The police failed in their role at the G20 summit

During June 26 and 27, 2010, world leaders gathered at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto, Canada for the their summit meetings. Naturally, the area was fenced off to ensure safety for all who attended the conference. The security in the immediate area of the Centre was tight and effective.

Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office told Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair that Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act was in force. This obscure piece of WWII-era legislation exposes people to a $500 fine and/or two months in jail if they are “attempting to enter any public building or site or any approach thereto and fail to provide their name and address to a police officer or guard, or submit to a search if a demand is made for same. Court houses fall under that category as an example as do other government buildings.

The premier intended that the Act would apply to anyone inside the fenced off perimeter and not outside the perimeter. Unfortunately, Bill Blair misunderstood the purpose of the Act and thought it meant that his officers could demand ID and search anyone and their bags and purses if they were outside the perimeter. As it turned out, peaceful activists, curious passersby and tourists taking photographs were being stopped by the Toronto police and demands of ID were made and they were often searched and in many cases, they were blocks away from the perimeter fence.

When Blair was later advised by the premier that the Act only applied if anyone was inside the perimeter, instead of radioing every police officer under his command who were all in communication with central command, he just let the new instructions gradually reach the police officers and for two days, there were still police officers making the demands and searching people outside the perimeter as if they had the right to do so when in fact they did not have the right to do so.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association had 50 human rights monitors at the protests to observe police behavior and what they saw, shocked them. They witnessed police brutality, illegal searches, arbitrary detentions, people being asked all sorts of questions and being improperly harassed. The conduct of some of the police officers was unconstitutional, illegal and it should not have happened.

Blair commended his police officers for showing restraint and said no protesters suffered any serious injuries. The appropriate words that best describes his comment is ‘utter balderdash’.

Reporters covering the G20 summit say they were the target of police violence. A newspaper photographer was shot with a plastic bullet in his backside, while another had an officer point a gun in his face despite identifying himself as a member of the media. Early Sunday morning, (June 27) journalist Steve Paikin a broadcaster of TV Ontario said he witnessed police brutality against a reporter and the arrests of peaceful demonstrators. He said, "I saw police brutality tonight. It was really unnecessary. They asked me to leave the site or they would arrest me. I told them I was doing my job. As I was escorted away from the demonstration, I saw two officers hold a journalist. The journalist identified himself as working for The Guardian. He talked too much and pissed the police off. Two officers held him as a third punched him in the stomach. The man collapsed. Then the third officer drove his elbow into the man's back.”

Paikin had been at a demonstration in Toronto's Esplanade neighborhood, a densely-populated area near the waterfront which is outside the perimeter area. He said that the police moved in on a crowd of peaceful, middle class protesters and began arresting them. He also said, "Police on one side screamed at the crowd to leave one way. Then police on the other side said leave the other way. There was no way out, so the police just started arresting people. I stress, this was a peaceful, middle class, diverse crowd. No anarchists. Literally more than 100 officers with guns pointing at the crowd. Rubber bullets and smoke bombs ready to be fired. Rubber bullets fired.

A man called MacIsaac says he was repeatedly kicked in the ribs and stunned with a stun gun. He showed the marks on his body. He says police ignored him when he told them that he had a pacemaker in his chest. He said that the the incident happpened at Bloor and St. Thomas, which is kilometres from the perimeter area of the summit meeting.

Two National Post photographers, Brett Gundlock and Colin O'Connor, were arrested Saturday while attempting to photograph police clashing with protesters. They spent about 24 hours in custody and were both charged with obstruct peace officer and unlawful assembly. A CTV producer was also arrested and released without charge on the weekend. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair told CTV News Channel that reporters would be arrested if they did not disperse with the protesters they were covering.

The protesters were almost entirely peaceful in the face of police intimidation. From the beginning police donned gas masks and pointed gas cannons at crowds whose reaction was to drum, dance and shout: “This is a peaceful protest.” Admittedly, about 200 people in the large crowd of protesters used Black Bloc tactics to smash in windows of closed banks and corporate coffee shops and clothing stores widely known for human rights abuses, and several set fire to a few abandoned police cars.

The police could have arrested the Black Bloc vandals right at the beginning of the action but they abandoned their police cars and allowed them to be vandalized not even calling the fire department until the media had lots of time to photograph them. In fact, while I looked at the many pictures on TV and in newspapers of the Black Block vandals destroying property, there was not one police officer in sight. Not only did police play politics instead of protecting people, they used the isolated Black Bloc incidents to collectively punish people on the streets of Toronto. Police tear gassed people in the designated safe protest zone of Queen’s Park and arrested over 900 people over the course of the weekend, including several journalists and a couple of monitors for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

The police shut down all public transit in the city center, including subway and streetcar lines. They also shut down a large downtown shopping complex after reports of looting. AFP reported that some 200 people were trapped inside, unable to leave after the mall was put into lockdown.

