Cops look for public input in G20 review—just don’t mention officers, the OPP, the RCMP, personal experiences or operational matters
This morning, the Toronto Police Services Board will begin taking public input on the scope of the city’s inquiry into policing during the G20 summit. This is the first baby step toward one of the many investigations that have been promised since the summit: Ontario’s ombudsman, Andre Marin, is investigating the province’s “five-metre rule” that didn’t exist, and Ottawa might get involved if the Tories ever let a committee get started. The TPSB will be looking to frame the inquiry today, and name a head of the inquiry sometime in August. This all sounds good, except that the cops have indicated that they’d prefer not to investigate individual officers, the OPP, the RCMP, personal experiences or operational matters.
CBC News has the bad news:
[The inquiry] won’t investigate other police forces working in the city that weekend, like the RCMP or the Ontario Provincial Police.
The board won’t be hearing complaints about personal experiences with police officers during the G20 summit—that’s the job of the provincial police watchdog, the Ontario Independent Review Director.
The review is also not a full public inquiry, which has been demanded by many critics of police actions during the G20. The review is not legally binding, although Toronto police chief Bill Blair will have to answer to the board.
So the review will only be looking at one third of the Integrated Security Unit that was deployed during the G20. And it won’t hear complaints about “personal experiences,” like, presumably, being threatened for blowing bubbles or having a leg torn off. The board will focus on “policy, oversight and governance,” but it seems specific cases of alleged abuse won’t be touched. The Star reports that the inquiry will look at who was in control when the nastiness went down on Yonge Street, but that’s as specific as it gets. The review won’t dwell on “operational details,” meaning that there’s faint hope of figuring out why, exactly, hundreds of people were held out in the rain that Sunday night.
So the first independent investigation of police conduct during the G20 will be thorough, except for all the exceptions.
• G20 independent review seeks public input [CBC News]
• Police board’s authority will be examined in wake of G20 [Toronto Star]
• Cop board does G20 two-step [NOW Magazine]
so here is a section of the criminal code of canada. i would like at least some of you to check it out.
http://www.g20justice.com/crimes.html
i really doubt they will ever nab the douche bags that got away with blatant disregard of the civil liberties of countless civilians, it still shows how badly who ever was in control at the time broke their own laws that they have all been sworn in to obey and uphold. i really doubt that we will ever be able to nab most of the police responsible for the atrocities of that weekend due to the insane amount of police that were in the city at the time. but getting the guys at the top would be a great start. i recall reading an article about how livid the montreal police were when they were given the order to stand down when the vandals were running rampant. if any one knows how to handle a small riot like that, its the montreal police. every time the habs win a game there is a riot. obviously this unruly crowd could have been easily diswayed. i guess thats what happens when you try to justify the epic price tag attached to such event security. hey remember a couple months ago when we were in a recession? i dont see how spending 1.3 billion$ is going to help, or spending another 16 billion on new fighter jets… great job mr harper.
So, in reality this is just another waste of taxpayer money, with no real issues of abuse of police power addressed. How long are people going to roll over and watch while our civil liberties are eroded? How long are we going to sit still if an issue doesn’t affect us directly and take the platitudes and band aid fixes that the govt. throws out at us, using our own tax dollars to fool us with?
I sincerely hope that the gentleman at least had his leg, canes and money returned to him.
disgusting mess that will only get worse. corruption upon corruption
cops needed the public helps to nab the real people who did real damage. after they abused 900 others.
cops in Ont like to be the man and in control. FIRE RICK BARTOLUCCI he and his ministry control the boards the cops the Pis and all other security and prisons. his office was the solictor general. demand reform!
Rights and freedoms are over-rated. None of this would have happened if we just put all the hippies in jail and started forcing people to go to church. If everyone (except a handful of rich people) labored 10 hours a day everyone would be happy. The earth has infinite resources and we should exploit them ASAP. Worse case scenerio, God will remake the world and anyone who doesn’t like it can go to hell.
Maybe the government can direct Canadian’s attention away from the G20 cost nightmare and wholesale shredding of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by setting up a straw dog – say the census…
The Silence on this topic, from Canada’s political leaders is deafening!!! Our prime minister put all in motion for the G8/G20 event – ultimately he is responsible… It is a very complex inquiry that must take place, beyond the Toronto police – I think we can look beyond an inquiry and simply ask for the resignation of our Prime Minister – This should be done by the Conservative Party themselves – a call of no confidence in the leadership – If NOT his own party – then which party will take this on?
I think it is completely disgusting and shocking how the police can keep backing out of the spotlight on all the issues of complaints against them. Only being a police officer can you only half do your job of protecting people and get away with it. I can’t go to work and harrass people then excuse it by avoiding the situation completely and still get paid..So we shouldn’t have to pay for the billions until they can give us answers as to why they all of a sudden stopped caring about civilian’s rights. If they cared they would have given the money to a shelter instead of protecting business interests. There has been complaints of sexual assault and basically torture in the detention centres and the avoidance of these issues just shows they think they are above the law and above rational human morals. If they don’t want to give cops a bad name forever then they need to stop these tactics and push for a real inquiry.
I also agree with “disappointed conservative” that it is up to the federal government to take care of this, because it seems like the Toronto Police don’t even know what’s going on. The fact is though, once a cop even witnesses his partner or collegues committing an unjust act towards an innocent person that is against their rights or will, and doesn’t do anything about it, they are a BAD cop. Sadly the next idea can be drawn from this that all cops have witnessed something of the sort= all cops are corrupt. This in-depth inquiry needs to take a look at police roles altogether.(I’m sure if anything happens though it will be tighter security because they want to limit and restrict all freedoms it seems…)