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The OPP “will not apologize for using all of the tools available to help locate a child” as the force again reports that people are calling 911 to complain about being awakened by a provincewide alert that two youngsters had been abducted.

Calling for emergency help “is not an appropriate venue to complain” about Amber Alerts, said the force. The force called the alerts “instrumental” in locating children who may be in danger.

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Early Thursday, an alert was issued by York Regional Police for brothers, aged two and four, who went missing with their grandfather.

“As a direct result of the Amber Alert,” the trio was found safe in Toronto, police said.

Whether or not to issue an alert “is based on established criteria, and is not taken lightly,” the OPP said.

Five have been issued in Ontario this year, four helping to return a child or children safely and the fifth leading to a suspect’s arrest, the OPP said.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission mandated wireless networks to distribute emergency alert messages as of April 2018.

The only way to avoid them is to turn off your phone, the OPP said, but it warns that “you will be unable to receive any emergency alert that may contain information of imminent danger in your area.”

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