Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
14 December 2010
Police Forces under Scrutiny
The question “Who is guarding the guards?”
is usually attributed to the 1st century BCE Roman poet Juvenal, but a similar idea was expressed 500 years earlier by Plato
The decision to invite world leaders to Toronto in June 2010 created enormous security problems. Protecting the heads of state and government of the G20 member nations, plus many others invited as observers required a massive coordinated effort among various police forces, Canada’s spy agency the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and the Canadian Armed Forces.
One result was numerous breaches of the human rights of Canadians.
Security Laws Enacted in Error
For a week, Toronto resembled a war zone with a three-
To double up on the security, the Ontario Liberal government passed a regulation that police said gave them the power to stop and demand identification from anybody within five metres of the fence.
This regulation, says the CBC (December 7, 2010) fell under “the Public Works Protection Act, which was enacted in 1939 to protect infrastructure works from wartime enemies.”
The regulation gave police no such powers to stop and question people; however officers chose to enforce it all over the city, not just close to the security perimeter. Thousands of innocent citizens were stopped, asked for identification, and occasionally, wrongfully detained.
In December 2010, Ontario’s Ombudsman Andre Marin said the regulation itself “should
never have been enacted” and “was almost certainly beyond the authority of the government
to enact.”
This and many other scorching criticisms of police and government behaviour are contained in a December 2010 report entitled Caught in the Act.
Anarchists Riot in Streets
During the Saturday (June 26) of the G20 Summit a small number of hooligans trashed stores and businesses and burned a couple of police cars. Total damage has been estimated at about $2 million.
James D. Schwartz
The rioting has been blamed on members of the Black Bloc. This, says Kathryn Blaze
Carlson of the National Post, “is not a group, but rather a tactic used by self-
Members attend most international organization meetings in an attempt to disrupt
proceedings. They first appeared at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle,
Washington in December 1999 when they were spectacularly successful in preventing
delegates from attending conference venues. In part, Black Bloc tactics led to the
gathering being called off.
However, a group called the Centre for Research on Globalization says not all the
damage at Toronto’s G20 riot was caused by the Black Bloc. The group makes the case
through an on-
The Centre cites evidence this has happened before, notably at protests in Montebello, Quebec in August 2007 when three masked, undercover police officers were discovered provoking a riot by throwing rocks.
Peaceful Protesters Roughed up
While violence was happening in the commercial part of the city, peaceful protesters had gathered on the lawn of Ontario’s Legislature, Queen’s Park.
This area had been designated as a place for those who wanted to demonstrate peacefully against the G20 to get together.
Within the crowd was a man called Adam Nobody (his real name) and his case has become central to the issue of police misconduct at the G20. A video surfaced of a group of police officers beating up Mr. Nobody, who suffered a broken nose and spent three days in hospital.
Police from the Special Investigations Unit said it wasn’t possible to identify the officers involved so no action was taken. This raises the issue of police investigating themselves and the cone of silence that descends as part of cop culture; rarely will any police officer “tattle” on another. There were dozens of officers who saw Adam Nobody take a severe beating but not one came forward to identify those responsible.
Then more videos and photographs of police brutality came to light. Interest-
Further investigations have now led to several officers being identified. Charges may be pending.
How Widespread is Police Misconduct?
While the Toronto Police department is dealing with a public relations nightmare, so too is the Ottawa force. Yet another video shows officers roughing up Stacey Bonds in the Ottawa Police cell block before cutting off her shirt and bra.
Gary Dimmock and Don Butler, (The Ottawa Citizen, November 19, 2010) report that officers left “her in a cell for three hours, topless and in soiled pants.”
But, in December 2001 the Supreme Court of Canada brought down an important ruling
on strip searches. Ian Golden was strip-
In its decision, the Court said that strip-
However, according to Roberta Walker of the CBC (The Current, December 13, 2010) strip searches continue to be done routinely and are used as a police tactic of intimidation.
Police are supposed to keep records of all the strip searches they conduct. However, Walker says “I contacted seven major police departments across the country…but none of them keep track of the numbers or any of the circumstances.”
They are completely ignoring the Supreme Court ruling in the Golden case.
Civil liberties groups are calling for a more effective system of oversight into police conduct. Without it, and little or no punishment for wrongdoing police officers will continue to overstep the bounds of what they are allowed to do. Once public confidence in police and respect for officers is lost society is in serious trouble.
Image credits
Sources
“Ombudsman Charges G20 Secret Law Was ‘Illegal.’ ” Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson, Toronto Star, December 7, 2010.
“G20 Police Rule Slammed by Ombudsman.” CBC News, December 7, 2010.
“The Black Bloc.” Kathryn Blaze Carlson, National Post, June 14, 2010.
“DiManno: Make it Right, Chief Blair.” Rosie DiManno, Toronto Star, December 8, 2010.
“Update: SIU to Probe Ottawa Strip-
“Strip Searches.” Roberta Walker and Anna Maria Tremonte, CBC The Current, December 14, 2010.
© Canada and the World, December 2010
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“The effect of the regulation...was to infringe on the freedom of expression in ways that do not seem justifiable in a free and democratic society.
“It gave police powers that are unfamiliar in a free and democratic society. Steps should have been taken to ensure that the Toronto Police Service understood what they were getting.”
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin
December 7, 2010
“Sending cases to the Special Investigations Unit is equivalent to flushing them down the toilet.”
Criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby, letter to the editor of
The Globe and Mail,
December 14, 2010
“Strip searches are thus inherently humiliating and degrading for detainees regardless of the manner in which they are carried out and for this reason they cannot be carried out simply as a matter of routine policy. The adjectives used by individuals to describe their experience of being strip searched give some sense of how a strip search, even one that is carried out in a reasonable manner, can affect detainees: ‘humiliating,’ ‘degrading,’ ‘demeaning,’ ‘upsetting,’ and ‘devastating.’ Some commentators have gone as far as to describe strip searches as ‘visual rape’ Women and minorities in particular may have a real fear of strip searches and may experience such a search as equivalent to a sexual assault.”
Supreme Court of Canada
R. vs Golden
December 2001
A total of 91 police officers removed their name tags and badge numbers to avoid identification during the security operations surrounding the G20 Summit in Toronto in June 2010.
They have been disciplined by being fined one day’s pay.
MASS ARRESTS
In what Ontario’s Ombudsman Andre Marin described as “the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history,” 1,105 people were arrested and placed in detention during the G20 Summit. Among those taken into custody were senior citizens and even a disabled man.
As Linda McQuaig reported in the Toronto Star (December 14, 2010) “it would be hard
to invent anything more lurid than the real-
Charges have been dropped against all but about 200 protesters, suggesting there was no good reason for arresting at least 80 percent of those detained.