G20 Toronto: Totalitarian Police State

Walkom: The G20 protests and judicial farce - thestar.com
"As this week’s judicial farce demonstrates, the people in charge of
public security during that raucous weekend went off the rails. They
acted as if potential dissent were a crime."

See also:
G20 charges dropped at mass hearing

And yes, Bubble Girl's charges were dropped:
http://canadian-firebrand.blogspot.com/2010/08/bubble-girl-charges-dropped.html

G20 Toronto: another late call for an inquiry

Growing case for G20 probe - thestar.com
Yes, a FEDERAL inquiry is needed. One that has the power to subpoena. One that will get to the bottom of who really called the shots and allowed the vandalism to happen, and that ordered the police to illegally arrest and detain hundreds of innocent people. This Toronto Star article sort of calls for that, but not quite.

G20 Toronto - Officer Bubbles hits the big time

Toronto's 'Officer Bubbles' gains web notoriety - thestar.com
The Toronto Star has reported that the Office Bubbles video has gone viral.
And today, at the protest at Queen's Park, many people are expected to be blowing bubbles.

G20 Toronto - Human Garbage Officer Bubbles - now with cartoon!

Anyone Wanna Be Friends With Human Garbage? Or Officer Bubbles?– (UPDATE) Officer Bubbles Now Has a Cartoon!
Watch the video at the bottom of the story.

G20 Toronto - Human Garbage: Officer Bubbles

Anyone Wanna Be Friends With Human Garbage? Or Officer Bubbles?
You know the cop who arrested the girl for blowing bubbles? Someone found his Facebook page and posted his pic on the Facebook Group Canadians Demanding a public inquiry into Toronto G20. Under his employment section, he says "I collect human garbage".
Read more at the link above.

G20 Toronto - Judge bans public from taking notes

TheSpec.com - Opinions - JP bans public from taking notes

Everyone is allowed to take notes in court.

Period.

But the other day a Toronto justice of the peace decided to make up
his own rules. He banned "note-taking" in his Etobicoke courtroom where
bail hearings were being held for G20 protesters.

It was the latest -- and most ridiculous -- in a series of bizarre
steps taken by court officials to build a big fat wall around the whole
judicial process for accused demonstrators.

So much for an open and transparent court system. So much for
accountability.
...

Conacher offered no explanation. Cited no law.

Because there is no good explanation. And there is no law. The
publication ban doesn't prevent taking notes. It only limits what you
can do with them afterward.

"Publication means showing it to somebody else," says Rogers. He
has never heard of a JP or judge banning note-taking.

...

G20 Toronto - Summary Report: Police State Canada (Video)

Police State Canada | Global Research TV
Here is an excellent video summary report of the G20 weekend police state.
In this report, you will see:

• police shielding some black block individuals and letting them through their lines
• a report that the police cars left as "bait" were left with the gas caps removed!
• police standing and watching as police cars burn, while they have every opportunity to get them extinguished
• police standing by watching the vandalism without intervening
• unwarranted police brutality and arrests
• police charging on horseback and trampling a girl
• report of threats of gang rape by police of a woman in detention
• report of a woman strip-searched and cavity searched by male police officers

Correction: during the video it states that the opposition leaders are not calling for a public inquiry. In actual fact they did and are now working towards an inquiry while the Conservatives do everything in their power to block an inquiry.

G20 Toronto - The Bubble Police

RedBedHead: G20 Cop: "If One Of Those Bubbles Touches Me, It's Assault"
Watch the video - Policeman threatens girl who is blowing bubbles, then arrests her.
I can just see the judge for this in the courtroom - So officer, you are saying this girl attacked you with bubbles?
We so need a public inquiry. And the police need to be given some re-training.

G20 Toronto - Conservatives Fight To Block The Truth - Again

Tory filibuster seeks to block hearings on G20 policing - The Globe and Mail
The Conservatives are filibustering to stop the opposition parties from voting for federal hearings on the policing of the G20 protests.

G20 Toronto - Conservative MPP Randy Hillier speaks out against the G20 weekend tyranny

Opinion: G20 crackdown reeks of tyranny - thestar.com
Read the link!
When even right-wing politicians begin to say what the police were ordered to do in Toronto was wrong, you've got to consider that something so bad happened that it definitely warrants an impartial full public inquiry.

G20 Toronto - More calls for a public inquiry

We need a G20 probe
"Arrest record shows police were out of control in Toronto."

With more than 1,000 arrests at the G20 meeting in Toronto, most of
which were unjustified since most were released without any charges
laid, it's no wonder a growing number of voices are demanding a full
public inquiry to look into this mess.

The sheer number of
arbitrary arrests is astonishing enough, but it becomes downright
surreal given that these arrests were made at the G20 in just a few days
and were more than double the number made during the entire 1970
October Crisis when the Trudeau government suspended fundamental
liberties by invoking the War Measures Act, giving way to more or less
500 mostly unwarranted arrests of intellectuals, poets, artists and
university professors.

