statism watch

Would it not be a little redundant to point out that disturbing aspects of having police sitting there watching people on the TTC? What next, sub machine guns? They already have those in New York, and have for over a year as of this writing.  But of course, this will begin in marginalized communities first, so those who live downtown TO will be able to safely deny and rationalize. For now.

Flashback: USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TTC officers won’t carry Tasers, guns | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | TTC studies using Tasers | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Privacy issues surround planned TTC cameras | Photo surveillance on Toronto Transit System aims to snap every user

Natalie Alcoba, The National Post
March 4, 2010

If Toronto’s operating budget is approved, you’ll be seeing more police roaming buses and subways. Toronto police say there is a plan to replace a significant portion of the TTC’s security complement with 42 officers. There are already 40 police officers on transit. The information is detailed in a report that is before the Police Services Board next week, as it continues to fight for more funding from the city.

Toronto Police Service has a uniform strength of 5500 officers. Its 2010 net operating budget is $37-million more than last year – and brass say that’s largely due to an arbitrated salary settlement that they cannot control. City staff are asking police to cut $5.9-million off their $892-million net operating budget.

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And that sweet City with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening. – Matthew Arnold, ‘Thyrsis’

Flashback: G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Jennifer Yang, Toronto Star
February 28, 2010

In four months, Steve Bovair’s downtown neighbourhood will be transformed from cosmopolitan high life to a barricaded no-man’s land.

On a normal day, the network engineer can look outside his 17th-floor window to find a typical urban scene. Cars drift through his intersection at Lower Simcoe St. and Bremner Blvd. Customers dash into take-out restaurants and convenience stores at the base of his building. Construction workers pound away at the beginnings of a new condo tower across the road.

But on June 26, the scene outside his window will resemble an urban combat zone: razor-wire fences lining the streets, helicopters clattering overhead and — potentially, at least — throngs of screaming protestors confronting police officers in riot gear. Bovair lives kitty-corner from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, picked as the site for the upcoming G20 summit, and for two days in June, a swirling mob of foreign delegates, journalists, security personnel and — potentially, at least — stick-wielding protestors will take over downtown Toronto, literally landing on his doorstep.

Needless to say, Bovair won’t be sticking around.

“We’ve actually made the decision to go away that weekend,” said Bovair, who plans to escape with his wife to their summer home near Collingwood. “The easiest thing is to go away … and then come back when all the commotion’s over.”

Protests and fears of terrorism have become part and parcel of high-profile international meetings like the G20 summit, and Ottawa is funding an RCMP-led task force called the Integrated Security Unit to oversee security for the G20 and the G8 summit, which will take place in Huntsville. Collectively, the two meetings have been pegged the biggest security event to occur on Canadian soil.

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Mayor Miller seems to think that hosting “the world” means hosting heads of state and bankers. Perhaps what he meant to say was, think of the opportunity when we host the world government. He seems to believe that the event in Pittsburgh was “terrific”. Does that mean the G20 will be equally terrific in this city? With wonderful teargas, awesome military sonic cannons, loving black-clad stormtroopers, and beatings for the children?

Flashback: Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Natalie Alcoba, National Post
February 22, 2010

The G8 and G20 summits this summer will be the largest security event in Canadian history, officials said today.

The federal government announced last week it would host the G20 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre June 26-27, despite the city’s expressed wishes that it be at Exhibition Place. It will be preceded by the G8 in Huntsville, Ont.

In the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, a three-metre concrete and wire fence encased a security zone around the meeting site, which included parliamentary and residential buildings. A blueprint of Toronto’s security perimeter has not been divulged, but there is already a glimpse of the force being amassed to protect those coming to and living in Toronto: the federal government’s “Integrated Security Unit” will include Toronto police, RCMP, the OPP, the Canadian Forces and Peel Region Police.

“Collaborative efforts required across law enforcement and security professionals to safely carry out these summits will result in the largest security event in Canadian history,” said a report presented to city council yesterday.

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Flashback: Convention centre confirmed as location for Toronto G20 summit | G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Timothy Appleby, Anna Mehler Paperny, The Globe and Mail
February 19, 2010

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt confirms Metro Toronto Convention Centre as venue for summit

Pittsburgh G20 stormtroopers. A scene to be repeated on the streets of Toronto?

The federal taxpayer will pick up the full tab for guarding the June G20 economic summit in Toronto, it was announced Friday, although what that cost might be was left unspecified.

Security at the two-day conference will be the joint responsibility of the RCMP and Toronto police.

The huge event will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on the edge of the financial district in the downtown core, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said, confirming numerous reports.

