stat·ism /ˈsteɪtɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key – Show Spelled Pronunciation[stey-tiz-uhm] 1. the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty. statismwatch.ca – a media compilation and forum exposing statism and its roots from a Canadian perspective

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What’s happening to Canada? To the world? Were George Orwell to read the news today, he might well recognize the foundations of the society depicted in his famous dystopic novel, 1984. Militarization, surveillance, state terror, economic collapse, propaganda, war… the global parallels are ominous and suggest that a new awareness is required of us all to prevent the sort of slide into authoritarianism which so many states have succumbed to throughout history.

Organized by theme and suitable for research and education, this site offers a highly integrated and cross-referenced database of national and international news spanning a period from 2008 onwards.  Click on the Topicgate sphere to the left of your screen to view the most recent news or click an image above to enter The Memory Hole.

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Related: G20 police ripped off amputee’s prosthetic limb, told him to walk before dragging him off | Release G20 ‘political prisoners’: rights groups | Canada Day: 2,000 protest G20 summit arrests | Civil liberties association to sue police on behalf of G20 arrestees | Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Henry Stancu, Michelle Henry, Toronto Star
July 6, 2010

The province’s special investigations unit has begun probing five allegations that police caused serious injury to civilians during the summit.

It is unclear whether civilian or police information led to the investigation, with more details promised Wednesday.

“We’re currently looking into details surrounding those interactions” and speaking with witnesses, SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon said Tuesday. She would not say which police force or forces, of many drawn into G20 security, are involved in the allegations. The SIU can probe only the officers who work in Ontario, Hudon said, which includes municipal forces and the OPP but not the RCMP.

On the same day, a Toronto police services board meeting calling for an independent civilian review of the way G20 security was handled drew heated response from many people who came to vent about their treatment during the summit.

Thinking their voices would be heard at Tuesday’s hastily called special session at police headquarters, many shouted their objections after board chair Alok Mukherjee announced his recommendation that an impartial civilian overseer be chosen to conduct the review.

The chair said those in the rowdy gathering had “no automatic right to speak” at this venue, and that complaints should be filed in the form of written deputations.

Tuesday’s meeting came surprisingly soon after vice-chair Pam McConnell suggested a “cooling off” period last week. Other members, as well as Chief Bill Blair, said they felt more time was needed before a summit post-mortem should be conducted.

Board members agreed just two days after the summit closed that discussion of a civilian review should begin “with a proposal for a process for the board to exercise its civilian oversight responsibilities” by the next monthly meeting. The speeded-up process means an independent reviewer will be chosen in time for that July 22 meeting, at which time the board will also hear complaints from citizens who have filed written deputations.

It was clear, however, that many people aggrieved by what happened during the summit are impatient to be heard sooner.

“This is a public meeting and I think I have the right to speak, as others do as well. I’m talking about transparency and accountability that starts right here,” said John Sewell, who heads up the Toronto Police Accountability coalition.

Others who packed the meeting began heckling as Mukherjee and fellow board members tried to explain this meeting was to announce the framework of the review and that the forum would come later after deputations from the public were received by the board.

Blair, Mukherjee and other board members left the meeting without pausing to answer reporters’ questions, as they often do following board meetings.

City Councillor and board member Adam Vaughan did, however, stay to explain the slow and complex process of the review.

“It’s been a very tumultuous time in the city, and we all need to afford each other patience and an opportunity to proceed fairly. I recognize, for some people, the need to speak is immediate and urgent,” he said.

“The issue is the terms of reference we presented publicly. The public will have a chance to weigh in on those terms of reference and to assess their strengths and weaknesses and give us recommendations and then we’ll make a decision on them as a board,” Vaughan said.

The recommendations state that the independent reviewer will have about 12 weeks to complete the review, with the power to question board and police policy and analyze all police actions relating to G20 security.

“It’s certainly a step in the right direction,” said Nathalie Des Rosiers, counsel general with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, an organization that attended yesterday’s police board meeting.

“The mandate (of the review) must give access to files not only within the Toronto police but, if possible, access to the security-protected files and the information that was obtained from CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service). We don’t know if it is possible, but it should certainly be looked at.”

Des Rosiers said anyone who feels he or she was mistreated by police during the G20 summit has the right to lodge a complaint.

Written deputations must be received no later than five working days before the July 22 police board meeting. It must be signed and contain a presentation outline, with each individual’s or group’s presentation limited to five minutes. The presentations will be videotaped as part of the regular board meeting.

Deputations can be emailed to the attention of the Toronto Police Board Administrator at board@tpsb.ca, or deirdre.williams@tpsb.ca, or mailed to the TPSB Administrator at 40 College St., Toronto, M5G 2J3, or dropped off at the front desk of Toronto Police Headquarters at that address.

Source | Alternate Coverage | See Also under Police: G20 police ripped off amputee’s prosthetic limb, told him to walk before dragging him off | Release G20 ‘political prisoners’: rights groups | Canada Day: 2,000 protest G20 summit arrests | Civil liberties association to sue police on behalf of G20 arrestees | Police accused of displaying fake G20 weapons | Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Collingwood man dies after being tasered by police in group home | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Toronto no longer feels like home | Police stop car containing ‘weapons’ near G20 summit | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Police TASER Grandmother in Bed | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | Peel cop guilty in fake cocaine case | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Soldiers and secret police: Some in Huntsville ‘getting nervous’ over G8 | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Real IRA plot accused entrapped by MI5 rules judge | Special prosecutor named as inquiry blasts ’shameful’ Dziekanski Tasering | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Air India report: American-style security czar needed to end agency turf wars | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | New RCMP watchdog on a short leash: critics | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | New RCMP watchdog to have more tools to check complaints about force | RCMP to get new oversight agency | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | The drug sting that stung a cop | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | World Cup: Street kids rounded up and run out of town | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | RCMP launches investigation into five officers after in-custody death | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Toronto family blames police for son’s death, demands probe | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Halifax G8 protester charged with assault | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Black Montreal teacher alleges police abuse | Former Toronto drug squad officers must face trial after all, top court rules | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Nine charged after marijuana compassion club raided | Taser use by Montreal police focus of hearings | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Interpol heads to World Cup in record numbers | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | Victoria police investigate their own in assault posted on YouTube | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Ontario stun gun review complete: report | Montreal police accused of protest sabotage | 100 arrested at anti police brutality march in Montreal | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public land | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK’s anti-racism activists | The dark side of DNA | Tories revive random roadside breath test | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | UK: Former Met police detective facing jail over cocaine smuggling plot | Feared police crackdown absent during Games | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | RCMP needs broader overhaul, more cameras, Senate group says | UK photographer films his own ‘anti-terror’ arrest | The truth about the Mossad | N.Y.C.’s former top cop sentenced for felonies | RCMP to test Taser cameras | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest – without airspace clearance | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | RCMP complaints to get ‘independent’ probes | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Ont. top cop pushed for charges against protester | Let the Olympic surveillance begin | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Police beat 18-year-old violinist over phantom Mountain Dew bottle | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case | New RCMP watchdog is toothless | ‘Toronto 18′ accused involved in bomb plot through RCMP agent, defence says | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones |UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Vancouver police apologize after wrong man beaten by plainclothes officers | FBI ‘fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records’ | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | Walkom: Mole crucial to terror trial | RCMP hasn’t closed book on missing potential explosive as Olympics loom | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | No need for OPP head to take leave whilst being investigated for criminal charges: McGuinty | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | Wiebo Ludwig arrested ‘to protect public’: RCMP goes fishing in pipeline bombing case | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – Police

