05.17.2012 07:50 AM

G20: the real culprit

The G20 was the biggest abridgment of civil liberties in Canada in a generation. It was a disgrace. It was an outrage.

This report, like all of the other reports, misses the real culprit: the idiot – the bloody fool – who chose to impose the G20 on Canada’s largest city in the first place.

Stephen Harper.

48 Comments

  1. smelter rat says:

    One would almost think Toronto was chosen on purpose.

    • Warren says:

      Of course it was. They’ll never admit it, but they know it was a huge mistake.

      • Dan says:

        That assumes that the goal was to have a smooth G20. Maybe the goal was to give the police force a test run, so they’re prepared when inequality keeps growing.

        • windsurfer says:

          When I heard they were flying in police from Calgary and from who knows where else………. I thought “this looks like a bigger operation than what we’re told.”

          All police want a police state…….. prove me wrong.

          Does anyone know where this will end? Will a couple of heads roll? Don’t expect any co-operation from the “Lie, Conceal, Fabricate” brigade (Harper CON’s). But someone high up losing a job would be at least some late consolation. And maybe the sheeple will at least get a little outraged.

  2. Jon Powers says:

    I don’t disagree. Just as stupid as the bloody fool who chose to impose the Summit of the America’s Conference on Quebec City in 2001.

    • Cameron says:

      Um …

      The 1997 APEC summit in Vancouver had some similarities. And a report by Ted Hughes alleged excessive force by police. Chretien was Prime Minister.

      And the administration of Police is a provincial responsibility. Premier was Glen Clark (NDP).

      Premier during G20? McGuinty.

      Frankly, I don’t see anyone who is lily-white on these sort of things.

      • Ted B says:

        The administration of police and security at the G20 was federal.

        The problems caused here were the incompetent and too-late planning for the event in Toronto.

  3. Tiger says:

    So is President Obama as much of a “bloody fool” for putting the G8 in Chicago?

  4. Anne Peterson says:

    Ever notice how all Harper’s mistakes end up costing other people, but never him. Snakes slither away, don’t they.

  5. Dave Breukelaar says:

    What can be done though? Pardon me for being cynical, but I read a report like this and I can’t help but wonder if anything will happen. There will be no accountability. There may be one or two scapegoats, but none of the actual culprits will be punished or called to task.
    We are talking about a waste of $1 billion of tax payer money for this ‘event’. They used our money, and then infringed on our rights, and are now receiving no penalty.

    This is the legacy of the G20. Does anyone even remember any policies or agreements that came out of the actual meetings? What was accomplished there? From my viewpoint it was nothing more than a waste of money, a photo op for a few world ‘leaders’, and a bunch of cops getting paid massive overtime to rough up peaceful protesters. No one ever talks about a positive political legacy of the meetings. Was anything achieved that couldn’t have been achieved via conference calls, skype, and email?

    • Dave Breukelaar says:

      I stand corrected. Today’s news of 45 officers, with possibly 4 of them being senior (how senior??), causes me to take back some of what I said. Some. Not all.

  6. Ted H says:

    Harper’s government fits the profile of all conservative governments, they are a wrecking crew that simply doesn’t get what being a government means. They have absolutely no understanding or concern for the social fabric that holds a country together or for the welfare of the people.

  7. JamesHalifax says:

    Hmmm….

    I do recall a certain event that was held that attracted the exact same types of folks…under a different Prime Minister who stated:

    “Pepper….I put it on my plate”

    Was he to blame for the violence and vandalism?

    • smelter rat says:

      You forgot to add “Adscam, Adscam, Adscam!”

    • Jason King says:

      I dont remember him blowing a billion dollars for a shoddy security job. Kind of a different argument if you look at it this way. A billion dollars got us that lame example of security?

    • Ted B says:

      Did he plan to hold it in a small rural town with obviously inadequate transportation, security, meeting and accommodation facilities, despite advice that it was stupid, and then almost at the last minute throw together a completely different plan hundreds of kilometres away?

  8. William says:

    From the G&M in June, 2010

    Once back in Toronto, the larger G20 gathering will wrestle with weighty economic issues like how to control ballooning deficits, stabilize banks and open up the wallets of Asian consumers — with Harper pushing for tighter spending for the next 10 years.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/news/g8-g20-leaders-arriving-in-toronto/article1616021/

    Since then Greece has gone tits up, UK & Spain back in recession and the USA lost its AAA credit rating.

    So good to know that the 1 billion price tag was worth stomping civil liberties.

  9. Please Sign Petition:

    re June 2010 Toronto G20 Police Abuses ♥♥♥

    http://www.thepetitionsite.com/12/calling-for-a-public-inquiry-into-the-toronto-g20/

    ♥♥♥

    Remember Steve Harper’s friend who he put in charge of the RCMP?

    A senior Mountie commander told the federal government that RCMP Commissioner William Elliott “disrupted” the federal government’s billion-dollar security operation for the G8 and G20 summits – simply by showing up for the events.

    “Despite being advised not to attend the summit command centres on June 25, 2010, the commissioner chose to attend, and in doing so, completely disrupted operations,” Mike McDonell, then an RCMP assistant commissioner, wrote in a letter to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/rcmp-boss-hurt-g20-security-efforts-letter-from-senior-mountie/article1762946/

    …………………….

