statism watch

by Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader
May 20, 2011

It was surprising that bilateral relations with the U.S. did not play a more prominent role during the recent Canadian election considering that both countries are pursuing a trade and security agreement. In fact, the issue did not really surface until the dying days of the campaign. After winning a much coveted majority government, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are moving ahead quickly with perimeter security and regulatory harmonization negotiations. NAFTA and the defunct Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) both addressed issues such as regulatory cooperation. The push for a single unified North American business-friendly regulatory regime continues on different fronts.

In the final week of the Canadian election campaign, consumer advocate and four-time candidate for President of the United States, Ralph Nader warned about Canada-U.S. deep integration. In an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he raised concerns over the lack of transparency regarding talks between the two countries on a trade and border security deal. Nader cautioned that a, “North American Security Perimeter Agreement will wrap many Canadian concerns – your Arctic, water, energy, anti-monopoly and foreign investment reviews – in a bi-national security blanket.” He added, “The corporatist lobbies and what President Eisenhower warned Americans about in his farewell address 50 years ago – ‘the military-industrial complex’ – will favour this lucrative and anti-democratic initiative.” Nader also explained in his letter to Harper, that, “Canada’s prudent bank regulation prevented a Wall Street style collapse of your economy.” North American deep integration is a corporate led agenda designed to foster privatization and deregulation.

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Police states don’t appear full blown, over night.  They are, like any other social phenomenon, part of social and political process — the end result of long term corruption of the political culture and the incremental diminishing of democracy. – Murray Dobbin

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.

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“You can’t pre-emptively violate rights and then ask citizens to sort it out in the future,” White said.

Exactly.

Related: 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

The Canadian Press
July 5, 2010

The mass detention of people and widespread use of police force over the G20 summit weekend was a gross abuse of state power that demands an independent inquiry and the immediate release of “political prisoners,” a civil-rights coalition said Monday.

In addition, they said, those responsible for “one of the most grotesque public expressions of police brutality, intimidation and mass violation of civil liberties” need to be held to account.

Mark Calzavara, of the Council of Canadians, said police detained more than 1,000 people after some protesters broke windows and burned a few police cruisers.

“When the police are the ones that are breaking the law, that’s when all of society has to really start to pay attention,” Calzavara said.

“That is a far greater crime.”

While the vast majority of those detained were released without charge within 24 hours, about 250 people still face charges and more than a dozen remained in custody Monday, according to the Movement Defence Committee.

The groups called for the release of those still incarcerated, saying the mass arrests amounted to criminalizing dissent.

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Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. – Howard Zinn

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.

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Please consider supporting the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. They have a breakdown of the charges laid (or lack thereof) against the 1,105 people arrested here.

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.

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A disarmed people are vulnerable, and at risk of enslavement to the expansion of authoritarian governments both domestic and foreign. Dictatorships thoughout history have employed gun control to devastating effect. This is the fundamental reason for the 2nd Amendment to the American constitution. This is a principle urban Canadians, who have been trained in a couple of short generations to quake in fear at the thought of a gun, have lost sight of. Kids in the US used to take their guns to school and stick them in their lockers. It was no big deal, the culture was accustomed to handling firearms responsibly. This, then, is the point that some ‘tea party’ types exercising their right to open carry at demonstrations are making. It is not a threat to shoot Barack Obama, as some moronic media commenters have inferred, voices quavering at the thought of the evil guns.

The stakes are very high when it comes to whether the citizens of any country are permitted their right to a means of self-defence, which is why there is so much obfuscation and spin around the issue. Which is why legitimate gun owners are demonized and police forces are directed to engage in tactics like knock and talk, seizures for minor violations of arbitrary registration laws, and bribery (cameras for guns) programs to encourage disarmament. This ruling by the US Supreme Court is a victory for liberty, but it is not an absolute victory, given that the absolute right of any citizen to act in their defence is now subject by this decision to any limitation local governments may dream up. It could be argued that this is a Pyhrric victory – it simultaneously affirms the intention of the constitutional framers on the one hand, while simultaneously restricting the right they held to be such an important check on the power of central governments with the other.