Related: Release G20 ‘political prisoners’: rights groups | Canada Day: 2,000 protest G20 summit arrests | Civil liberties association to sue police on behalf of G20 arrestees | Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Doug Draper, Niagara at Large
July 5, 2010

John Pruyn wasn’t much in the mood for celebrating Canada Day this year.

How could he be after the way he was treated a few days earlier in Toronto by figures of authority most of us were brought up to respect, our publicly paid-for police forces who are supposed to be there to serve and protect peaceful, law-abiding citizens like him.

The 57-year-old Thorold, Ontario resident – an employee with Revenue Canada and a part-time farmer who lost a leg above his knee following a farming accident 17 years ago – was sitting on the grass at Queen’s Park with his daughter Sarah and two other young people this June 26, during the G20 summit, where he assumed it would be safe.

As it turned out, it was a bad assumption because in came a line of armoured police, into an area the city had promised would be safe for peaceful demonstrations during the summit. They closed right in on John and his daughter and the two others and ordered them to move. Pruyn tried getting up and he fell, and it was all too slow for the police.

As Sarah began pleading with them to give her father a little time and space to get up because he is an amputee, they began kicking and hitting him. One of the police officers used his knee to press Pruyn’s head down so hard on the ground, said Pruyn in an interview this July 4 with Niagara At Large, that his head was still hurting a week later.

Accusing him of resisting arrest, they pulled his walking sticks away from him, tied his hands behind his back and ripped off his prosthetic leg. Then they told him to get up and hop, and when he said he couldn’t, they dragged him across the pavement, tearing skin off his elbows , with his hands still tied behind his back. His glasses were knocked off as they continued to accuse him of resisting arrest and of being a “spitter,” something he said he did not do. They took him to a warehouse and locked him in a steel-mesh cage where his nightmare continued for another 27 hours.

“John’s story is one of the most shocking of the whole (G20 summit) weekend,” said the Ontario New Democratic Party’s justice critic and Niagara area representative Peter Kormos, who has called for a public inquiry into the conduct of security forces during the summit. “He is not a young man and he is an amputee. …. John is not a troublemaker. He is a peacemaker and like most of the people who were arrested, he was never charged with anything , which raises questions about why they were arrested in the first place.”

Pruyn told Niagara At Large that he never was given a reason for his arrest . When he was being kicked and hand-tied, police yelled at him that he was resisting arrest. Then a court officer approached him two hours before his release on Sunday evening, June 27, and told him he should not still be there in that steel -mesh cage. So why were Pruyn and his daughter Sarah, a University of Guelph student, who was locked up somewhere else, detained in a makeshift jails for more than 24 hours, along with many other mostly young people who, so far as he could hear and see, had nothing to do with the smashing of windows and torching of a few police cars by a few hundred so-called ‘Black Bloc’ hooligans that weekend?

Why was Pruyn slammed in a cell without his glasses and artificial limb, with no water to drink in the heat for five hours and only a cement floor to sit and sleep on before his captors finally gave him a wheelchair? Why was he never read his rights or even granted the opportunity to make one phone call to a lawyer or his family – the same rights that would be granted to a notorious criminal like Clifford Olsen or Paul Bernardo?

He never received an answer to these questions and, he said, “I was never told I was charged with anything.” Neither were many of the others who were penned up in that warehouse with him, including one person who was bound to a wheelchair because was paralyzed on one side and begging, over and over again, to go to the washroom before finally wetting his pants.

Pruyn said others in the warehouse begged for a drink of water and younger people made futile pleas to call their parents to at least let them know where they were. In the meantime, Pruyn’s wife, Susan, was frantically trying to find out from the police and others what happened to her husband and daughter. She found out nothing until they were finally released 27 hours after she was supposed to meet back with them at a subway station near Queen’s Park.

So what was this all about and why were John and Sue Pruyn arrested if they were part of the gathering of peaceful demonstrators in the Queen’s Park area? Was their crime to dare to come to Toronto in the first place and join with those who express concerns about the G20 and whether it has any concern at all for the environment, for people living in poverty, for fair access to health care and other issues important to people around the world who fall into the category of ‘have nots’?

Pruyn wonders if the idea of the crackdown was to send a message to the public at large that gatherings of opposition to government policies won’t be tolerated. “That is (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper’s attitude,” he said. “He doesn’t like dissent in his own (party) ranks.”

Kormos said some might respond to the crackdown against the G20 summit demonstrators by saying that they should have stayed home or they should not have been there, or that if they were swept up by the police, they should have nothing to worry about if they did nothing wrong. But that misses the point, he said. It misses the possibility that this was another example of the province and country sliding down a path of clamping down on citizens’ right to gather together and express views that may not be popular with the government of the day.

Kormos stressed again that a public inquiry is needed, not only for those demonstrators arrested and roughed up during the summit, but for those shop owners in Toronto that had their stores vandalized by a horde of hooligans with little apparent presence of police officers to prevent it.

Asked if there was any possibility a few hundred black-clad vandals were allowed to run wild to make the thousands of people there to demonstrate peacefully look badly, Kormos responded; “That’s why we need a public inquiry.”

Susan Pruyn agreed. “ We need a public inquiry for all of the people who went (to Toronto) with good intentions and who ended up suffering that weekend,” she said.

Source | Alternate Coverage | See Also under Police: Release G20 ‘political prisoners’: rights groups | Canada Day: 2,000 protest G20 summit arrests | Civil liberties association to sue police on behalf of G20 arrestees | Police accused of displaying fake G20 weapons | Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Collingwood man dies after being tasered by police in group home | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Toronto no longer feels like home | Police stop car containing ‘weapons’ near G20 summit | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Police TASER Grandmother in Bed | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | Peel cop guilty in fake cocaine case | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Soldiers and secret police: Some in Huntsville ‘getting nervous’ over G8 | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Real IRA plot accused entrapped by MI5 rules judge | Special prosecutor named as inquiry blasts ’shameful’ Dziekanski Tasering | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Air India report: American-style security czar needed to end agency turf wars | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | New RCMP watchdog on a short leash: critics | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | New RCMP watchdog to have more tools to check complaints about force | RCMP to get new oversight agency | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | The drug sting that stung a cop | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | World Cup: Street kids rounded up and run out of town | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | RCMP launches investigation into five officers after in-custody death | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Toronto family blames police for son’s death, demands probe | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The

Related: Civil liberties association to sue police on behalf of G20 arrestees | Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

CBC News
July 1, 2010

More than 2,000 people demonstrated in Toronto and Montreal on Thursday against the arrests of nearly 1,000 protesters during last weekend’s G20 summit in Toronto.

