Please, only read this post if you're willing to read it in its entirety. And I encourage you to read and/or watch the links throughout this paper (about 45 minutes). If you do not, it will be more challenging to understand my arguments and conclusions.
I am a person of peace and I am a follower of the Prince of Peace. I do not support violent acts or acts of vandalism. So let it be heard loud and clear that this reflection is NOT written in support of any violent acts committed on the streets of Toronto on June 26, 2010. People who burn police cars and vandalize people’s businesses should be stopped, arrested, and lawfully prosecuted. You heard that, right? OK. I also support appropriate and just policing. But I will not stand for the abuse of power and police brutality, for this stands in direct opposition to the Creator’s good intention for his creation.
That said, in this paper I will be reflecting on and critiquing three things: 1) the unpublished and unannounced passing of ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10 made under The Ontario Public Works Protection Act for the Toronto G20; 2) the abuse of power and police brutality on the streets of Toronto on June 26-27, 2010; and 3) the detached, judgmental, and sometimes antagonistic perspective of some Canadians about what happened on the streets of Toronto on June 26-27, 2010.
I’ve read some people’s comments in the newspaper and on the Internet stating that anyone who went near Toronto’s downtown core on the weekend is an “idiot” or just plain “stupid.” They were looking for trouble and they found it, people seem to think. Some people are also saying that police/law enforcement officers were unquestionably in the right with all of their actions and uses of force, and that most of the protesters were in the wrong and deserved to get arrested. “Stay home and take a pill” is the kind of sentiment that some Canadians publicly communicated to concerned citizens and faithful protesters. This is also the tone of misinformed facebook comments/judgments I’ve read and radio talk shows I’ve heard. Such people ought to rethink the judgments they make (from a safe distance!) about other people and events that they themselves have no firsthand knowledge of.
I myself was not present in downtown Toronto last weekend, as I live in Halifax. But if I were in Toronto last week, I would have been marching in a lawful, peaceful protest. I do, however know a good friend, someone who is like family to me, who was a peaceful protester in downtown Toronto on Saturday. I trust my friend’s testimony completely. This person was mistreated and dehumanized by police and she was unlawfully thrown in jail for no reason. The personal story/testimony of my friend is the main reason why I am speaking publicly about the events that took place in Toronto on June 26-27, 2010. Through this paper, I stand in solidarity with my friend and with many other innocent people who were dehumanized and unlawfully arrested.
“The Ontario Public Works Protection Act”
The Ontario Public Works Protection Act was established in 1939 to protect courthouses, police stations, and public utilities, and to prevent the assassination of public figures. This Protection Act allows “guards” (ie. police officers/peace officers) the authority to define what “public property” is. A “public work includes any provincial and any municipal public building, and any other building, place or work designated a public work by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.” Basically, a public work can be any amount of space and it can’t be opposed in court. Under this Act, all “guards” are “in charge of the protecting of the public work.”
Powers of guard or peace officer:
A guard or peace officer,
(a) may require any person entering or attempting to enter any public work or any approach thereto to furnish his or her name and address, to identify himself or herself and to state the purpose for which he or she desires to enter the public work, in writing or otherwise;
(b) may search, without warrant, any person entering or attempting to enter a public work or a vehicle in the charge or under the control of any such person or which has recently been or is suspected of having been in the charge or under the control of any such person or in which any such person is a passenger; and
(c) may refuse permission to any person to enter a public work and use such force as is necessary to prevent any such person from so entering.
Arrest:
A guard or peace officer may arrest, without warrant, any person who neglects or refuses to comply with a request or direction of a guard or peace officer, or who is found upon or attempting to enter a public work without lawful authority.
Why am I saying all of this, you may ask?
Reason: A few weeks before the Toronto G20, the Toronto Chief of Police asked the Ontario Cabinet to pass ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10, which was made under The Ontario Public Works Protection Act for the Toronto G20.
This unpublished and unannounced regulation was quietly passed on June 2. This unprecedented regulation (that empowered police to arrest anyone near the G20 “security zone” who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search) kicked in on June 18 and expired on June 28. In a June 25, 2010 column in the Toronto Star, Jennifer Yang notes: “While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.”
The Ontario Cabinet did NOT publicly disclose its intent to pass ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10, which should have been published for public comment before it passed. This was a very undemocratic decision on the part of the Ontario Cabinet.
PLEASE watch this IMPORTANT interview with Paul Cavalluzzo, which details some implications of passing ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10 made under The Ontario Public Works Act: Jay interviews Cavalluzzo
In an interview with The Real News, Toronto Mayor David Miller says, “the one thing that should have been handled differently is that these regulations, like any normal regulation, should have been published for public comment. People can make all the comments they are making now, ahead of time. That’s the way regulations are supposed to be done in this country. That’s what democracy is all about. They should be posted, people can comment on them and their appropriateness for or against…The Ontario Cabinet chose to do this, and I think what should be challenged there is the fact the Ontario Cabinet should have made sure it was done publicly. The Premier should have done that and they should have made sure that, as it has to do with most regulations, that people have the opportunity to comment before it gets passed. That’s the flaw.”
