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Covered badges. Peaceful protestors beaten & rounded up. A most massive breach of civil liberties. Cowardly elected officials. Sound familiar? It's the 10th anniversary of the G20 in TO, an unsutured Canadian wound. My @TorontoStar column this week. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/06/08/ten-years-later-the-g20-remains-a-wound-and-a-sign-that-police-reform-is-critical-in-a-post-covid-world.html
With thoughts from @AOBempah on how to start thinking about what police reform might look like. The mission creep of police has been expanding exponentially, along with its budget. Downloading in the Mike Harris 90s was part of the cause, here, he says.
We are seeing some political courage now. Support it. Remember, a week after G20, Toronto council, both left and right, voted 36-0 to commend Chief Blair and police for their "outstanding work”. A number of them conveniently left the chamber for the vote. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/g20/2010/07/07/council_commends_outstanding_police_g20_work.html
As noted, there was & is little appetite for reform or punishment by either Conservatives or Liberals. In fact, Trudeau Liberals recruited Blair as a star candidate in 2015 and made him a minister of the crown. They party has no credibility on this issue. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09/01/bill-blairs-version-of-g20-accountability-leaves-plenty-of-questions-keenan.html
THE party has no credibility (I have no credibility with typo-free tweets) - all those MPs tweeting about police & related issues right now. Provincial Liberals? Were not interested in a deep investigation into what happened under their watch (+ passed secret law).
In short: the "party of the charter" has a demonstrably wavering fidelity to that charter. Trust them as you see fit.
Perhaps 1 more bit - a fasinating if infuriating part of G20, for me, was beyond the absolute failure of elected officials on left & right, is how many civil society folk shrugged. Pundits who didn't like the politics of protestors (despite so many peaceful/bystanders rounded up)
They gave it all a pass. Civil liberties, this bedrock thing, could be given away so easily. Ongoing, police are taken at their word, despite evidence to contrary. This moment now, when 100s of journos have been targeted, is when it registered, despite years of evidence?
The society wide failure on this issue, way beyond G20, of not listening to what people we're saying, of not seeing the evidence as part of a systemic problem, is a lesson to heed.
Missed this @TVOdocs when it aired a few weeks ago - looks at the life-long fallout of being wrongfully arrested in ONtario, including two peaceful G20 protestors, as well as Black people who've suffered police brutality, over the last decade. https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/the-arrest-feature-version
A pic I took today in 2010. You would come upon the G20 wall, sinister with its new found power-of-secret-law-arrest via Ontario Liberals & Blair, as you moved thru the core. The security operation for G20 was $1 billion. Somebody bought some cottages (w/ w/out gazebos)