About 1,000 protesters gathered at the Ontario legislature before marching south on University Avenue and then along a route that look them past Toronto police headquarters and back to Queen’s Park.

Groups including Canadians Advocating Public Participation called for an independent public inquiry into the way security was handled during the recent summit. Some also called for the resignation of Toronto police Chief Bill Blair.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has described the arrests as unprecedented, disproportionate, arbitrary and excessive.

“The CCLA is planning to help people who are seeking compensation to [initiate] a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Ontario,” Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the association, told the Toronto Star. “We have a couple of plaintiffs.”

Protesting police ‘intimidation’

In Montreal, more than 1,000 people, including women’s rights groups, union representatives and a provincial politician, marched to protest what happened in Toronto.

“We’re here to denounce the police and the police state that we lived in [in] Toronto, the oppression, the police oppression and intimidation,” said Dani Royier of Convergence des luttes anticapitalist, a group opposed to capitalism,

Olivier Lamour Lafleur said he went to Toronto to protest peacefully but was arrested soon after the protests began. He said he spent 36 hours in a holding cell.

Several police vehicles, including vans carrying riot police, followed the Montreal marchers Thursday but there were no major incidents and only two protesters were arrested.

In Winnipeg, more than 100 protesters marched through a neighbourhood street festival on Thursday to show support for those arrested during the summit.

And in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday night, a small group of protesters gathered at police headquarters following a call to action by a group known as Common Cause, which describes itself as an anarchist organization. No one from the group would provide an identity at the rally, and members refused to be interviewed by the CBC.

‘Stand up for free speech’

However, Margaret Villamizar, who went to Toronto police headquarters on Monday to protest against the large number of arrests during the G20, said she attended the Windsor rally for one reason.

“I’m here to stand up for free speech,” Villamizar said. “I think a lot of people’s rights were violated in Toronto. I think it’s a sad day for our country. I think the prime minister has sent a message that if you want to stand up against globalization or anything else he deems fit, he will use the police to crush your opinion.”

On its website, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it wants an independent inquiry to address:

• The dispersal of protesters at the designated demonstration site in Queen’s Park late last Saturday afternoon.
• The detention and mass arrest on The Esplanade on Saturday night.
• The arrests and police actions outside the Eastern Avenue detention centre last Sunday morning.
• The prolonged detention and mass arrest of individuals at Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue on Sunday evening.
• The conditions of detention at the Eastern Avenue detention centre.

The association says it also seeks the repeal or amendment of the Public Works Protection Act and reforms to ensure that Criminal Code provisions relating to “breach of the peace,” “unlawful assemblies” and “riots” are brought in line with constitutional standards.

Source | See also under Protest: Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Greek anti-austerity strikes hit tourists | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | Iran to send ship through Gaza blockade | Experts Draft Document Critical Of ACTA: Signatures Wanted | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | London G20: Jury acquits protester accused of being ringleader in clashes | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Egypt says Gaza blockade has failed, border crossing opened in wake of aid flotilla assault to stay | Canadian protesters condemn Israeli raids on aid flotillas | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Bilderberg 2010: Why the protesters are your very best friends | Underground economy emerges in Ontario in response to HST | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Prospective G20 prison camp medics told patients may be faking | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | B.C. anti-HST petition hits target weeks ahead of schedule | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto banks review G20 security after Ottawa RBC fire | RBC firebombed as protest, group claims | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Anti-HST petition nears goal in B.C. | HST rage puts B.C. Liberals in a spot | Bid To ‘Storm’ Irish Parliament During Bailout Protest Foiled | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Halifax G8 protester charged with assault | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Masks off at G8 protest: rally leader | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | First Nations protest against HST | Greek civil servants strike, challenge EU/IMF talks | BC Govt, Anti-HST Campaigners Dispute Legality of Pro-HST Leaflet | Up to 50,000 protest Charest’s tax hikes | HST fight makes allies of B.C. political foes | Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch | ‘Anarchists’ Plan to Disrupt April 15 US Tea Party Protests | Thousands protest Quebec budget | Montreal police accused of protest sabotage | 100 arrested at anti police brutality march in Montreal | Former premier Bill Vander Zalm rallies against the HST in BC | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Anti-prorogation group becomes pro-participation | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | Black bloc taints anti-Olympic movement | China insider sees revolution brewing | Greek workers stage general strike | Feared police crackdown absent during Games | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Vancouver Olympics protesters fall silent as Black Bloc ruins it for everyone | Ivory Coast protesters killed | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Protesters in Vancouver slum force Olympic torch off-course | Clashes reported as Iranians march on 31st anniversary of revolution | Greek workers ‘give their reply’ to proposed austerity plan with national strike | Activists Shut Down Australian Government Websites in Internet Filter Protest | Protesters target final leg of Vancouver Olympic torch run | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Kremlin shocked as Kaliningrad stages huge anti-government protest | Pie tossing is terrorism, MP says. Seriously. | Thousands of Canadians protest shuttering of Parliament | Anti-prorogation protest dogs PM | War resister released from U.S. prison | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | For more see The Memory Hole – Protest

Related: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Jennifer Yang, Toronto Star
June 30, 2010

Overwhelmed with calls, Civil Liberties Association is working on suing police forces

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it is considering a joint lawsuit against the Toronto police and other police forces responsible for the G20 mass arrests.

“The CCLA is planning to help people who are seeking compensation to (initiate) a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Ontario,” said Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the CCLA. “We have a couple of plaintiffs.”

More than 1,000 arrests were made relating to the G20 summit and multiple reports have emerged alleging peaceful demonstrators or even bystanders were caught up in the mass arrests — most notably, at the Esplanade’s Novotel Hotel on Saturday, where demonstrators tried to stage a sit-in, or at Queen St. and Spadina Ave., where a large crowd was boxed in and detained for several hours in the rain.

All arrests this weekend were made under the criminal code and not the Public Works Protection Act, according to the province.

Des Rosiers said the CCLA has been overwhelmed with phone calls and has already collected 75 complaints from people claiming they were wrongfully imprisoned, detained, harassed or assaulted by the police.

Among them is Adam Suska, a 32-year-old supply teacher. After watching a Queen’s Park demonstration on Sunday, Suska was walking towards Bloor St. and Spadina Ave. when police officers stopped him and asked about his black t-shirt.

