Who gets a police escort on the trail?

Cycling along the Kay Gardner Beltline trail one day, I came across a runner with bicycle police on either side of him. At this section of the trail, they were spread across the entire trail.

“Could this be a retired politician?” I thought. “Am I about to cycle past a former Prime Minister? And, don’t retired PMs get secret service agents, not police?”

Yet, the policemen were allowing runners to run between them and the runner. It didn’t seem like they were really trying to protect him.

Once I got home and started googling, found out that it was a current City Councillor out promoting the safety of the trails in Toronto.