    As the situation surged to critical, officials with the Integrated Security Unit Committee (ISUC), at their HQ in Barrie, didn’t even know where the Toronto Police Service rep had gone. He’d apparently simply left the building, “completely off the ISU radar,” writes Marin.

    It took the ISU 45 minutes to even make contact by phone, by which point ISU was asked to take over security in the interdiction zone.

    More than 1,000 officers from the OPP, RCMP and Peel Region were deployed to police the security perimeter while Toronto cops focused on regaining control of the city.

    http://www.thestar.com/article/904988–dimanno-more-needed-than-glib-answer-on-g20

    …………

    G20 Trials and the War on Activism

    It is no coincidence the people facing the most serious charges with the most restrictive bail conditions are among the most effective organizers in this country. They are precisely the people who build bridges across traditionally separate communities and constituencies, finding common ground where there was often antipathy before.

    http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/11/g20-trials-and-war-activism

    ————————–

    Naomi Klein to police: “Don’t play public relations, do your goddamned job!”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkQK9uP8ok0&feature=player_embedded

    Your bosses got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Your bosses treated the G8 and G20 summit as if it were their own personal ATM machine.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkQK9uP8ok0&feature=player_embedded

  10. Dude Love says:

    I guess nobody remembers Sgt Pepper from the Apex summit at UBC and how Canada did its best to placate a dictator.

    • Ted H says:

      That situation wasn’t right either but the G20 fiasco was many, many times worse because of poor planning, Government incompentence, Government lack of concern for people and civil rights, waste of tax payer dollars and a complete failure to understand the reality that was going to be unleashed.

      There is no government that makes no mistakes, there are some that make really big mistakes and do so frequently.

      • Ted H says:

        Sorry, incompetence

        • Dude Love says:

          People forget that the RCMP went into people’s apartments and homes to take down signs opposing Suharto. The Prime Minister at the time brushed off the event with his “I put pepper on my plate” comment – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWf2LLaHkM0

          Apex had gross budget overruns and their was a break down of civil rights as well, unlawful detentions, use of force, etc.

          Time seems to heal all wounds.

  11. JamesHalifax says:

    I mentioned it above.

    but apparently, I was too subtle.

    Regardless of the event to be held, or WHERE it is to be held, or WHAT it costs…the fact remains, you will get protestors. They’ll crawl out of the woodwork like cockroaches….the cause does’nt matter…the Government of the day doesn’t matter. Face it….some people just don’t like anything and are simply looking for an excuse to riot. The problem begins when genuine protestors allow these idiots to join their ranks.

    • Tired of it All says:

      True, true. But it also matters how various levels of govenrment *plan* for them, n’est pas? So, to incur huge costs and still screw it up takes some doing.

      Also, I think Stars said it best when they said: “take me, take me to the riot…”

  12. JamesHalifax says:

    Next time, they should rent a cruise ship and simply have their meetings on the lake, or at sea. You get your conference room, quarters, and security all tied in nicely. And…it would most likely cost less than 10 Million.

  13. Tim Sullivan says:

    It did not have to be thus. The police have training in crowd control, the use of batons, the use of guns and in the administration of law. By now, some 30 yrs after the adoption of the Charter, there was no reason for the police reaction.

    One guy says the higher ups should be accountable. It comes down to police not doing their jobs. Sure, the feds incompetently planned the location. This is typical incompetence on Harper’s part.

    However, many police officers did not wear ID badges, arrested people they should have known were not breaking the law, marched on locations where there was nothing but peaceful assembly. There was no need on the part of an individual police officer to arrest a person a) without probable cause or 2) without a warrant. Each police officer who arrested a protester without either one of those criteria, broke the law and violated the Charter rights those they arrested.

    Chief Blair is ultimately to blame. Under his watch were the numerous illegal arrests and detentions. His ill-informed comments about Adam Nobody were not only stupid and wrong, they were unprofessional and unbecoming a senior officer.

    There was also the incident of the amputee who was left in the rain without his leg, and kept in detention without the leg. Not to mention the lack of water and food during the detention, it is psychopathic behaviour to abuse people just because they could, knowing full well there was no grounds for the detention or the arrest.

    It should not have happened. Harper, Blair, the commissioner of the OPP and the RCMP, and each officer who made an arrest without cause or a warrant are to blame. There is no room for discussion because there was no exigent circumstances for virtually each and every arrest, each and every detention. As for Officer Bubbles, he’s emblematic of the problem we have with police. Put a mask on that officer and remove his name tag, there would have been no reason to bash the bubble-blower’s head in. Each officer who removed his/her name tag (were there any “her” who removed a name tag?) was fixing for a fight, to abuse people willy-nilly and violate the Charter rights and the criminal law, and their own oaths.

    If they could all be subjected to collective discipline, I’d be okay with that. However, my sense of fair play and respect for due process trumps that reaction. Unfortunately, the armed members of the State Apparatus charged with maintaining civility and good order are not similarly predisposed (contrary to their training).

  14. Geoffrey L. says:

    I agree. Couldn’t they have these summits video conferenced? How about they all meet on an aircraft carrier. Instant security guaranteed.

  15. olymapic Star sailor says:

    The other thing is if you are a parent, and your child is stopped by the policy after the G-20, do not tbe surprised, is they have to suffer a full body search for a minor infaction. Do not worry, Officer Bubbles has not been assigned to Traffic Division, yet.

    I like Rob Ford; why has he not fired Chief Blair.

Leave a Reply to Ted H Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.