Following Saturday’s trail of destruction caused by protesters using Black Bloc tactics, there were multiple reports of summit police targeting people dressed in black.

Suska claims police called him a “piece of s—” and asked for identification, which he didn’t have. He was arrested for breaching the peace and taken to the Eastern Ave. temporary jail, where he was released without charge after eight hours.

Suska said the experience has shaken his faith in police and he now has trouble sleeping. He said he would definitely be open to a joint lawsuit or class-action suit.

“I felt just disgraced and so ashamed,” Suska said. “I shouldn’t have to feel like that just for walking down the street.”

Police Chief Bill Blair has tried to justify police officers’ actions during the summit, saying Black Bloc members infiltrated peaceful demonstrations or that protesters failed to disperse when asked.

Blair has announced an internal police review, but there are growing demands for a public inquiry, with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Greenpeace and 121 signatories from the York University faculty recently joining the chorus of voices asking for an independent probe. The Criminal Lawyers’ Association is also calling for an independent fact-finder to probe the circumstances surrounding the G20 arrests and NDP critic Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) has requested the House of Commons public safety committee be recalled to study issues surrounding summit security.

The provincial government is also coming under increasing fire for its handling of a controversial regulation created under the Public Works Protection Act. Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak deflected blame from the police and said the public’s ire should be directed towards the “slippery and cowardly” Premier Dalton McGuinty for secretly making a regulatory change that police interpreted as giving them more power.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath also blasted the Liberals for bungling the issue since the Star broke the story last Friday.

“The entire thing is a mess and it’s an absolute absurdity,” said Horwath. “There needs to be an independent review as to what happened.”

Of 1,090 people detained over the G20 period, 714 were charged with “breaching the peace” and taken into custody, according to police spokesperson Const. Tony Vella. All were eventually released unconditionally. (Some 113 were released at the scene of the arrest with no charge.)

According to section 31 of the criminal code, officers can arrest anyone found to be “committing the breach of the peace or who, on reasonable grounds, he believes is about to join in or renew the breach of peace.”

But according to criminal lawyer Paul Calarco, there is “no legitimate basis” for many of this weekend’s arrests.

“Wearing a black t-shirt is not any basis for saying reasonable grounds (for arrest),” he argued. As for arresting peaceful demonstrators en masse, “that is not a proper use of Section 31. That is an intimidation tactic,” he said.

“Standing on the sidewalk and exercising your constitutional rights is not a breach of the peace.”

A further 263 of those arrested were charged with criminal offences — some because they had pocket knives or similar common items in their backpacks — and were sent for bail hearings.

Some people who were arrested will probably argue their Charter rights were violated, said Jonathan Dawe, criminal lawyer with Sack Goldblatt Mitchell. He pointed to reports of people being denied their right to legal counsel or to not be arbitrarily arrested or detained.

“I can’t imagine how (police) could not have known that what they were doing is unlawful,” Dawe said. “I’m shocked at what seems to have been a wholesale decision on the part of the police to abandon the Charter.”

Source | See also under Rights: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | States Must Honor Gun Rights, U.S. High Court Says | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | 48% See Government Today As A Threat to Individual Rights | Australian Government to Force Use of State Firewall Package, Block ‘Unauthorized’ Programs | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Torontanamo Bay: Life inside the G20 ‘security zone’ | US supreme court: Human rights advice, nonviolent aid to banned groups tantamount to ‘terrorism’ | How will democracy fare under the G20’s new world order? | UK: Birmingham stops Muslim CCTV, license plate surveillance scheme | Supreme Court upholds restrictions on government documents | Iceland Unanimously Approves ‘Wikileaks Bill’ To Establish Free Speech Press Haven | Ontario’s First Nations to be HST exempt | UK doctors agree to waive privacy of mentally ill gun owners | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | Maher Arar loses ‘last hope’ for judicial review of rendition case in U.S. court ruling | Israeli cabinet approves internal inquiry into Gaza flotilla raid | Pentagon hunts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in bid to gag website | London G20: Jury acquits protester accused of being ringleader in clashes | Tribunals can rule on Charter claims: Supreme Court | Liberals aim to put a bullet in bill to scrap gun registry | Canada can’t deny suspected terrorists of rights on basis of UN blacklist, lawsuit claims | Accused in Toronto bomb plot not aware: lawyer | Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | US Federal Trade Commission considers taxing online speech | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | CIA drone killings trouble UN rights expert | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Canada’s inhumane prison plan | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | UK Torture claims investigation ordered by Foreign Secretary | Pot activist Marc Emery on his way to US jail | Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet approves bill to ban full Islamic veil | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has passport confiscated in Australia | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Marc Emery, ‘Prince of Pot’ will be extradited | MPs divided on Canada-Colombia trade agreement | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Media can’t shield sources all the time, court rules | Bill would strip terror suspects of U.S. citizenship | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Treat Khadr as child soldier: UN envoy | UK Government cannot use secret evidence in Guantánamo torture case, court rules | Wildlife documentaries infringe animals’ privacy, says report | Tories reintroduce anti-terror act provisions that cross line, former CSIS chief warns | French government prepares total ban on full Islamic veils | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | Abdelrazik’s bank assets frozen | School laptops took thousands of images of students: Lawyer | Ont. smoking club appeal tossed by top court | Access to information risks being ‘obliterated’: report | Niqab gets 2nd Quebec student expelled | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | Recent mass grave of the ‘disappeared’ uncovered in Columbia | UK: Pupils forced to submit to fingerprint scans for lunch, parents not consulted | Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content | CETA worse than ACTA – EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws | UK: Met Police launch net café spy operation | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Google reroutes uncensored search to Hong Kong, raises stakes in row with China | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | Net produces new generation of human rights activists in China | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Ontario street racing rules upheld | Copyright conviction raises privacy concerns | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | NDP tables torture-prevention bill | Government Internet Censorship Begins In Stealth In New Zealand | ‘Security Certificate’ victim Charkaoui to sue Ottawa for $24 million | Canada ‘regrets’ Israeli settlements | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | An American Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully | Military trials possible for Sept. 11 terror suspects | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Rights & Democracy dissidents fired | Ontario closer to handing over Ipperwash park to Chippewas | Obama gives Patriot Act another year with no privacy protections | UK: Government fury as judges attack MI5, security services | CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights | CSIS Agents likely contributed to Toronto man’s torture: Inquiry | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | More Details Emerging About School Laptop Spying, And It Doesn’t Look Good | School Spycams Case Explodes As Feds Initiate Probe | Poland releases details on CIA ‘black sites’ | Inuit group blasts Cannon over summit | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | For many aboriginals, the truth of residential schools is irreconcilable: commissioner | Former terror suspect Hassan Almrei wants apology | Ivory Coast protesters killed | Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit | Google Books Fosters Intellectual, Legal Crossroads | Khadr’s lawyers dispute government decision | Ottawa reluctantly asks U.S. for assurances Khadr trial will not use evidence CSIS obtained in violation of rights | Google Bans Sale of DVD Critical Of Obama Administration | Bruce Anderson: We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty | Feds push for tracking cell phones | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | The government has your baby’s DNA | Men at Work plagiarized Kookaburra tune, Australian court rules | Hollywood loses landmark copyright case in Australia | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | Crotch bomber bill before Congress: Treat all ‘terrorism suspects’ as enemy combatants. Domestically. | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Pie tossing is terrorism, MP says. Seriously. | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Court approves raw milk co-op | Raw milk farmer vows to fight on | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | China tells web companies to obey controls | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘Unclear’ Whether US Air Security Profiling Violates Canadian Charter: Baird | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | For more see The Memory Hole – Rights

Related: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

The Canadian Press
June 30, 2010

Toronto’s top police officer misled the public by displaying fake weapons used in a medieval-themed role-playing game to help justify their actions during G20 protests, their owner said Wednesday.