RCMP Chief Superintendent Alphonse MacNeil said the broad security plan involves a system of concentric circles, and that those who live and work inside the perimeter will be required to show identification.

“As you approach the MTCC you will come to different levels of security,” he said.

“It’s our hope and our plan to keep the city functioning as per normal as much as possible, right up to the actual event.”

The summit logo was also unveiled Friday, clearly inspired by the design of the CN Tower.

Ms. Raitt said Ottawa picked the MTCC as the venue – over some vociferous objections – because of its technological infrastructure and its past history in hosting big international events.

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For useful background on the G20, see the Munk Centre’s G20 Information site, a repository of their official communications and some largely uncritical scholarship. See also the G20’s website and the Toronto G20’s official site. Perhaps the evident slap in the face this represents to Toronto, its gay community, and the downtown core in general will bring out a few different messages in protest of the summit other than the largely exhausted messages the left and the faux-anarchist ‘Black Bloc’ is capable of providing. If it’s an ideological fight Harper wants, then Toronto’s diverse communities, spoken of so glowingly on G20 communications, will certainly be able to provide it. Perhaps it will even spark off the creation of Canada’s own, hopefully better thought out answer to the populist sentiments expressed by America’s tea parties. Let’s hear from gender activists, libertarians, real free-market advocates, economic justice groups and anti-globalists concerned by the global economic centralization of power and the corrupt ‘new world order‘ its adherents – like Mark Carney – are so fond of calling for. Feel free to discuss and organize around this issue in the StatismWatch forum group here, Organizing and Direct Action, or over at G20Central.com

Flashback: G20 security could strangle downtown | G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

The Canadian Press
February 19, 2010

Despite concerns over traffic and street closures, downtown Toronto will play host to the world’s most powerful leaders on what’s shaping up to be one of the city’s busiest summer weekends.

The G20 will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, on the edge of the financial district, June 26-27, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said Friday.

“Toronto is a world-class city and is ideally suited to host this summit which will also raise the profile of the city, the province and of the country,” she said before unveiling the summit logo.

Arguably the event’s worst kept secret, the convention centre location was confirmed last week in a report by The Canadian Press.

The issue has raised the ire of city officials who’ve been pushing federal politicians to hold the huge summit at Exhibition Place. A few kilometres outside the downtown core, officials have said it would mean fewer disruptions for business and traffic.

The meeting of the world’s wealthiest nations will take place just as Toronto’s Pride week kicks off. The signature parade event was already pushed back a week to accommodate the summit.

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Flashback: G20’s Metro Convention Centre location to bump baseball, pride activities | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

Denise Balkissoon, Toronto Star
February 12, 2010

Police must protect politicians while limiting interruption of normal life

Ignoring city hall’s recommendations, the federal government has decided to hold the June G20 summit downtown, rather than at Exhibition Place.

“We’ve all been told it will be at the [Metro Toronto] Convention Centre,” said Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, although Ottawa has yet to announce officially the site of the June 26-27 meeting of national leaders.

G20 summits involve thousands of police and endless kilometres of security fencing. The relative isolation of the Ex would have made that operation almost painless, say Toronto politicians.

The convention centre, on the other hand, is within walking distance of Union Station, the financial district, the PATH underground routes and Rogers Centre.

Councillor Adam Vaughan said security will be much more severe than for the G7 summit held here in 1988, which he says caused King St. businesses to “lose a lot of money.”

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How, precisely, will a new global tax be instituted and handed over to the IMF and World Bank? Stay tuned, Toronto, because it may be this city that births the staggering, bloated additional layer of global ‘governance’ that is so desired by the international financial system. Create a crisis, and offer a predetermined solution. Works every time.

Flashback: G7 brings competing visions to the Arctic | Global Bank Insurance Levy Wins Support over Transaction Tax at Davos | Harper urges G20 to follow economic accords | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Flaherty to use February G7 in Iqaluit (or Ottawa?) to push for global changes to financial system | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | Explosive Leaked Emails Expose Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Deception in ‘Backdoor Bailout’ | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | EU calls for tax on bank transactions | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | UK: Brown takes campaign for Tobin tax to Commonwealth | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | G20 protesters blasted by sonic cannon | American Citizens Attacked With Military Sound Cannons & Tear Gas At G20 | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession

The Canadian Press
February 10, 2010

OTTAWA — The federal government will hold June’s G20 summit on the edge of Toronto’s financial district, a decision that will close a large swath of downtown — and sideline baseball fans — as the city kicks off gay pride week.

