Monday 26 July 2010

Torontonamo, 30 Days Later (updated)

And it's still in the news. Carol Goar today in The Star does the arithmetic.
Thirty days after the summit, the gains look modest; the losses extensive. The balance could change, but it would take a strenuous effort by public authorities to fix what they broke.

And yesterday, CBC ran a story about a young woman who is suing the Toronto Police over injuries from rubber bullets.
Police claimed the shots were "muzzle blasts" — harmless blanks meant to scare protesters, not hurt them. They deny using rubber bullets.

But photographs of Gray's wounds taken by an emergency room doctor show she was indeed injured in the chest and arm.

There are over 900 comments, by far most of them in support of the protesters.

If you've got a few minutes, go do the 'thumbs up/down' thing. Or leave a comment. The media will keep covering it as long as we keep paying attention.

ADDED: From the lawnorder Toronto Sun. Yup, they lied.
Rubber bullets were fired at the crowd outside the Eastern Ave. set up during the G20 Summit, a Toronto Police spokesman said Tuesday — one day after releasing erroneous information.

Mark Pugash corrected a statement he made Monday to the Toronto Sun saying no rubber bullets were fired outside the temporary prisoner processing centre, saying he had received the wrong information.

The person who provided the mistaken information called him Tuesday and said that rubber bullets were fired outside the centre, Pugash said.

Slam-dunk for the gal with the lawsuit. Slam-dunk for more costs for the rest of us as all these lawsuits get swept under expensive carpets.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen other reports about rubber bullets. I think Steve Paikin mentioned in the Real News interview something whizzing by pretty close, before officers escorted him out of the scene (under threat of arrest and despite his G20 press accreditation). Is there a web page anywhere that collects evidence showing the use of these bullets? If not, maybe it's time to set that up.

fern hill said...

Anonymous: There are several such sites. Here are two:

G20 Justice and Torontonamo.

Beijing York said...

I was surprised to hear from a work colleague that her nephew was rounded up. Her sister and nephew are still reeling from the experience and he still has to go to court to deal with charges. According to her, he was just watching what was going on.

Anonymous said...

It's possible that they weren't "rubber bullets" but "non-lethal projectiles"

fern hill said...

@Anonymous (July 27): So what are you saying? That the cops aren't technically lying if the term for the projectile is not 'rubber bullets' but something else? They claimed there were 'muzzle blasts' -- no projectiles used. There were projectiles whatever they're called. Cops lied.

Glenn Stewart Coles said...

The internet allows us to share the truth...as we blog and post things change and the world is watching Toronto.
http://soulwork101.blogspot.com/2010/07/toronto-police-lie-again.html

Anonymous said...

They have now admitted that they were rubber bullets so this doesn't matter. What I was saying is that the cops were playing with words. In their minds they weren't lying. There are also plastic bullets and other things they can shoot people with that will not kill them.

Anonymous said...

To the G20 victims: DON'T ACCEPT ANY SETTLEMENT OFFER, even if the bar gang, er, I mean your lawyer, suggests it. We need a big trial where all the facts will come out! The cops will over quick cash to resolve this in an attempt to bribe you into silence. Don't play along!

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