Brian Barrett said everything in the backpack police confiscated from him “was safe enough for toddlers.”

Barrett’s “spell-balls,” foam-covered batons and scale-mail vest were among items police Chief Bill Blair showed reporters on Tuesday.

“He turns around and states that they are specifically dangerous terrorist items that were solely intended to hurt police,” Barrett said. “That’s unacceptable to me.”

Barrett, 25, of Whitby, Ont., was en route to a west-end park for a role-playing fantasy game called Amtgard when police stopped him at Union Station on Saturday.

Players ranging in age from early teens to late 40s regularly participate in the fantasy combat involving foam swords often referred to as live action role-playing or LARPing.

Police questioned Barrett for almost three hours, confiscated his gear, and released him.

He said he expected it would be returned as early as Monday.

But when he turned on his TV Tuesday, he saw the gear displayed along with hatchets, bats and tire irons that police had confiscated over the weekend.

His homemade shield, foam-covered baton, scale-mail vest, and roll of hockey tape sat next to bear spray, a modified BB-gun, and gas masks.

Barrett was enraged to see his property associated with violence and vandalism.

Could be used to set fire

Police did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but had previously insisted the items were potentially dangerous.

For example, they said, the “spell balls” could be used to set fire to a building.

Blair had already been forced to admit that a chainsaw and crossbow on display at the news conference had nothing to do with G20 protests.

The police chief was also forced to admit that a regulation granting police unprecedented search and arrest powers did not apply to the area outside the summit fence.

However, Blair said he deliberately chose to leave the public in the dark.

More than 900 people were detained for incidents related to G20 protests.

Civil libertarians and opposition politicians both federally and provincially are calling for an independent review of how police behaved amid accusations of widespread abuses.

They claim police illegally detained, searched and arrested people.

Barrett said he’s baffled that Blair would try to mislead the public with his homemade props, especially while under such scrutiny.

Source | See Also under Police: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Collingwood man dies after being tasered by police in group home | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Toronto no longer feels like home | Police stop car containing ‘weapons’ near G20 summit | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Police TASER Grandmother in Bed | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | Peel cop guilty in fake cocaine case | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Soldiers and secret police: Some in Huntsville ‘getting nervous’ over G8 | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Real IRA plot accused entrapped by MI5 rules judge | Special prosecutor named as inquiry blasts ’shameful’ Dziekanski Tasering | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Air India report: American-style security czar needed to end agency turf wars | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | New RCMP watchdog on a short leash: critics | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | New RCMP watchdog to have more tools to check complaints about force | RCMP to get new oversight agency | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | The drug sting that stung a cop | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | World Cup: Street kids rounded up and run out of town | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | RCMP launches investigation into five officers after in-custody death | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Toronto family blames police for son’s death, demands probe | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Halifax G8 protester charged with assault | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Black Montreal teacher alleges police abuse | Former Toronto drug squad officers must face trial after all, top court rules | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Nine charged after marijuana compassion club raided | Taser use by Montreal police focus of hearings | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Interpol heads to World Cup in record numbers | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | Victoria police investigate their own in assault posted on YouTube | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Ontario stun gun review complete: report | Montreal police accused of protest sabotage | 100 arrested at anti police brutality march in Montreal | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public land | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK’s anti-racism activists | The dark side of DNA | Tories revive random roadside breath test | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | UK: Former Met police detective facing jail over cocaine smuggling plot | Feared police crackdown absent during Games | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | RCMP needs broader overhaul, more cameras, Senate group says | UK photographer films his own ‘anti-terror’ arrest | The truth about the Mossad | N.Y.C.’s former top cop sentenced for felonies | RCMP to test Taser cameras | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest – without airspace clearance | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | RCMP complaints to get ‘independent’ probes | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Ont. top cop pushed for charges against protester | Let the Olympic surveillance begin | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Police beat 18-year-old violinist over phantom Mountain Dew bottle | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case | New RCMP watchdog is toothless | ‘Toronto 18′ accused involved in bomb plot through RCMP agent, defence says | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones |UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Vancouver police apologize after wrong man beaten by plainclothes officers | FBI ‘fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records’ | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | Walkom: Mole crucial to terror trial | RCMP hasn’t closed book on missing potential explosive as Olympics loom | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | No need for OPP head to take leave whilst being investigated for criminal charges: McGuinty | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | Wiebo Ludwig arrested ‘to protect public’: RCMP goes fishing in pipeline bombing case | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – Police

The Daily Mail
June 30, 2010

Full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer, experts warn.

The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow.

But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children.

They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body – that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.

Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research, said although the danger posed to the individual passenger is ‘very low’, he is urging researchers to carry out more tests on the device to look at the way it affects specific groups who could be more sensitive to radiation.

He says children and passengers with gene mutations – around one in 20 of the population – are more at risk as they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their DNA.

Dr Brenner, who is originally from Liverpool but now works at the New York university, said: ‘The individual risks associated with X-ray backscatter scanners are probably extremely small.

‘If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk. The population risk has the potential to be significant.’

Following trials, the airport scanners were officially introduced at Manchester Airport in January, at Heathrow Terminal 4 in February and at Gatwick in May this year.

The most likely risk from the airport scanners is a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma, according to the academic.

The cancer is usually curable and often occurs in the head and neck of people aged between 50 and 70. He points out it would be difficult to hide a weapon on the head or neck so proposes missing out that part of the body from the scanning process.

‘If there are increases in cancers as a result of irradiation of children, they would most likely appear some decades in the future. It would be prudent not to scan the head and neck,’ he added.

He recently aired his concerns to the Congressional Biomedical Caucus in the US – members of Congress who meet to exchange ideas on medical research.

Dr Brenner urged them to look at his concerns but said it was important to balance any health issues against passengers’ safety when flying.

He said: ‘There really is no other technology around where we’re planning to X-ray such an enormous number of individuals. It’s really unprecedented in the radiation world.’