What the mayor says here is true, to a certain extent. The regulation being "published for public comment" is not the one and only thing that should have been "handled differently." There is so much more to this situation.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is saying that it was “unconstitutional” for the police to use this legislation to broaden their powers to search and demand identification from any citizen far beyond the allotted “five meters” of the G20 security fence.
More specifically, one could argue that the legislation and regulation in question violate sections 7-10 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and are not defensible as reasonable limits on those rights per section 1 of the Charter. A lawyer friend recently said to me, "I can't help but wonder whether the authorities were indifferent to that possibility, calculating cynically that the violation could be declared by a court only well after the protests had been suppressed. The possibility that this is the case is deeply disturbing."
ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10 was used to “guard” the G20 and it was applied to the “security fence.” But law enforcement could extend the “security fence” WITHOUT ANYONE HAVING APPROPRIATE NOTIFICATION AHEAD OF TIME. If anyone resisted identifying themselves, or agreeing to a police search, police could use excessive force with them! No questions asked! So, for thousands of uninformed citizen on the streets of Toronto, this excessive use of police force was impossible to understand. The result of which was an unnecessary escalation of conflict and violence, which, in turn, unnecessarily put the general public at risk.
Paul Jay, of The Real News, says this legislation essentially established “martial law in the area around the G20, suspending probable cause, and giving rights of search and seizure to all law enforcement officers.” Police (who were dressed in riot gear) gave uninformed people a few seconds to get out of free speech zones, and when people did not move, the police deemed their assembly to be illegal, and police moved in on people with a severe amount of force. Again, my good friend has given me eyewitness testimony of this police activity.
Two obvious problems are on the table at this point: 1) Why was ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10 passed by the Ontario Cabinet, and how did this happen without it being published for public comment, or without anyone raising the question of it violating sections 7-10 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? 2) Because of the first problem, the people who gathered for lawful protest during the Toronto G20 did not know what was going on BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT PROPERLY INFORMED. And they were therefore unnecessarily put in danger’s way when police began to forcefully remove them from designated areas of protest. The result is that police indiscriminately arrested upwards of 900 people!
All Canadians must be informed of drastic alterations to the law and unprecedented authority being granted to law enforcement BEFORE our normal laws are suspended and new laws are put in place by the authorities. But Canadian citizens were NOT informed and we were NOT allowed to comment on or debate the validity of ONTARIO REGULATION 233/10 made under The Ontario Public Works Protection Act.
All of this left many peaceful protesters in a very vulnerable situation in downtown Toronto on the weekend of June 26-27, 2010. The people who were LAWFULLY AND PEACEFULLY protesting in Queen’s Park (and elsewhere) had no idea that the police could, at any moment, aggressively box them in and arrest them for not moving or for refusing to identify themselves. Thousands of people were confused and disoriented because of this, and they were needlessly put in a very vulnerable and dangerous situation.
This entire scenario is nothing less than a cruel, manipulative violation and subversion of the civil liberties of Canadian citizens. It resulted in NO freedom of speech and NO right to assemble for many people. (I will further substantiate this claim in the next section of this paper.) Even for many journalists, the message from law enforcement was: You can stay in this area, but if you do, you will be arrested! Do we not realize the implications of such a message from so-called law enforcement? At a public event such as this one, we need journalists to be on sight and reporting the news.
The Events of June 26, 2010
On Saturday, June 26, a good friend of mine walked in lawful and peaceful protests, chanting peace slogans along the way. But when she ended up in the Queen and Spadina area, she witnessed a very disturbing chain of events. She saw angry people burning a police car and vandalizing storefronts. My friend told me that over 100 police officers dressed in riot gear stood by and did nothing to prevent this from happening, nor did they do anything to prevent the situation from escalating. From my friend’s perspective, the police stood by and allowed around 100 people to perform disturbing acts of vandalism on Queen Street.
It is reported that these vandals were then allowed to walk away and damage more public property on their way back to Queen’s Park, without police presence or interference. At Queen’s Park, the vandals then freely removed their black clothing and reintegrate into the masses of peaceful protesters.
Please watch this video by photojournalist Joe Wenkoff that documents this chain of events: Joe Wenkoff
This was a very curious, suspicious, and disturbing “non-action” on the part of police, who, it seems, could have done a lot to keep the pubic safe and to prevent major damage being done in the city. It is hard to believe the police could do nothing when people torched police cars and smashed windows on three of Toronto’s busiest streets (Queen, Younge, and Bay). I guess 1 billion dollars of federal spending for security at the G8 and G20 was not enough to prevent this from happening!