This request for a public inquiry is
increasingly being heard in opinion pages in newspapers and by some
journalists. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Amnesty
International also want one. Yesterday, in Le Devoir, more than 40 law
professors and lawyers from across Canada said the same thing.

They
signed an open letter to federal Public Security Minister Vic Toews,
noting arrests are justified in cases of violence, but the fact that
nearly all those arrested have since been released with no accusations
made against them indicates that these arrests weren't related to any
displays of violence.

Which leaves one thing: Arrests were made
for no other reason than to intimidate citizens and stifle their right
to exercise their freedom of expression. Profoundly troubled by the
events -and rightly so - this group of lawyers and professors also
contend that the arrests are actually part of a tendency in Canada to
criminalize dissent.

...
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/need+probe/3254352/story.html#ixzz0tEvTvePQ

See also:
CathiefromCanada: Whose Streets?

G20 Toronto - City council shames themselves and the city by commending the brutal, illegal and inappropriate police work

City council commends “outstanding” police G20 work - thestar.com
The worst of the bunch was mayoral candidate Rob Ford who said that there should be no review of the police actions at all:

“I don’t think there should be an inquiry or review,” of police
actions, “none whatsoever,” Ford said.

“Our police force was more than polite, more than accommodating

with the protesters,” in the face of taunts and worse, he added.

“If I was chief, I would have moved in Saturday afternoon and

cleaned house,” instead of waiting until Sunday to make mass arrests,
Ford said. “I think our police were too nice. I would have had a
zero-tolerance approach,” he said, adding he realizes councillors can’t
tell the police chief what to do.

Summary of police actions (that the council just commended):

Saturday - police were ordered to stand down and allow about 100 vandals smash windows and burn police cars, and to let the cars continue to burn for a long period of time; basically allowing unchecked property damage into the thousands if not millions of dollars, and to allow the safety of the public to be threatened by allowing police cars to burn for long periods of time.

Saturday & Sunday - after the vandalism, the police brutally assaulted hundreds of innocent, peaceful demonstrators and illegally arrested and detained them. While detained, many were not allowed a phone call, water, or food or medical assistance. They also robbed these people of personal property.

It's time to re-think re-electing any of these blind fools on the council come Fall.

UPDATE SEPT 1, 2010
Here is a list of the councillors who voted in favour of "To commend the outstanding work of Chief Bill Blair, the Toronto Police Service and the Police Officers working during the G20 Summit in Toronto (MM51.10)": Ainslie, Ashton, Augimeri, Carroll, Cho, De Baeremaeker, Del Grande, Feldman, Filion, Ford, Grimes, Hall, Heaps, Holyday, Jenkins, Kelly, Lee, Lindsay Luby (Chair), Mammoliti, Milczyn, Miller, Minnan-Wong, Moeser, Moscoe, Nunziata, Ootes, Palacio, Pantalone, Parker, Perruzza, Rae, Saundercook, Shiner, Stintz, Thompson, Walker

Further reading:

Toronto
Council Votes to Silence Dissent

Clowns
to the Left & Jokers to the Right: the G20, the Police & Civic
Democracy

Sorry Fillibluster, your comment was eaten by Blogger errors.

Here it is:
"I have emailed my city councillor expressing my dismay at this shameful
endorsement of brutality. I would urge anyone who live in Toronto to do
the same. All city council emails are here:"
http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp

G20 Toronto - Zeroing in on who is to blame for directing the police

Challenging the Commonplace: Stephen Harper Ultimately Responsible for G20 Infringement of Civil Liberties
Why the MSM is not all over this since the G20 weekend baffles me. We are finally seeing signs that the direction to the police to stand by and allow 1.5 hours of vandalism and police car burning, and to then the direction to the police to beat and arrest hundreds innocent people most likely came from Stephen Harper himself. Who hates Canada more? Who hates Toronto more? Nobody but the prime scumbag himself -> Stephen Harper.

And, the only way to uncover all the links is to hold a Federal level impartial public inquiry. And Prime Scumbag is not going to agree to that.

Further reading:
Who Commanded the G20 Commander?

G20 Toronto - "It was more than I wanted to see"

‘It was more than I wanted to see’ « justin & lex @ g20

Lost, hungry, cold and scared they left the makeshift detention
centre at 629 Eastern Ave. one-by-one. To greet them were strangers who
had come with food, drinks and clothes.

Over six hours on the night of June 27 we spoke to nearly 120 of the
detainees to leave the Toronto Film Studio, a soundstage retrofit with
cages to hold people arrested during the G20 summit. Although each had a
different story to tell, the larger picture remained constant.

...

G20 Toronto - Official complaint launched with the UN

G20 protesters reportedly launching complaint with UN - The Globe and Mail

"The League of
Rights and Freedoms has put the matter to the Commission on Human Rights
of the UN. Reached by telephone
by TVA News, the lawyer Julius Grey welcomed this approach.
"It is possible that some people have committed offences, but in
general we have seen the kind of behaviour that leads us to think we live
in a state less democratic than before," he protested. I call it a
totalitarian democracy. "

G20 Toronto - The G20 summit's grim lessons for civil liberties

Walkom: The G20 summit’s grim lessons for civil liberties - thestar.com

Two things stand out from the street riots and subsequent police
actions that swept downtown Toronto last weekend.

