Senior commanders and front-line constables facing disciplinary charges over G20 tactics

Now that the Independent Police Review Director’s report on G20 policing has been released, both top brass and front-line officers will be facing disciplinary charges—nearly two years after the crackdown on protesters. The IPR director investigated 207 complaints against police, and a little over half of those (107, to be exact) led to disciplinary charges, 96 of which were deemed to be serious. The police review office recommended disciplinary tribunals for commanders with the Toronto Police Service (it’s still too early in the process to release names and numbers, but the charges will affect no more than six commanders). And it’s not just high-ranking officers who could get fingered: the director also ordered charges against 25 rank-and-file officers. So far, eight constables (Vincent Wong, Blair Begbie, Alan Li, Donald Stratton, Michael Kirpoff, Ryan Simpson, Jason Crawford and Michael Martinez) will face the disciplinary tribunal in June. Which should mean we’ll be heading into the third consecutive summer of G20 coverage. [Globe and Mail]