When my friend was back at Queen’s Park in the designated protest area later in the afternoon on Saturday, she experienced something she will never forget. She witnessed outright police brutality, when police began to march through Queen’s Park. Police kicked innocent and unarmed people in the face, pepper sprayed people, beat men and women on the shins and hands with police batons, and pushed 50-60 year old women. While people were gathered in a designated protest zone, they were completely taken off guard by this brutal show of police force.
Police also strategically boxed in many peaceful protesters with little or no warning and gave them no instructions as to how they could avoid getting hemmed in. According to my friend, the police totally ignored her when she asked what to do, or how to escape the blockade.
Police also jumped and arrested individuals as the police line moved through Queens Park. To be fair, some of the people who were jumped and arrested were probably vandals who reintegrated into the larger crowds. But the question still remains: Why didn’t the police move in and make these arrests when the vandals were dressed in black and were committing crimes in plain sight?
My friend is NOT an idiot because she was in downtown Toronto to witness these events. She is a concerned, responsible Canadian citizen and a peace-loving Christian. She was simply exercising her democratic right to free speech on Saturday, while she marched in lawful protests and while she spent time in designated protest areas.
YET, she and about 30 other people who were walking down a sidewalk late in the afternoon on Saturday, were chased down by police on bikes, then cornered by police on foot, and unlawfully arrested. These people did not provoke the police, yet they were falsely accused, humiliated, openly searched, and unnecessarily arrested by police. My friend did nothing to provoke the authorities. Nor did she deserve to be arrested.
The only justification given by the police officer in charge was that these people looked to him “like they had not worked a day in their lives.” Therefore, they “deserved to spend a night in jail.” This so-called “Toronto G20 Detention Centre” was made up of dozens of small cages, like the ones we store animals in. See: G20 Detention Centre
My friend was stuffed like a sardine (along with 25-30 other people, which was over the 10-20 person limit) into a “cage.” People could hardly move. In her cage, my friend remained in handcuffs and was not allowed to be uncuffed so she could use the door-less bathroom. In fact, women had to help wipe each other’s behinds while on the toilet because they were handcuffed.
Furthermore, my friend was unlawfully DENIED HER RIGHT TO COUNCIL. She was unlawfully denied her right to speak to a lawyer and her right to make a phone call. Even hardened criminals are not denied those rights in Canada. To top it off, all the people in her “cage” were DENIED ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER FOR 6 HOURS, water they were begging for.
When my friend was released on Sunday, it took police 5 minutes to complete her paper work and she was not charged because THERE WAS NO CHARGE AGAINST HER! She was simply perceived by police as a dirty protester. The authorities shut her up. And the authorities' aggressive and undemocratic message to her (and to thousands of others) was simple: Get the hell out of Toronto because you are not welcome here!
Most everything I have just shared about my friend’s story has DEHUMANIZATION AND INJUSTICE written all over it. This makes me sick to my stomach, and at this point, it makes me feel ashamed to be Canadian!
So, for those Canadians who are writing ignorant or destructive comments on the Internet, who are talking smack over the airwaves, and who are blindly supporting gross abuses of authority and police brutality, my message for you is simple:
Wake up! Don’t be numb and apathetic. Open your eyes to see injustice and clean out your ears so you can hear about injustice when it’s right in front of you. Seek the truth honestly and follow the right path no matter where it leads you.
It deeply concerns me when Canadian citizens are willing to condemn thousands of peaceful protesters, who gather outside the G20 to exercise their democratic right to speak in peaceful protest about a variety of issues. When people (including women and journalists) are BEAT UP, MISTREATED, AND ARRESTED BY POLICE, how can people uncritically defend those same police officers and the officials in charge of them?
But if you still think there was no abuse of authority, or police brutality in Toronto on June 26-27, please, I’m begging you, converse with people who were in Toronto and experienced it for themselves! Please, take time to do that!
If that is impossible, you can watch lots of video and eyewitness accounts that will reveal what you need to know. For example:
Steve Paikin, veteran Canadian journalist, talks about peaceful protesting on Saturday, a police attack against peaceful protest, and describes the arrest and beating of a Guardian newspaper journalist: Steve Paikin
Journalist, Jesse Freeston is interviewed on CTV: Freeston
Scott Harris, Council of Canadians, on Canada AM: Harris
Cassandra J., witness and subject of police action: Cassandra
Geoffrey B., witness and subject of police action: Geoffrey
Adam B., witness and subject of police action: Adam
Clarence B., witness and subject of police action: Clarence
Public Inquiry on the Toronto G20
For a commentary on growing demands for a public inquiry on the Toronto G20, go to: The Council for Canadians
I invite any rebuttals, comments, or corrections to what I have written in this paper. I hope and pray the conversation will move forward in a ruthlessly honest, yet loving and compassionate manner.
In hope for a more just Canada,
Brad Close