The Civil Aviation Authority, Department for Transport and Health Protection Agency insist that the technology is safe and say their tests show it would take 5,000 trips through the scanner to equal the dose of a single chest X-ray.

They said in the climate of high security, it is essential that security staff use ‘all means possible’ to minimise risks to airline security.

The CAA said: ‘The device has been approved for use within the UK by the Department for Transport and has been subjected to risk assessments from the Health Protection Agency.

‘To put the issue in perspective, the radiation received from the scanning process is the equivalent to two minutes radiation received on a Transatlantic flight.

‘Recent press publications have been a little alarmist and may have heightened concern in frequent travellers who may worry about their repeated exposure.

‘Under current regulations, up to 5,000 scans per person per year can be conducted safely.’

Source | See also under Travel: G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | U.S. airlines, small planes must install GPS | Airport body scanners raise radiation concerns – again | ‘Naked’ scanners may increase cancer risk | Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has passport confiscated in Australia | Transport Canada proposes aviation security revamp | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | Canada offers Michigan $550M loan for NASCO link bridge | Canadian sci-fi writer avoids jail time in Michigan for questioning border cop and being assaulted | Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Montreal flirting with road tolls | GTA road tolls are inevitable, professor says | Toronto mayor David Miller uses subway PA to push for funding | TTC opens door to electronic payment | Roadblocks cleared for Windsor continental supercorridor link | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | US Airline Security Moves to Known Threat Descriptive Profiling | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public lands | Tories revive random roadside breath test | 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Remain vigilant while travelling, Baird tells Canadians | B.C. to get license-plate scanning system | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Mind-reading systems could change air security | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Obama orders ’strengthened’ no-fly list after bomb plot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Running a red light? It’ll cost you big time now | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | For more, visit The Memory Hole – Travel

Carmen Chai, Canwest News
June 30, 2010

A Toronto-based lawyer representing four journalists, who filed complaints with Ontario’s police watchdog and claimed that police physically assaulted and threatened to sexually assault the female reporters during the G20 summit, is calling for a full investigation into the alleged violence.

On Tuesday, Jesse Rosenfeld, Amy Miller, Daniel McIsaac and Lisa Walter each filed complaints about their arrests during the G20 summit with the Office of Independent Police Review Director.

Julian Falconer is representing the “Free Press 4” group.

“From our point of view, if peaceful protesters and journalists engaged in peaceful coverage are treated this way, this is a sad day for democracy. My clients are seeking accountability for what appears to be a serious overreaction by some police officers,” he said in a written statement.

Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash said there were more than 100 cameras documenting everything that happened in the prisoner processing centres and on the streets so “it’s not someone’s word against someone else’s.”

“We have video of everything. We’ll make sure that we provide the best possible evidence to determine the truth or otherwise in these allegations,” he said.

Police “anticipated” people would make complaints.

“We have to consider the possibility that complaints are completely unfounded. There are people who have said things so far that are clearly lies,” Pugash said.

Rosenfeld, a 26-year-old freelancer for the Guardian, a U.K.-based newspaper, was arrested when he was covering a group of demonstrators in front of a downtown Toronto hotel on Saturday night.

He said one officer told his colleague, “that’s the loudmouth kid who was mouthing off to me yesterday” and the officials didn’t bother to confirm his credentials. Instead, Rosenfeld said the officers “jumped” him.

“I was grabbed on each side and hit in the stomach and back and pounced on by officers. I kept asking them why they were beating me because I wasn’t resisting arrest. But they lifted my leg and twisted my ankle.”

Rosenfeld alleged he was also kneed in the ribs.

In Amy Miller’s complaint she said officers threatened to sexually assault her.

“You’re going to be raped. We always like the pretty ones. We’re going to wipe the grin off your face when we gang bang you. We know how the Montreal girls roll,” her complaint read.

Miller is a Montreal-based freelance journalist with The Dominion, a monthly paper published by a network of independent journalists.

Miller said the officers called her accreditation “garbage” and told her to get a “real job.”

OIPRD director Gerry McNeilly said all complaints are screened for “validity” and the investigation is then handed to the police division or to McNeilly’s office.

McNeilly must decide to group the “Free Press 4” complaints or look at them individually.

“I have the ability but I haven’t made the decision. If I say a complaint has no validity, that’s final. There’s no appeal, so I have to look at each case very carefully,” McNeilly said.

“I hoped the G20 had proceeded with minimum interruption and disruption but the complaints are coming in and we’re going to deal with them in a way that’s transparent.”

OIPRD spokesperson Allison Hawkins said the office receives, on average, 80 complaints a week. Between June 20 and June 26, 95 complaints were filed.

The civilian-led organization, which formed last October, investigates public complaints against the province’s police associations.