Related: UK doctors agree to waive privacy of mentally ill gun owners | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | Liberals aim to put a bullet in bill to scrap gun registry | Bilderberg Wants Americans Disarmed And Dependent On Government | Anti-gun registry bill hits snag as committee votes not to proceed | Police groups join forces in support of long gun registry | Gun activists rally in U.S. capital | George Jonas: Mr. Bumble’s gun registry | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Parliament votes ‘in principle’ to scrap gun registry, bill moves to second reading | Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Bloomberg News
June 28, 2010

A divided U.S. Supreme Court said the constitutional right to bear arms binds states and cities, as well as the federal government, in a decision that raises questions about gun laws around the country.

The ruling, while not creating an unlimited right for individuals to carry weapons, restricts the power of cities and states to regulate firearms. A 5-4 majority said Chicago went too far by banning handguns even for self-defense in the home. The Chicago ordinance is now unenforceable, its mayor said, though the law stays in effect pending lower court proceedings.

The ruling said states and cities can ban possession by convicted felons and mentally ill people and enforce laws against bringing guns into schools or government buildings.

Chicago is the only major city with a blanket handgun ban, after a 2008 Supreme Court decision struck down a similar ban in Washington, D.C., a federal enclave. Jurisdictions with narrower weapons restrictions, including New York City, may now face new legal challenges.

The right to bear arms “is fully binding on the states and thus limits (but by no means eliminates) their ability to devise solutions to social problems that suit local needs and values,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court.

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Related: 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 | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | UK: Big fall in police use of stop-and search powers after outcry | Toronto TAVIS special police corps demanding ID on city streets | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Noor Javed, John Goddard, The Toronto Star
June 25, 2010

Lawyers say law’s creation is reminiscent of a ‘police state’

The first protestor arrested under the “secret law” that gives police the right to apprehend anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify himself has announced he’s launching a Charter challenge to the law.

“I take my civil rights seriously,” Dave Vasey, 31, said at a news conference at Allan Gardens Friday night. “I’ll be filing a lawsuit to challenge constitutionality of this dangerous police state law.” He said he planned to do so Monday.

Vasey was arrested Thursday afternoon while exploring the G20 perimeter with his friend and was questioned by an officer at York St. and Bremner Blvd.

When he refused to identify himself, he was held under the Public Works Protection Act, taken to the Eastern Ave. detention centre, a former movie studio serving temporarily as a prisoner holding pen, and charged with refusing to comply with a peace officer under the act. He is to appear July 28 to face the charge.

“I believed at all times I was acting legally,” Vasey said, adding he was unaware of the new law passed without publicity by provincial cabinet June 2.

Anyone convicted under the regulation could face up to two months in jail or a fine of $500.

“Our argument is that this regulation contravenes the charter of rights,” his lawyer, Howard Morton, said earlier in the day. “The charter under section guarantees people freedom of assembly, the freedom of communication, and this clearly violates that.”

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Related: Experts Draft Document Critical Of ACTA: Signatures Wanted | Pro-copyright bill group busted as recording industry astroturf campaign | Tories unveil tougher copyright bill, requires ISPs to keep user info | Copyright Act changes to be revealed today | India Gearing Up To Fight ACTA; Seeking Other, Like-Minded, Countries | Google attorney slams ACTA copyright treaty | Red Alert: New Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks | Official ACTA Draft Released, Only Very Slightly Less Awful Than Expected | The Economist On Why Copyright Needs To Return To Its Roots | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | Entire Text of ACTA Treaty Leaks to Online Rights Website | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU — Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | ACTA Threatens Made-in-Canada Copyright Policy | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

La Quadrature du Net
June 25, 2010

A document leaked from the Presidency of the EU reveals that Member States are pushing for new criminal sanctions into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a few days ahead of the next negotiation round. The proposal stated in this document reveals how illegitimate and dangerous the whole ACTA process is, while exposing the scary position of the EU calling for more repression of non-for-profit usages… and their incitation.