The first is the state blatantly abused its powers. Summits
legitimately require security; but in this one, governments went over
the top.

The federal government transformed the city’s downtown into a no-go
zone. The provincial government secretly passed new regulations to give
police extraordinary search and seizure powers and then, when citizens
found out, pretended that it hadn’t. The police used their authority to
prevent breaches of the peace as an excuse to jail citizens who were
committing no crimes

The second is that most people don’t care. Polls show that more
than 70 per cent of Torontonians approve of these abuses.

...

Joint lawsuit planned for G20 arrestees

Joint lawsuit planned for G20 arrestees - thestar.com
Overwhelmed with calls, Civil Liberties Association is working on suing police forces.
...

More than 1,000 arrests were made relating to the G20 summit and
multiple reports have emerged alleging peaceful demonstrators or even
bystanders were caught up in the mass arrests — most notably, at the
Esplanade’s Novotel Hotel on Saturday, where demonstrators tried to
stage a sit-in, or at Queen St. and Spadina Ave., where a large crowd
was boxed in and detained for several hours in the rain.

All arrests this weekend were made under the criminal code and not
the Public Works Protection Act, according to the province.
...
More calls for a public inquiry

Blair has announced an internal police review, but there are growing
demands for a public inquiry, with the Public Service Alliance of
Canada, Greenpeace and 121 signatories from the York University faculty
recently joining the chorus of voices asking for an independent probe.
The Criminal Lawyers’ Association is also calling for an independent
fact-finder to probe the circumstances surrounding the G20 arrests and
NDP critic Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) has requested the House of
Commons public safety committee be recalled to study issues surrounding
summit security.
...

Of 1,090 people detained over the G20 period, 714 were charged with
“breaching the peace” and taken into custody, according to police
spokesperson Const. Tony Vella. All were eventually released
unconditionally. (Some 113 were released at the scene of the arrest with
no charge.)

According to section 31 of the criminal code, officers can arrest
anyone found to be “committing the breach of the peace or who, on
reasonable grounds, he believes is about to join in or renew the breach
of peace.”

But according to criminal lawyer Paul Calarco, there is “no
legitimate basis” for many of this weekend’s arrests.

“Wearing a black t-shirt is not any basis for saying reasonable

grounds (for arrest),” he argued. As for arresting peaceful
demonstrators en masse, “that is not a proper use of Section 31. That is
an intimidation tactic,” he said.

“Standing on the sidewalk and exercising your constitutional rights

is not a breach of the peace.”

A further 263 of those arrested were charged with criminal offences

— some because they had pocket knives or similar common items in their
backpacks — and were sent for bail hearings.

Some people who were arrested will probably argue their Charter

rights were violated, said Jonathan Dawe, criminal lawyer with Sack
Goldblatt Mitchell. He pointed to reports of people being denied their
right to legal counsel or to not be arbitrarily arrested or detained.

“I can’t imagine how (police) could not have known that what they
were doing is unlawful,” Dawe said. “I’m shocked at what seems to have
been a wholesale decision on the part of the police to abandon the
Charter.”

More commentary:
Impolitical: G20 Lawsuits on the way

News of the Restless: Authoritarians: Canada haz 'em

14 Essential G20 Videos as displayed by Torontoist

The Fourteen Essential G20 Videos - Torontoist
Visit the link, watch the videos.

G20 Toronto - More Evidence of Police Brutality and Illegal Detention Comes Out

Toronto Star: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ - thestar.com
Individual stories of brutal arrests, inhumane detentions and theft and/or damage of personal property.

Open letter alleges police brutality at G20 demo
Excerpt:
As the group of cyclists was passing by 148 Cumberland Street, one of
the cyclists was singled out by the police. He was descended upon by
several bicycle police officers. He was forced or somehow removed from
his bicycle. He was then held by his arms by two officers, one on each
side as a third officer then punched him in the face. The cyclist was
then pushed to the ground, where he was held face down. Several officers
(the witnesses were not sure how many, but thought it was 4-6) then
repeatedly punched the cyclist in the legs. When the cyclist was stood
up, he was punched in the genitals by one of the officers. He was then
quickly removed to inside the parking garage at 148 Cumberland Street
where he was kept out of sight until shortly before his removal.

CCLA Monitors Arrested
...
CCLA is concerned about the conditions of detention: people are being
denied access to lawyers, they are unable to contact their families and
we have heard that there are no plans for prompt release. The police
does not appear to make serious attempts to provide access to lawyers or
information. This is a serious violation of basic rights of hundreds
of people.

Backofthebook.ca: Canada's Online Magazine - Widespread police misbehaviour, illegal activity at G20
While mainstream news coverage of the G20 was dominated on Saturday by
footage of burning police cars and vandals smashing windows, video of
police misbehaviour, breaches of law, and plain old abuse emerged
overnight on the internet. I’ve gathered some of it below. [see link above]

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.