Stephen Harper Ultimately Responsible for G20 Infringement of Civil Liberties

Having taken my own advice to show my support for Canadian civil liberties, I've begun receiving correspondence back from MPs. Among the respondents has been Mario Silva, a Liberal who represents the Toronto riding of Davenport. He writes in part that

it was the office of the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Vic Toews, which coordinated security for the G8 and G20 summits, in close consultation with the Prime Minister’s department, the Privy Council Office.

Now I'm loathe these days to take any politician's word for anything, but this does make sense, given the G20 was the $1.3 billion party ordered up by one Stephen Harper. And we all know how much Harper favours micromanagement - if he's the one doing it.

ETA: And now a response from Rona Ambrose, one of Harper cabinet ministers: "I am pleased to inform you that an independent review of police tactics during the G20 protests will be conducted."

Would that be the independent review to be held by the Toronto Police Services Board, I wonder? If so, then Ambrose's response is an exercise in duplicity; it answers NOTHING with respect to FEDERAL responsibility. (I've responded to her in kind, insisting on an inquiry at the federal level.)

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The damned-if-they-did, damned-if-they-didn't defence

In an interesting article in yesterday's Globe and Mail, reporter John Lorinc asks lawyer Peter Rosenthal, who has defended activists in court, about the following:

Some people say the police were damned-if-they-did and damned if they didn't.

To which my response is: the same could be said, even more so, of the G20 detainees.

Police told people to leave ... but blocked all exits.

Police told people they had the law on their side - to ask whomever they pleased for identification; to fail to identify themselves or give their badge numbers; to search people's possessions and their persons, including their body cavities; to 'deny' people their right to legal representation by means of postponement techniques; to arrest and/or detain citizens without informing them of the crime they have purportedly committed - ... but such a law didn't exist.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't?

The people who were marching for various freedoms last weekend, including the freedom to assemble, were damned no matter what they did.

H/t @impolitical for the link to that article.

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Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow

and wow. Washington, DC agrees to a $13.7M settlement pertaining to mass arrests that occurred during a protest near the World Bank and International Monetary Fund buildings in 2000.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said the class-action lawsuit, which has wended its way through the court for about a decade, will benefit "future generations" who want to speak out and air their grievances. He said it sparked a 2004 D.C. law that set out policies for police to follow at demonstrations, including a prohibition against encircling protesters without probable cause to arrest them.

Under the settlement, each person arrested and found eligible for compensation will be awarded $18,000, and the record of that arrest will be expunged. It also requires additional training for police officers.

And a class-action suit is just beginning for the mass arrests during last weekend's G20 in Toronto. Would that US court rulings set precedents in Canada!

ETA: Add your support to the CCLA's G20 action, in defence of those who were arrested or detained.

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Do you care about the erosion of Canadians' civil liberties?

There are four things that you can do, particularly pertaining to the arrests and detentions that took place during last weekend's G20 summit, in support of pulling back Harperian (and now McGuintyan?) authoritarianism and their latest encroachments of our civil liberties:

1. Send an email in support of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association petition. As noted on their website, once in receipt of 5,000 endorsements the CCLA will be submitting the petition to the three levels of government.

2. Fill out this short form, which will send an email to politicians at all three levels of government: Toronto city council, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the Parliament of Canada.

3. Once you've completed the form in step 2, you'll be redirected to the Facebook group Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20. If you haven't already joined, DO IT. (As I write this, the group is closing in on 40,000 members.)

4. Spread the word.

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Olympics, Security & Freedom of Expression

For those who don't use Twitter, there are some gems you may be missing. Here's one, from David Eby, Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association:

@Dave_Eby: BCCLA thanks Transit police 4 quickly correcting Olympic handout that equated free speech with crime http://ow.ly/10JID

The BCCLA has been very busy lately, as has Eby's former home, the Pivot Legal Society. They can't be everywhere. It's therefore vital that everyone be on the alert for rights infringements or possible infringements, like the person who brought to the BCCLA's attention the transit issue referred to in Eby's tweet.

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