List of Toronto G20 Lawuits

The following is a partial list from The Toronto Star: G20 Summit: Cop Unmasked As Protest Couple File Suit
(Read the Star article for all the details)


March 7, 2012: Toronto police settle a human rights claim filed by a paraplegic man arrested during the G20 summit. Terms are not public due to a confidentiality clause.

Feb. 16, 2012: Toronto lawyer Nicholas Wright sues Toronto police for $25,000 for alleged unlawful arrest.

June 24, 2011: Sean Salvati, a paralegal arrested prior to the G20 summit and allegedly strip-searched, assaulted and held naked in a jail cell for nearly an hour sues Toronto police for at least $75,000.

June 23, 2011: Courtney Winkels, threatened with arrest by an officer in a YouTube video for blowing bubbles, sues the Toronto Police Services Board for $100,000 for false arrest and Charter of Rights violations.

March 15, 2011: Two plaintiffs file lawsuits naming the Toronto Police Services Board as defendants and claiming $25,000 in damages. Luke Stewart, a 25-year-old PhD candidate, alleges that during the G20 summit, police said he couldn't enter a park unless he submitted to a search. The other complainant, identified as Kalmplex, is suing police for $25,000 for a wrongful arrest in Parkdale and for extended imprisonment of 20 hours.

May 11, 2011: Charlie Veitch, a British filmmaker arrested under the so-called five-metre law during the G20, sues the province and police for $350,000.
January 2011: Dorian Barton, a 30-year-old cookie maker, files a $250,000 lawsuit against the Toronto Police Services Board and seven unnamed officers, alleging his shoulder was broken and he was denied proper care after his arrest.

Sept. 7, 2010: Natalie Gray of Montreal, who claims she was shot by Toronto police with rubber bullets, files a $1.2 million suit against the Toronto Police Services Board and unnamed individual officers for damages.

Sept. 2, 2010: A $115 million class-action lawsuit involving 1,150 people arrested and detained during the G20 protests in Toronto is filed with the Superior Court. The plaintiffs are represented by lawyer Charles Wagman. The lawsuit has been stayed.

Aug. 6, 2010: A class-action suit is filed by lawyers Eric Gillespie and Murray Klippenstein against the Toronto Police Services Board and the Attorney General of Canada (responsible for the RCMP). The suit, which represents 800 people, seeks $45 million in damages.

Toronto G20: The only organized agression was perpetrated by police

Toronto News: Aggression during G20 rally ‘perpetrated by police,’ judge rules - thestar.com
Although we now have a judge's statements that the police were unjustified aggressors on the weekend of the G20 protests in Toronto (June 2010), the statements are regarding a trial of one defendant (found not guilty of all charges), and not as part of a much-needed federal public inquiry.

Excerpts:
A Toronto judge has ruled that “adrenalized” police officers
acted as aggressors at a peaceful political rally that led to dozens of
arrests during last year’s G20 summit.

“The only organized or collective physical aggression at that
location that evening was perpetrated by police each time they advanced
on demonstrators,” Justice Melvyn Green ruled on Thursday. He was
referring to a demonstration at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. on Saturday,
June 26, 2010.

Green stated police criminalized political demonstration, which is “vital” to maintain a “viable democracy.”

Green’s stern words echo widespread criticism of police during the
G20, in which more than 1,100 people were detained in the largest mass
arrest in Canadian history. A Toronto Star/Angus Reid Public
Opinion poll conducted on the one-year anniversary of the G20 found a
majority of Torontonians (54 per cent) now believe police response to
demonstrations during the summit were unjustified.

“The zealous exercise of police arrest powers in the context of
political demonstrations risks distorting the necessary if delicate
balance between law enforcement concerns for public safety and order, on
the one hand, and individual rights and freedoms, on the other,” Green
wrote in a 29-page judgment.

Toronto G20: One thug down, many to go.

Toronto police officer charged in G20 assault - thestar.com
Many more officers guilty of assault causing bodily harm will remain at large and uncharged due to a system that fails ordinary citizens when trusted police officers break the law.

Toronto G20: CBC The Fifth Estate - "You Should've Stayed At Home"

Here is the full CBC documentary on the police brutality during the G20 protests in Toronto, Summer 2010.