Source | Alternate Coverage 1 2 | See also under Rights: Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | States Must Honor Gun Rights, U.S. High Court Says | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | 48% See Government Today As A Threat to Individual Rights | Australian Government to Force Use of State Firewall Package, Block ‘Unauthorized’ Programs | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Torontanamo Bay: Life inside the G20 ‘security zone’ | US supreme court: Human rights advice, nonviolent aid to banned groups tantamount to ‘terrorism’ | How will democracy fare under the G20’s new world order? | UK: Birmingham stops Muslim CCTV, license plate surveillance scheme | Supreme Court upholds restrictions on government documents | Iceland Unanimously Approves ‘Wikileaks Bill’ To Establish Free Speech Press Haven | Ontario’s First Nations to be HST exempt | UK doctors agree to waive privacy of mentally ill gun owners | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | Maher Arar loses ‘last hope’ for judicial review of rendition case in U.S. court ruling | Israeli cabinet approves internal inquiry into Gaza flotilla raid | Pentagon hunts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in bid to gag website | London G20: Jury acquits protester accused of being ringleader in clashes | Tribunals can rule on Charter claims: Supreme Court | Liberals aim to put a bullet in bill to scrap gun registry | Canada can’t deny suspected terrorists of rights on basis of UN blacklist, lawsuit claims | Accused in Toronto bomb plot not aware: lawyer | Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | US Federal Trade Commission considers taxing online speech | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | CIA drone killings trouble UN rights expert | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Canada’s inhumane prison plan | 72% of Guantanamo detainees given hearings found to be wrongfully detained | UK Torture claims investigation ordered by Foreign Secretary | Pot activist Marc Emery on his way to US jail | Nicolas Sarkozy’s cabinet approves bill to ban full Islamic veil | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has passport confiscated in Australia | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Storage of newborns’ blood samples raises privacy concerns | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Marc Emery, ‘Prince of Pot’ will be extradited | MPs divided on Canada-Colombia trade agreement | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Media can’t shield sources all the time, court rules | Bill would strip terror suspects of U.S. citizenship | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Treat Khadr as child soldier: UN envoy | UK Government cannot use secret evidence in Guantánamo torture case, court rules | Wildlife documentaries infringe animals’ privacy, says report | Tories reintroduce anti-terror act provisions that cross line, former CSIS chief warns | French government prepares total ban on full Islamic veils | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | Abdelrazik’s bank assets frozen | School laptops took thousands of images of students: Lawyer | Ont. smoking club appeal tossed by top court | Access to information risks being ‘obliterated’: report | Niqab gets 2nd Quebec student expelled | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | Recent mass grave of the ‘disappeared’ uncovered in Columbia | UK: Pupils forced to submit to fingerprint scans for lunch, parents not consulted | Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content | CETA worse than ACTA – EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws | UK: Met Police launch net café spy operation | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Google reroutes uncensored search to Hong Kong, raises stakes in row with China | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | Net produces new generation of human rights activists in China | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Ontario street racing rules upheld | Copyright conviction raises privacy concerns | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | NDP tables torture-prevention bill | Government Internet Censorship Begins In Stealth In New Zealand | ‘Security Certificate’ victim Charkaoui to sue Ottawa for $24 million | Canada ‘regrets’ Israeli settlements | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | An American Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully | Military trials possible for Sept. 11 terror suspects | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Rights & Democracy dissidents fired | Ontario closer to handing over Ipperwash park to Chippewas | Obama gives Patriot Act another year with no privacy protections | UK: Government fury as judges attack MI5, security services | CNN Poll: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights | CSIS Agents likely contributed to Toronto man’s torture: Inquiry | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | More Details Emerging About School Laptop Spying, And It Doesn’t Look Good | School Spycams Case Explodes As Feds Initiate Probe | Poland releases details on CIA ‘black sites’ | Inuit group blasts Cannon over summit | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | For many aboriginals, the truth of residential schools is irreconcilable: commissioner | Former terror suspect Hassan Almrei wants apology | Ivory Coast protesters killed | Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit | Google Books Fosters Intellectual, Legal Crossroads | Khadr’s lawyers dispute government decision | Ottawa reluctantly asks U.S. for assurances Khadr trial will not use evidence CSIS obtained in violation of rights | Google Bans Sale of DVD Critical Of Obama Administration | Bruce Anderson: We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty | Feds push for tracking cell phones | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | The government has your baby’s DNA | Men at Work plagiarized Kookaburra tune, Australian court rules | Hollywood loses landmark copyright case in Australia | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | Crotch bomber bill before Congress: Treat all ‘terrorism suspects’ as enemy combatants. Domestically. | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Pie tossing is terrorism, MP says. Seriously. | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Court approves raw milk co-op | Raw milk farmer vows to fight on | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | China tells web companies to obey controls | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘Unclear’ Whether US Air Security Profiling Violates Canadian Charter: Baird | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | For more see The Memory Hole – Rights

Jill Treanor, Nick Fletcher, The Guardian
June 29, 2010

Value of top 100 UK firms fell by £100bn in six days, US consumer confidence lowest for seven months

Fears that government austerity packages will hinder global growth have combined with fresh anxiety about the health of European banks to hammer investor confidence.

Shares on both sides of the Atlantic dropped heavily amid warnings that markets were on a “cliff edge”.

In jittery trading ahead of a crucial repayment by Europe’s banks of a €442bn (£362bn) European Central Bank loan on Thursday the rates at which banks lend to each other in euros rose to their highest levels in eight months as rumours swirled that some banks were finding it difficult to raise funds in the money markets.

The FTSE 100 has now fallen 14% since its April peak after losing 157.46 points to close at 4914.22, a 3% decline on the day and its lowest level since September last year. French and German markets lost about 3%. Wall Street was down 235 points by the time London closed, about 100 points below the 10,000 level.

Analysts will be looking tomorrow for an indication of whether banks are becoming less reliant on their taxpayer lifeline when the ECB offers a way to refinance the €442bn one-year loan hours before the repayment is due.

If banks ask for more than €300bn to repay their existing loans with the more expensive three-month money being provided by the ECB, then concerns about the health of the banking system will escalate, analysts said.

Spanish finance minister Elena Salgado added to anxiety about the loan repayment by urging the central bank to heed the problems facing some Spanish banks. “The ECB says it doesn’t like governments to tell it what to do. I simply say I hope that on this occasion, as in others, the ECB will be aware of the needs of the Spanish financial system,” she told Spanish radio.

The publication of European-wide stress tests on major banks in a fortnight was also adding to the nerves while a bigger than expected fall in consumer confidence in the US prompted a debate about whether economies were heading for a double-dip recession. Oil prices fell 3% and the Baltic dry freight index, which measures demand, fell to its lowest level for nine months.

Robert Talbut, chief investment officer at Royal London Asset Management, said: “The European banks’ funding issue is a real issue and it is coming to a head in part because the ECB is trying to withdraw some longer term facilities. A number of European banks, it is rumoured, are struggling to get funding in the wholesale markets and that is evoking memories of the dog days of 2008/9. Simultaneously it’s unhelpful that [the economic] data is sending more mixed messages leading to more questions on the durability of the recovery”.

Today’s fall means that in the past six trading days the FTSE 100 has lost about 380 points, wiping almost £100bn off the value of Britain’s top companies.

Worries that European austerity measures would hamper recovery were augmented by signs that the Chinese economy – which economists hoped would take up some of the slack – was also cooling off while the fall in the widely followed confidence index in the US, to its worst level for seven months, comes ahead of important non-farm payroll figures on Friday – a gauge of the strength of the US jobs market. Investors were seeking safety as rates fell in the US bond market. The yield on the 10-year note dropped to 2.97%, the first time it has fallen below 3% since April 2009.

Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland were urging clients to position themselves for a economic downturn. “We strongly believe that a cliff-edge may be around the corner, for the global banking system, particularly in Europe, and for the global economy, particularly in the US and Europe” said Andrew Roberts, head of European rates strategy at RBS.

Nick Parsons, head of UK and European research at National Australia Bank, said the scene was being set for a “bout of great nervousness”. “It is inconceivable that tests on 100 banks can be published with the conclusion that all one hundred are fundamentally robust unless the assumptions behind the tests are relaxed to the point of nonsensical,” Parsons said.

Amid the market anxiety, the UK pulled off its largest ever offering of government debt through a syndicate prompting Robert Stheeman, chief executive of the Debt Management Office, to insist there the market for gilts remained attractive.

