reporter Cynthia Reason.