Reporters arrested, CCLA civil rights monitors arrested, over 500 people in detention, police unwilling to provide access to lawyers, cellphones seized, what is going on? Police will say that 4 to 7 police cars were set on fire and that there was much looting and spray painting, pop cans and rocks were thrown and more vandalism was planned at the fence or elsewhere. Is the policing proportionate to the threat?
Up until late Saturday afternoon, police actions had been restrained. Certainly, it had been disproportionate at times with hundreds of police officers surrounding 75 peaceful marchers, large groups of police officers circling one lone protester to search a back pack and umbrellas and water bottles being seized . We also witnessed people intercepted and detained, even charged for not identifying themselves. Friday’s marches were tense in a couple of places : police officers rammed their bicycles in protesters, verbal confrontations occurred but it ended peacefully. Saturday started out with the large People First march with a trajectory negotiated and approved by the police: down University, west on Queens, north on Spadina and back to Queen’s Park. The protest marshalls knew that there would be splinter groups wanting to reach the fence to spray it or put their banner up. Looters were also expected to take advantage of the situation.
And it happened: it is unclear why police cruisers would be in the vicinity of the protest. Throughout the week, police officers circulated in unmarked vans. While hundreds of riot police officers were blockading streets south of Queen, vandals got out and threw rocks along Queen and up Yonge (reports vary on the numbers, from 50 to 100). Confrontations occurred as well on King.
It is still unclear why the people gathered at Queen’s Park at 5 pm were suddenly charged by riot police. It appears that the small group of black clad vandals was still out to spray paint and throw rocks in windows. Certainly, however, not all those at Queen’s Park fell into this category. Since then, over 500 people have been arrested and none are being released. It would appear that the presumption of innocence and the protection against arbitrary arrest had been suspended during the G20.
CCLA is concerned about the conditions of detention: people were being denied access to lawyers, they were unable to contact their families and were not promptly released.