Source | See also under Economics: Dollar should be replaced as international standard, UN report says | Krugman: The Third Depression is Coming | RBS tells clients to prepare for ‘monster’ money-printing by the Federal Reserve | Global governance fail: National sovereignty stands tall at the G20 | G20 banking reform agreed upon, to be finalized in Seoul | As world walks economic ‘tightrope,’ Toronto G20 agrees to voluntary deficit reduction, delayed bank regulation | Obama calls for bank tax as next step in Wall Street reform | IMF report advises G20 to make spending cuts top priority | The scary euro? Maybe the most frightening monster is the greenback | G8 Summit: Leaders divided over tackling national deficits | Greece starts putting island land up for sale to save economy | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Europe debt crisis shows rifts in G20 | Expectations muted for economic, financial-reform breakthroughs at G20 | Israel Vows To Tighten Gaza Blockade – Media Reports Blockade Eased | The End of The Great Bailouts is Approaching | Greek anti-austerity strikes hit tourists | Germany could cause euro collapse: Soros | Peak oil postponed again? | G20 Bank tax push gains momentum as UK, France, Germany introduce national legislation | The Real Meaning of ‘Economic Austerity’: IMF/World Bank devastation | Gold reclaims its currency status as the global system unravels | EU wants control over member budgets | For G20 leaders, fiscal austerity is the new normal | China moves to allow yuan appreciation | Spain could test the euro to its limit | Gold tops $1260 for new historic high | Russia Will Lead Effort to Found `New World Economic Order,’ Medvedev Says | IMF says Spain taking right steps towards stability | Harper urges austerity, Obama stimulus in urge for G20 to boost economic recovery | Iran Threatens to Stop Western Ships if Subjected to Cargo Inspection | UK may try to stop Iceland joining EU over bank collapse refund | EU to push for global bank tax at G20 | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Fake Lakes not Required, But $50 Million of G8 ‘Legacy’ Spending Pours into Clement’s Riding | Carney warns of ‘age of austerity’, global outlook ‘getting worse’ | More Than 90 US Banks Miss TARP Payments | France surrenders to Germany’s demand for Euro oversight by central bank | Spanish bailout readied as EU chief warns ‘democracy could disappear’ in debt ridden states | Surprise! That Story About Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion In Commodities Came Out Just Ahead Of Major Mining Auction | Government frustrated by lack of interest in ongoing EU free trade negotiations | US Knowledge of Aghan Mineral Bonanza Confirmed in 2002, 2007 | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | Lithium, gold, iron, copper: Massive mineral discovery in Afghanistan could alter the war | Europe embraces the cult of austerity – but at what cost? | First Nations: The Ontario no G20 or G8 leader will see | Japan warns of Greece-like debt crisis | Soros Sees ‘Act II’ of Financial Crisis, Blames ‘Market Fundamentalism’ Again | Tucker Bilderberg 2010 Wrapup: Attack on Iran discussed, World Treasury Dept delayed | UN Security Council imposes fourth round of sanctions on Iran | Liberals admit HST will cost families up to $480 a year | G20 agenda named as “global government” by thinktank, Toronto summit set to sit on hands | Double-dip recession ‘practically inevitable’: UBS | European markets decline for 3rd day | Why Governments Hate Gold | Gold price hits new record as it breaks through $1,250 | Goldman Sachs subpoenaed for failing to cooperate with finance probe | Egypt says Gaza blockade has failed, border crossing opened in wake of aid flotilla assault to stay | Bilderberg Agenda Revealed: Globalists In Crisis, Supportive Of Attack On Iran | Banks Seized by Regulators in Nebraska, Mississippi, Illinois | Bilderberg 2010: Why the protesters are your very best friends | G20 to delay tough bank tax regulations | Geithner speaketh on the globalization of risk as G20 meets in Seoul | Eurozone plan for common bond issue to head off debt crisis |Eurozone plan for common bond issue to head off debt crisis | Underground economy emerges in Ontario in response to HST | Markets finish week with big losses on US employment, Hungarian default fears | Can-EU trade talks look good but face 3 potential sticking points: Spanish envoy | Will Supercorp get off the ground in Ontario? | PM takes pre-summit pitch to Europe | Iran To Dump 45 Billion Euros For Gold Bullion & Dollars | EU plans to create watchdog to curb credit rating agencies | Into the Abyss: The Cycle of Debt Deflation | Global arms spending tops $1.6T | Canada’s economy grows faster than expected | EU trade pact may imperil local control over water | Canadian debt: The $1.4 trillion hole we’re in | Budget watchdog probing G8/G20 summits’ $1-billion price tag | G20 now singing different regulatory tunes | US money supply plunges at 1930s pace as Obama eyes fresh stimulus | Lehman launches court battle against JPMorgan | Global markets rebound as OECD talks up European prospects | UK Coalition ministers and bankers to oppose pan-European bailout fund | New securities watchdog plan allows provinces to opt out | Gold being bought faster than it can be produced | TSX claws back from deep loss, Spain begins bailouts | Obama celebrates banking bill’s passage in Senate | Markets, dollar plunge on EU debt fears | Toronto banks review G20 security after Ottawa RBC fire | Germany’s Merkel Says Euro Is in Danger | Congress blocks indiscriminate IMF aid for Europe | Germany bans naked short-selling | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | European debt fears batter TSX | Greece links U.S. banks to debt crisis | Agriculture Canada Report: Farming income gets hammered in 2010 | European Council On Foreign Relations: EU Needs To Use Crisis For Greater Power | Sarkozy threatened to quit euro in showdown with Germany: Report | Hedge funds vote threatens EU-US rift | Global markets slide on debt fears | Loonie, TSX slip on euro woes | European Powerbrokers Present Proposal For New Economic And Political Order | Multiple Wall Street banks investigated over links to ratings agencies | Manitoba looks at debit cards for welfare recipients | Power Financial wary of Toronto-based securities regulation push | British face big spending cuts as coalition shows unity on austerity | Europe and America Morally and Financially Bankrupt | Paul bill to audit Federal Reserve passes as one-shot deal | SEC widens probe of Wall Street to include Morgan Stanley | UK Unemployment up to highest level in 15 years | EU wants member countries to co-ordinate budgets | Bid To ‘Storm’ Irish Parliament During Bailout Protest Foiled | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Gold vaults nearly 3% to record high $1234, BMO sees $1600 horizon | EU deal euphoria fizzles out | Ron Paul: Euro Bailout Will Lead To Currency Collapse | ‘Shock and awe’ euro rescue lifts global markets | Lewenza: Canada-EU deal will affect more than trade | Industry Minister Clement invites input on Canadian digital economy | Western Central Banks back Trillion Dollar European rescue plan, ECB to manage markets | MPs divided on Canada-Colombia trade agreement | Euro zone to regulate hedge funds, vows to fend off ‘wolf pack’ traders at all costs | Free trade with Europe? | Euro crisis goes global as leaders fail to stop the rot | Debt crisis: Panic on Wall Street, stonewalling in Europe | Audit The Fed Push Strengthened By Second Front In Senate | Gold nears record high as stocks plunge | Canada, EU at loggerheads over bank tax | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | Goldman Sachs concedes case for restraining the big banks | Shaw buying up CanWest TV assets from Goldman-Sachs | Greece swallows tough medicine in $150B bailout, more spending cuts announced | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | Greece’s