Police appeared to lower their tolerance to protests Sunday after watching four of their squad cars being burn Saturday by Black Bloc vandals. At one point on Sunday, police and protesters were engaged in a tense and bizarre four-hour standoff at a busy intersection in the city's core, when a large contingent of police boxed in a group of about 200 people in heavy rain. Police moved in and picked out certain protesters and arrested them. They refused passage to everyone, not just peaceful protesters, but journalists and people who were just passing through. The only way out of the police blockade was to allow oneself to be arrested. They were collectively punishing innocent citizens for the actions of vandals. Then, just before 9:45 p.m. local time, police let the remaining crowd go free.

One interesting thing that can’t be ignored is that even with the billion dollars worth of security, no one stopped the Black Bloc vandals from breaking windows and otherwise acting like thugs on our streets. Hundreds of people were arrested even though the police's own videos show that probably only a dozen people actually participated in any damage.

One person complained, "I was at the University of Toronto and squads of eight and 10 officers were stopping everyone, illegally searching them, frisking them, confiscating things from them." The university is more than a kilometre from the perimeter fence.

A lawyers’ group representing some of the detained G20 protesters, however, said their clients have been victims of police brutality. “In the last few days, police have been acting almost like armed gangs. They come in, they swarm people, they grab people,” said Ryan White, a spokesman for the Movement Defence Committee. “All of them in some way shape or form, assaulted by police.” He said that the tactics used by police on Sunday had put all protesters at risk. He also said that his office had spoken to some prisoners who claim they were detained up to eight hours without water, and up to 10 hours without food. Some of the women prisoners stated that male police officers paroled their area of the temporary jail when the officers were well aware that the porta-potty toilets in the cells had the doors removed from them.

Amy Miller, Jesse Rosenfeld and Adam MacIsaac describe themselves as independent media and allege police refused to accept their ID. They didn't have G20 media accreditation, but say they did have ID. Miller, who lives in Montreal, complained that male police officers gave women a full strip search and many returned to their cells at the Eastern Avenue detention centre traumatized and crying. Miller says she had $6,000 in camera equipment taken from her by the police and was told to file a complaint to get it back.

Others complained of incarceration without access to a lawyer and threats from police. More than 900 people were rounded up over the weekend. Some were rousted from their beds. Others were simply dragged from crowds. Police slapped plastic zip-tie handcuffs on protesters, many of whom say they were rallying peacefully, and escorted them to the makeshift detention center across town. Several detainees denied being involved in the violence. They say they were held in the chilly, crowded detention center for up to 23 hours before being released without charge. Others complained of incarceration without access to a lawyer, threats from police and unheeded requests for water.

Outside the temporary jail, the demonstrators were singing, dancing and holding peace signs while greatly outnumbered by riot-gear wearing police officers. Then, suddenly, an unmarked vehicle drove up to the demonstrators and plainclothes officers quickly grabbed several protesters and pulled them into the vehicle, sending others fleeing and screaming.

I could continue reporting to my readers more incidents of outrageous conduct by the police but I think I have made my point that many of the police officers acted like thugs.

Talking to reporters late Sunday night, (june 27) Toronto Police Staff Superintendent Jeff McGuire was pressed to explain why police had barricaded people for so long in the rain. McGuire responded: "We're not perfect in everything we do, but our interest was in the safety of the citizens of Toronto." That too is utter balderdash. Police are not supposed to act in a manner that breaches the rights of hundreds of citizens because vandals are vandalizing cars and stores elsewhere.
Mayor David Miller has defended the actions of police, saying they had an extraordinarily difficult task. He said, "I think compared to similar events around the world, our police did a remarkably good job and people should be starting from that perspective."

Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the police had “exercised restraint,” telling CBC-TV that the riots were why the government allocated nearly $1 billion toward security for the summits. Toews sidestepped two questions about whether there would be government compensation to those in Toronto whose property was destroyed or who lost business. He said the current focus was on minimizing injuries and property destruction. That focus was out of focus when you consider the fact that no police officers attempted to stop the vandalism.

City Mayor, Miller initially bragged that the 20G Summit would bring Toronto into the headlines around the world so that everyone would see Toronto as it really is. Well, unfortunately, the people around the world saw what the Toronto police are really like.