Recent
Watch also...
Toronto Police misbehaviour is rampant
Police board chair Alok Mukerhjee comes under fire for making up his own rules
By Toronto Police Accountability Coalition
This Bulletin is published by the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, a group of individuals and organizations in Toronto interested in police policies and procedures, and in making police more accountable to the community they are committed to serving.
1. Reporting on the G20
a) Breach of the Peace
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association followed up their November public hearings on the events of the G20 meeting in Toronto in later June, with a remarkable report “Breach of the Peace” issued in February. It is jointly produced with the National Union of Public and General Employees.
This report concludes that constitutional guarantees do matter; that the planning and delivery of security during the G20 failed to meet Charter standards; that the police created an atmosphere of intimidation and breached the rights of many people. It ends with eight strong recommendations, including the need for a public inquiry. Here, for example, is one of the many powerful statements in the report:
“Hundreds of persons were arrested for breach of the peace, including individuals who were peacefully protesting, reporting on the G20, or simply walking on the streets. The fact that so many of these people were either not charged or have since had the charges against them dismissed, dropped or stayed, appears to indicate the arrests were made without a reasonable basis. Unwarranted detentions and arrests are a clear violation of Charter protections. They are also a violation of comparable protections under international law that require police to ensure that the right of persons to peacefully participate in social protests is respected, and ensure only those committing criminal offences during demonstrations are arrested.
“Unwarranted criminal charges can also result in the significant stigmatization of individuals who may have done nothing wrong. Even if the charges against such individuals are withdrawn outright, they may haunt the affected individual for many years, as certain police background check processes can reveal criminal charges even if a conviction is not entered. This is an issue of great concern to NUPGE and the CCLA. The CCLA has written to the TPS to request the removal of all G20-related charges that do not result in convictions from background check databases. The TPS has refused to grant this request. (Page 43.)”
At the March 3 meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board, TPAC raised this last point – about removing G20-related charges from background check data bases – but no Board member was willing to address the matter.
A full copy of the report is available here. .
b) The Board’s review
At the March Board meeting the chair of the Board reported on the status of the review of G20 events. You will remember that the review was authorized on July
6; on Sept. 23 former judge John W. Morden was retained to do the review.
As the chair reported, many of the preliminary steps have been taken, but as of the March meeting, Mr. Morden had yet to interview any of the people involved in the G20. We are eight months from the event, and no one has been talked to. A mechanism to involve the public has been promised, but has yet to be forthcoming.
Of course, since none of the interviews will be public and none are under oath, who knows where they will go or how long they will take. It’s fair to say that it is most unlikely that Mr. Morden’s report will be available before the October provincial election, and certainly not before the federal election expected to be called momentarily. It is an expense way of producing a document so far from the event that one expects it will have little positive impact on policing in Toronto or Canada.
But the review does have a perverse use: Premier Dalton McGuinty said that because the review was under way there was no need to have an inquiry.
Source: http://www.thebulletin.ca/cbulletin/content.jsp?ctid=1000136&cnid=1002778