For more details on the events (it was actually worse than the CBC documentary makes out), watch:

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation

Toronto G20 protests - More police to be investigated for brutality and illegal arrest

Police open criminal investigation into G20 arrest - thestar.com
Excerpt:
According to her statement of claim, Gray was protesting peacefully near
the temporary detention centre on Eastern Ave. on June 27, 2010 — the
final day of the G20 summit — when an officer shot her with two rubber
bullets, causing her to fall to the ground. She was then forcefully
arrested by two other officers and taken to the detention centre, where
she remained for 30 hours with minimal medical attention

Bill Blair: big liar or most useless police chief ever?

YouTube - Bill Blair: "I have not seen any videos of Officers using excessive force".
watch the video
This is mind boggling. I've seen numerous videos filmed during the Toronto G20 protests that show police officers using excessive force. Most of these were put on the Internet the same day they were taken. ... Cops on horseback, in a tight group, trampling a non-threatening protester, cops coming up behind people sitting on the ground and beating them on their heads with no warning, and much more.

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation | Watch Free Documentary Online
Originally titled G20 Exposed, this is the final finished version.

Under Occupation: Toronto G20 Operation is an educational documentary
that shows, in chronological order, the events that transpired over the
G20 weekend in Toronto, Canada. While the mainstream media repeatedly
broadcast images of burning police cars and broken windows, the cameras
on the ground captured a far more terrifying story. Eyewitness video
footage and firsthand accounts featured in this film tell a horrific
tale of police brutality, mass arrests, secret laws and outrageous
violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

1 policeman charged in G20 assault

Toronto Star: Police Officer Charged in G20 Beating
One down, hundreds to go.

Wishful thinking regarding the Toronto Police Services Board

Reining in the unaccountable chief - thestar.com
The Toronto Star is hopeful that Rob Ford will adjust the board so it will guide the police with a firmer hand instead of the afraid-to-give-orders-to-the-police-chief board that we currently have.
This IS their job - to direct the police chief. For the most part, if he is doing his job properly, then they don't need to give him direction. But, when he is not doing his job properly, like when, during the G20 protest weekend, he misdirected police to break the law by assaulting peaceful protesters and to illegally detain peaceful protesters, and when he told the police to allow vandals to damage property and when he told the police to leave vehicles for the vandals to torch and to let them burn, HE NEEDED TO BE DIRECTED!
And, he needed direction after the fact to, as the Star points out.

But, if anything, Rob Ford will not do anything to give the chief direction. Rob Ford thinks all the innocent people during the G20 protest weekend should have been assaulted and detained. Rob is into that, same as he is into not knowing the facts about pretty much everything. He will do quite the opposite to the board - he will make sure that they do nothing to direct the police, even more so than the previous board.

We DO need a strong chair on the board, and a strong board, but, in my opinion, we won't see one for at least another 4 years.

Parliamentary committee on the Toronto G20 police actions uncovers more skullduggery by the cops

Toronto journalist witnessed ‘police brutality’ at Toronto G20 - thestar.com
Excerpt:

“One officer held one arm, The other officer held the other arm and a
third officer came up to him and basically told him to shut up three
times, punched him in the stomach. He doubled over. The same officer
brought his elbow down on the small of his back and flattened him. It
seemed to me that that was a massive overreaction to try and check to
see whether somebody was who he said he was.”

Two University of British Columbia students Kirk Chavarie and
Grayson Lepp told the committee of their treatment by police after
attending a peaceful protest earlier in the day, including having to
stand in urine and feces for hours on end in a temporary holding cell in
Toronto’s east end only to have charges later withdrawn.

“Despite what some pundits would have you believe . . . I am
neither a thug nor a hooligan,” said Lepp, who is to graduate from the
UBC’s Okanagan campus.

NDP MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) told a news conference on
Parliament Hill earlier that not to hold a public inquiry is to accept
that Canada is becoming a police state where the toe of an officer’s
boot or punch in the gut is the rule of law.

Davies said not only has it been proven that police falsified
evidence to justify widespread arrests — the largest in Canadian history
— they also manufactured evidence, including so-called weapons seized
from completely separate incidents.

“What we need is a full public inquiry . . . if not, one of the
most shameful and largest mass violations of Canadians’ rights by police
and the state in Canadian history will go totally unredressed,” he said

Unidentifiable police can't be charged for G20 police crimes

Cops accused by G20 protesters cleared of excessive force allegations
The police who committed the crime of excessive force have been cleared of any wrongdoing because they weren't wearing their nametags, other police witnesses refused to testify, and civilian videos were shot from too far away to make out individual officers.

