Monday 28 June 2010

G20 Toronto Protests - Monday June 28, 2010 Update - Youths and Journalists Arrested/Detained

From the Toronto Star Blog:
Monday, June 28, 2010

9:32 a.m. 15-year-old held in detention centre


Keith MacDonald has just been released from the Eastern Ave.
detention centre to cheers and clapping from the crowd.


He contends police inside the detention centre are just telling
people what they think they want to hear. A 15-year-old boy has been in
there for 33 hours, he says, and they told him 10 hours ago they called
his dad.


MacDonald, who is in his late teens or early 20s, says he was
arrested at Queen and Noble in Parkdale yesterday at 3 p.m. when police
were arresting anyone who wasn't part of the media.


He says he was wearing a black T-shirt and black pants, with a shaved
head and a bandanna. He says he was charged with a raft of things,
including obstruction of police, but all charges were dropped.

9:59 a.m. 15-year-old released after 33 hours


15-year-old Liam has just walked free of the Eastern Ave. detention
centre, where he has been held since very early Sunday morning.


Liam, who goes to Central Tech, says he was down on the Esplanade
just before midnight on Saturday night when he was arrested.


 "If you're a citizen of Toronto watching the protest, you've got to
expect to be detained," he says.


 A sergeant called his parents after 24 hours but he was not able to
speak with them.


"I'm pretty sure my parents are going to be upset."


 The police surrounded a large group of people and "once they
surrounded us, they said we should have just left because we were all
being arrested."


Wearing an orange T-shirt and jeans, the babyfaced Liam has short,
almost shaved dark blond hair and stands about 5-foot-5. He says he was
held with three others in the young offenders' cell and they've all been
released without charges.


The small crowd outside the Eastern Ave. detention centre is making
posters now, including one that says "Amnesty for the Toronto 900."


There are granola bars, apples, bananas, strawberries, pakoras and a
big bag of popcorn for them to eat.

10:51 a.m. Trinty-Bellwoods resident disputes police version


A man who lives in the Trinty-Bellwoods neighbourhood says he was
just on his way home last night when he was corralled in the
intersection of Queen and Spadina and forced to spent nearly four hours
there in the pouring rain.


"We were just trying to go home," Richard Beer told CP24 this
morning. "We were boxed in with nowhere to go."


Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says people inside the human wall of
police in the intersection were given three chances to leave. Beer says
they weren't. And Star reporter Raveena Aulakh, who also spent
hours in the intersection, says there was nothing said by police that
people could leave.


 Before police boxed people in, she had heard they shouted a warning.
But not afterwards.


Most of the people standing around him in the downpour were just
bystanders, Beer says.


 A friend who volunteered to go was sent single file through a police
line but then was put into a Court Services van and taken to
Scarborough. Hours later, she was dropped off at Kennedy subway station,
where Beer and friends collected her.


Blair insisted earlier this morning that people were asked to leave
three times. The ones who stayed, in his opinion, were "facilitating"
the others in the group intent on violence.

11:11 a.m. Accusations of strip-search on women by male
police officers


 Three people in their 20s have just held a news conference to talk
about police treatment during the summit.


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, charges male police officers gave
women a full strip search and many returned to their cells at the
Eastern Ave. detention centre traumatized and crying.


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 has a pacemaker. The incident happpened at
Bloor and St. Thomas, he says.


MacIsaac is from Prince Edward Island.


 Rosenfeld, who lives in the Middle East, says he was reporting for
the British newspaper The Guardian, which has described him as a
contributor to their open Comment is free website. MacIsaac says he had
$6,000 in camera equipment stolen and was told to "file a complaint" to
get it back.


 All three, who were held for many hours in the detention centre
before being released today, say they haven't filed complaints yet, but
are considering it.

12:07 p.m. Two held with pocket knives

Joshua Enns says he was at a prayer vigil and David Breed says he was
out for a walk when both were arrested yesterday and found themselves
at the Eastern Ave. detention centre.

Both had pocket knives on them and face concealed weapons charges.
Enns, who is studying to be a math student, says he was strip searched
and moved from cell to cell, unable to talk to a lawyer.


 He was "passing peace" to officers on the front lines when four
officers took him into custody. He was wearing a black T-shirt that
reads, "Peace."


 He says he was driven around for hours and spent five hours in pain
because he had to pee. "I hope this is cleared up so I'll be able to
teach," he says. He says he uses is dollar-store knife to cut fruit.


 Breed, a security guard at Molson Amphitheatre, says he and his
girlfriend were watching the bike rally and thinking about brunch when
he was taken into custody. His girlfriend, waiting outside the detention
centre for him, had lawyers numbers scrawled in her arm.

5:44p.m. Police Headquarters, Rally underway

Hundreds
of people, possibly 500, have taken over the eastbound lanes of College
St., between Bay St. and Yonge St, in front of police headquarters.
Chanting "Shame!" and "2-4-6-8- We don't want a police state."


From Toronto Media Coop

Journalists Illegally Detained and Searched en Mass

Mass Civil Liberties Violations Being Reported City Wide in G20 Aftermath

Toronto - Hundreds of illegal detentions and searches have became
common place this weekend for everyday Toronto residents and protesters
while Alternative Media Centre (AMC) journalists have also been subject
to mass illegal searches, detainments, 8 arrests without charge and 1
arrest for breaching the peace.


Dozens of AMC journalists have reported illegal searches and
detainments by police.  Police are not allowed to detain, search or
arrest people without a charge (or their consent in the case of a
search), unless they are caught commiting a crime or unless the police
believe a terrorist activity is taking place.


Over 900 arrests have been reported during the G20 Summit making this
the largest mass arrest in Canada's history.  Many have been arrested
without charges and held in small cages crammed with protesters for
hours or even days. 


An AMC journalist was seriously injured when a stun device was used
on him while filming an illegal search.  The journalist had a pacemaker
and was rushed to hospital.


Meanwhile, AMC journalists Maxx Lennox and Brianna Chatwin were
witnessed being illegally searched while covering events in Downtown
Toronto on Sunday.  Isaac, a friend with Maxx at the time, recounted
that both were walking around the corner at 4:15pm when police saw that
Chatwin had a bandana.  A Constable, Badge # 10038, confiscated the
banada informing her that "We're taking all banadas so you can't put it
on," and stated it was "a new order."  Chatwin said police did not
believe that she was media.


Both Chatwin and Lennox say they were also stopped an hour and a half
before near College subway station by Toronto Police Services officers
who were not wearing badge numbers and refusing to identify themselves.
When asking for police identification, Lennox said that police responded
"we don't have to respond to your questions" and "protesters took our
ID".  Police are required to show badge numbers under the law.  Chatwin
also said that police told her, "If you take my photo, I'll smash your
camera."


Two other AMC journalists who happened upon Lennox and Chatwin's
detainment took photos and repeatedly asked police what grounds they
were using to search both journalists as neither had consented to a
search.  Police told both that they were "blocking the sidewalk" and
that if they did not walk away from the illegal detention, they would be
arrested for "obstruction of justice".  Constable's #10430 and #9909
took photos of all the journalists and repeatedly threatened AMC
journalists with arrest.


All 4 were eventually allowed to leave.





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