An official announcement is not expected for a few weeks, but sources tell The Canadian Press that the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, next to the CN Tower, has been selected over locations outside downtown.

Canada has already hosted a G8 summit and other international meetings in the building. Plus, it gives the government a chance to put the spotlight on its stable financial district — safe and quiet within a security perimeter — at a time when G20 leaders are looking for role models.

“The whole point is to showcase Canada as an attractive place to do business and the way we regulate our banking sector,” said Andrew MacDougall, a spokesman for the prime minister.

“We have a good story and we want it told well,” he said, without confirming the location.

The June 26-27 summit is expected to involve tens of thousands of people from delegations all over the world, along with media, support staff and hospitality crews. It’s also sure to attract thousands of protesters, as well as non-governmental organizations and trade unions hoping to make their points known to world leaders.

The G20 groups the world’s richest countries as well as important emerging markets and has become the primary decision-making body for global economic affairs. It also includes the European Union, as well as representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In the past, its meetings have invited other key leaders and organizations.

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Flashback: Hands off: Cellphone driving ban approved | Ban-happy Ontario accused of ‘Big Brotherism’ | Ontario limits car phone use | Turning Toronto into a nanny state | McGuinty considers banning use of cellphones while driving

CBC News
January 31, 2010

A three-month grace period for Ontario drivers violating the province’s new law against driving while using a cellphone is ending, meaning offending motorists are now subject to fines of up to $500.

Bill 118, commonly known as the distracted-driving law, came into effect on Oct. 26.

The provincial government asked enforcement officials to hold off fining drivers for three months as they adjusted to the new rules. Instead, police issued hundreds of warnings across the province during what they called an “educational period.”

But starting Monday, authorities will start handing out fines — ranging from a minimum of $155 to a maximum of $500 — to drivers who talk on their handheld cellphones. The ban also covers texting or emailing while behind the wheel, or using portable video games or DVD players.

Talking on a hands-free device is permitted.

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Governments always disarm their citizenry in times like these. It makes them more compliant. Logically, any country whose citizens are stripped of the right to defend themselves against tyranny has made many steps down the road to serfdom. Let’s hope that is not the case in Toronto. But, increasingly, we are seeing knock and enter programs disrupting the lives of citizens in this city. The most recent was when police cajoled their way into over 200 Toronto homes to search for evidence in the case of a missing girl. It’s for the children, really. Joe Fiorito is right to report on his experience. His journalistic integrity is an example for the rest of the papers in the city, and the nation.

Flashback: 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

Joe Fiorito, The Toronto Star
January 29, 2010

A pounding at the door the other morning; my windows rattled. I was upstairs at work. I don’t always leave my desk to hear the good news about Jehovah.

The pounder was insistent. I went down, if only for the sake of the windows.

Oh, jeeze, the cops.

Officers Firth and Kozar in attendance. “What’s up, boys?” My preference was to talk to them through the plate glass door. They wanted to come inside.

Not a chance.

I stepped onto the porch. Who wants two armed strangers in his house, and anyway it was a nice morning.

Officer K. said, “Are you aware of Project Safe City?” I hate it when a guy answers a question with a question.

“Why do you want to know?”

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Fantino cited the need for Toronto Police Services to be ready for a potential ‘terrorist attack’ as reason to call off the Special Task Force investigation of these officers. See how that works? The lot of them should be fired and an inquiry should be set up to investigate organized crime ties in the service.

Flashback: Drug cop corruption case revived | Crown complained of lack of Toronto police support in drug squad case | CBC releases Toronto drug squad probe report

CBC News
December 11, 2009

A CBC News/Toronto Star investigation unearths previous allegations

In the late 1990s, nine separate drug dealers accused members of Team 2, led by Det. Danny Ross, left, and Const. Mike Abbott, of stealing more than $600,000 in cash from them. (CBC)

“A few bad apples.”

That’s how former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino described the force’s problems when six former officers were charged with conspiring to beat and rob drug dealers of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The officers, all members of Team 3 of the Toronto Police Service’s Central Field Command drug squad, are still awaiting trial after almost six years.

“I am deeply saddened and disappointed,” Fantino told a news conference in January 2004, commenting about the charges against the six. “I can, however, tell you that the allegations are isolated and confined.”

His comments came at the conclusion of an internal probe headed by RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily into the allegations or wrongdoing, which led to 40 criminal charges against the officers.

But police documents that surfaced for the first time this week in a Toronto lawsuit show anti-corruption investigators repeatedly briefed Fantino about similar allegations against other drug officers.

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