First of all, I live in British Columbia, Canada.
Tonight after work I went to take a couple shots of the renovations that are getting done to the front of our mall. There were two people up on a lift working on the building, and two more standing around at the bottom. There are temporary fences around the area (you can walk between them to enter the mall, but the areas to both sides are torn apart).
Anyways, I set up my tripod and walked about 3 feet into the road and started lining up the shot. I was still about 15 feet away from the nearest fence and in no way was interfering with their work. One of the guys who was standing around walked up and asked what I was taking a picture of, and if any of them were in it. I said "yeah, you'll be in it" (i was not being a jerk in any way. but by the end i was). He said I wasn't allowed to take of picture of the area. So I told him that by law I was allowed to take a picture of anything I wanted as long as I didn't use it for advertising or selling. He yelled up to his boss who was up on the lift and asked him about the situation, saying it was only for personal use. The boss yelled back saying, "Get him to give you his name and number, that way if i see the picture anywhere i know who to go after."
I said I was definitely not going to give them my name and I moved back to the sidewalk and started slowly taking my camera down. I was thinking about the situation and how it was a bunch of bull, so I walked back to where I was a set up the camera again. The same guy came back and told me "I already told you you can't take pictures here". I again went over the legal facts and he pretty much replied with a threat about getting his huge boss to come down and talk to me about it. After this I asked him if I needed to go to the police station to get them to come down and say the same stuff I was just telling him. He again mentioned about his boss. I realized I was getting nowhere so I left with some choice words.
I wasn't going to start taking the pictures regardless with 4 of them and 1 of me (even if the boss was the only guy there bigger than me)
Are the laws regarding taking pictures of public places the same everywhere? I did a quick google and it seems like I was right about everything I told them. But is taking a picture OF a construction area (not from IN it. but from a public area, like a road) any different?
I still will go to the police and see what they have to say about the situation.