I've seen a lot of videos and some of the shots of police bludgeoning and kicking people were pretty close up. I wonder if civilian witnesses were asked to pick police out of a line up or to testify - probably not.

I say let's fire all the cops who decided to evade the law, abuse our trust, and assault peaceful protesters. Fire all the ones who were not wearing their nametags/numbers. That is the responsible thing to do here. And while they're at it, fire the thugs who gave the orders to beat and illegally arrest peaceful protesters and bystanders.

Addendum:
Toronto Sun: Our Cops and the Cone of Silence
All the SIU did this week was confirm the law does not apply the same way to those in uniform and the code of silence is not reserved just for the thugs.

Toronto G20 hearings - Bill Blair grilled by Don Davies

YouTube - Don Davies and Bill Blair at G/20 hearings
Watch the video.

The truth will out.

See also:
G20 charges dropped over lack of warrant

G20 testimony shows need for full inquiry
Excerpts:
“After six hours of hearings, many troubling details have emerged,” said
Davies. “Yesterday, we learned that 90 police officers decided to
break a rule set by the Chief of Police by removing their name badges.
We discovered that police lacked the proper warrant to arrest the
students who were rounded up early Sunday morning at the University of
Toronto. There were guns drawn on sleeping students, in circumstances
that almost certainly violated use of force rules.”

"Our process can only scratch at the surface of the questions and
inconsistencies that remain about summit security,” said Davies. “No
one has answered for the appalling conditions in the detention facility,
and for the systemic violations of many individuals’ right to counsel.
The government still has not adequately explained the decision-making
behind the planning of the summits or who was calling the shots for
on-the-ground security decisions.

“Only a full public inquiry can get the answers needed to explain the
widespread civil rights violations and the largest mass arrests in
Canadian history,” concluded Davies.

Toronto G20 - Preventative Detention?

Preventative detention? - Peace, order and good government, eh?
Excerpt:
it would appear that the chief of police of a major metropolitan city
just admitted that his officers illegally detained hundreds of people.
With his approval. And he has admitted it in front of a room full of
members of parliament, no less.

Can I look forward to this making headlines across the country?

Can we have that independent public inquiry now?

As outlined in the comments at the above link, citizens and peace officers can detain people, with appropriate force, if there are reasonable grounds that in so detaining people that it will stop or reduce violence (my words). Well, what happened was that a lot of peace officers detained people, using extreme and unnecessary force, without any reasonable grounds of stopping further violence. Obviously peaceful people were brutalized and detained in the hundreds for no good reason.

And, as one commenter pointed out: I think a very strong case can be made that in the majority of
situations that weekend, the police used force far in excess of
"reasonably proportioned to the danger apprehended". There was one
occasion that might apply, but in that situation the police did nothing.

Toronto G20: Toronto officers to be disciplined over summit conduct

Nearly 100 Toronto officers to be disciplined over summit conduct - The Globe and Mail
Nearly 100 Toronto police officers will be disciplined for removing
their name tags at the G20 summit, says the city’s police chief who also
admitted charges were thrown out against roughly 100 people because the
force failed to obtain appropriate arrest warrants.

Woah! Hold on there - for removing their name tags!???!!! What about for assaulting people, and illegally detaining people, generally abusing their powers and trust?!!! WTF!? After looking at over 22,000 hours of video they never saw any police brutality?! Come on! I watched maybe a couple of hours of video during and just after the G20 protests and saw police brutality in at least 60% of the videos.

And, there were not 100 charges thrown out, there were 100s of charges thrown out.

The stink of police corruption is overpowering!

G20 Toronto - Tories blocking public inquiry and other news

The Vanity Press: Same Verse, Same as the First Verse
Well, one thing at least seems to be functioning as normal around these parts: something's gone seriously wrong, and the federal government doesn't want anyone to find out what it was.

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are filibustering to block opposition efforts to launch hearings on policing at the Toronto G20 summit, accusing political rivals of seeking a platform to build sympathy for “thugs and hooligans” who rioted there.

It's not only them, of course: from Dalton McGuinty's blitherings about a "silent majority" to David Miller's obfuscation and excuses, all of the officials are doing everything they can to stop people talking about the largest mass arrest in Canadian history, one that seems to have resulted in few or no arrests of the actual Black Bloc vandals.
... read more at the top link.

G20 Canada's Most Wanted - Call John Walsh!!

CathiefromCanada: Great Line of the Day

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 - 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 - 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.