The ninth round of negotiations1 of ACTA will begin in a few days in Luzern, Switzerland. A new leaked text, dated April 7th, proves that Member States, through the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, are negotiating the toughest parts of ACTA. The fact that the Presidency is negotiating along with the Commission 2 by itself shows that ACTA goes way beyond the scope of a regular trade agreement. Criminal sanctions (jail sentences!) being negotiated and not debated by elected representatives in democratic arenas, is more than shocking. Such a blatant denial of democracy justifies by itself a rejection of the whole ACTA process, whatever the agreed text might be.

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Arbitrary detention – a well-known tool of police states. And it’s not an isolated case; the incidence of these breaches have been skyrocketing in the West’s allegedly civil societies. Police are being globalized, and civil rights cannot survive in an environment where they’re simply removed by administrative whim. As of now, your legal charter Section 8 protection against unreasonable search and seizure is null and void. Gone. It’s absolute, or it’s not a right.

Update (2010/06/29): It gets worse. No such law ever existed. The chief of police lied to the people of Toronto. They never even had the molecule-thin legal justification they claimed for the hundreds of stop and search incidents that took place. Completely illegal. As one message on Twitter puts it, “…the class action suit is going to be huge”. Don’t forget to include the TAVIS detentions in the north end as well, people.

Related: 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 | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | UK: Big fall in police use of stop-and search powers after outcry | Toronto TAVIS special police corps demanding ID on city streets | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Jennifer Yang, Toronto Star
June 25, 2010

The province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search.

A 31-year-old man has already been arrested under the new regulation, which was quietly passed by the provincial cabinet on June 2.

The regulation was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who wanted additional policing powers shortly after learning the G20 was coming to Toronto.

The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 – one week after the regulation expires.

“It’s just unbelievable you would have this kind of abuse of power where the cabinet can create this offence without having it debated in the Legislature,” said Howard Morton, the lawyer representing Dave Vasey, who was arrested Thursday under the sweeping new police powers.

“It was just done surreptitiously, like a mushroom growing under a rock at night.”

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Note: This article was originally posted June 26, but mainstream media accounts (see ‘Alternate Coverage’ in the footer, below) were released June 25. In the interest of getting the extra detail it provides into the unfolding narrative, it’s been backdated to the 25th as well.

Related: Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | Vancouver police get military sound cannon just in time for Olympics | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | Sonic weapons used in Iraq positioned at congressional townhall meetings in San Diego county | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Martin Lukacs, Toronto Media Coop
June 25, 2010

New weapon to make debut in Canada, with some constraints

They’ve been used to incapacitate Somali pirates on the high seas, cleanse areas of civilians and insurgents in occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, and fend off anti-whaling environmentalists. Now, sonic cannons will be coming to Canada, after a provincial judge green-lighted their use for the G20′s weekend summit in Toronto.

Their introduction into the Ontario and Toronto police’s arsenal will raise fears about the potential normalization of a weapon intended to deter and limit public protest.

On friday morning Ontario Superior Court Justice David Brown ruled Toronto Police could use the sound cannon or long range acoustic device (LRAD) so long as they conform to the protocol of the Ontario provincial police, meaning they will have to use the sound cannons from a distance of 75 instead of 22 metres, and use the ear-piercing “alert” function for two to four second bursts every 30 seconds.
The cannons have two distinct functions: a “communications” setting that blasts loud, pre-recorded messages telling crowds to disperse, and an “alert” function that directs a high-pitched piercing sound at a target.

Mainstream media, including the Globe & Mail, have inaccurately reported that the judge has prohibited the use of the “alert” function.
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