Caught in the Act

Yesterday, André Marin released the much-anticipated report on the G20 fiasco in Toronto, cleverly titled 'Caught in the Act'. (PDF at the link.)

I caught the last bit of the press conference and heard Marin say that events of that weekend constituted the 'most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history' and instantly he became my new hero.

Finally, finally, after all the Facebooking, YouTubing, blogging, and protesting, Somebody is paying attention and coming to the same conclusion that hundreds of thousands of nobodies knew all along: Toronto was a police state that weekend.




I haven't read the whole 127 pages yet, but what I have read is clear, blunt, and unequivocal. What's also great is the use of social media by the Ombuds and the appendix listing a bunch of YouTubes of events.

Today, on the front page of the Star, Rosie DiManno, who is usually in a tie with Pitsy Blatchford for top cop-groupie, calls the chief out. Make it right, she says.

Well, looky here. The chief speaks from some shindig on the Wet Coast.

One criticism lobbed at Blair in recent weeks is that the investigations into police misconduct appear to be lagging so far behind that of black clad vandals. In those cases, police appealed to the public for help, releasing a swarm of pictures. In a more recent development, police announced suspects will be extradited from the U.S.

“I understand that may be the perception,” said Blair, adding that he has asked the public for any evidence, photographic or otherwise.

He went on to say that his own officers have and will be investigated with the same techniques and the same rigor as anyone else. And that every police officer is required to report misconduct.

Yeah, well, as they say, I'll believe it when I see it.

After all, the jackass who said 'I think the police were too nice. I would have had a zero tolerance approach' has a shiny new thing. Around his florid neck.

Not all Ontario public officials have been bullied into submission by Stevie Spiteful

Less than a month ago,

[...] after a nasty, three-month fight to keep his job was publicly played out. [Ontario Ombudsman André] Marin said his office is doing what it does best by “staying the course” and ignoring detractors. The ombudsman can serve as a “bulwark of democracy” in troubled economic times, Marin said. The report highlights the work the provincial watchdog did throughout the year.

Little did Marin suspect, when he said those words, that he would be the first public official to investigate the complaints of citizens bullied by riot police and deprived of civil liberties and human rights during the G-20 in Toronto.


Today, Marin stated in a news release:

[...] his investigation will probe "the origin and subsequent communication of the controversial security regulation passed by the province prior to the June 26-27 G20 summit."

The temporary powers regulation, which was published in the official Ontario Gazette last Saturday, five days after it lapsed, became publicly known when a man was arrested two days before the summit for refusing to provide ID to police while exploring the fence around the G20 "red zone." [...]

Marin said his office has received 22 complaints alleging a lack of transparency over the new rules. "The complaints we've received so far raise serious concerns about this regulation and the way it was communicated, and I think there is a very strong public interest in finding out exactly what happened and how that affected the rest of the events of the G20 weekend," [...]

Good. It's a start.