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10 yrs after the #Toronto G20, a mass arrest class action just settled. $16.5 million in financial compensation, expungement of arrest records & "a public police acknowledgement regarding the mass arrests & the conditions in which protesters were detained" https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/settlement-reached-in-2010-g20-summit-class-action-between-toronto-police-and-1-100-mass-arrested-demonstrators-813187810.html
Great news, obvs, but I'm especially interested in the content of the "police commitment to detailed changes regarding policing of future public demonstrations" https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/08/17/2010-g20-settlement-mass-arrests/
Details about the settlement and next steps (it needs to be approved by the court; hearing in October) here: https://www.g-20classactionsettlement.ca/ #TorontoG20 #lawandprotest
Reading through the proposed settlement now & the section on "future policing" of protests raises a lot of key issues, but doesn't outright commit to eliminating any police practices. (This is in Schedule A of the settlement agreement, available here: https://www.g-20classactionsettlement.ca/en/documents )
E.g. the police say that 'containment' (aka kettling) will be "avoided unless it is necessary to prevent a substantial & imminent risk of harm to a person, all other less intrusive reasonable alternatives have been considered, & it is proportionate to the anticipated harm"
And if kettling is used, there should be warnings, opportunity to disperse, and an exit available, but only "where possible and appropriate". So a lot of wiggle room...
Similarly, the agreement doesn't rule out the use of "temporary detention centers" (recall that the PPC on Eastern Ave was a chaotic shitshow of human rights abuses & Charter violations during the G20) but just sets out considerations for their design and resourcing.
One commitment does stand out: "Detainees are not to be prohibited by police from protesting peacefully upon release or required to refrain from protesting peacefully as a condition of their release (subject to any court order)."
This is important, as repressive bail conditions have long been used to criminalize activists while they await trial (and/or coerce them into pleas).
It stands out b/c the other "detention and arrest during demonstrations" undertakings are pretty mushy. "Planning for security operations is to address ways to avoid holding detainees in inappropriate conditions (eg extended periods in a parked police van or w/o bathroom access)"
One of the (many) problems here is that it's the structure and power of those 'plans for security operations' -- multi agency integration, huge budgets, surveillance, intelligence gathering, etc etc etc. The street tactics are just the tip of the state repression iceberg
In fact "proactive policing" is specifically included as a plus: "Measures such as de-escalation techniques, communication & proactive policing should be used, where appropriate". And 'where appropriate' is, of course, up to the discretion of the police themselves
This discretion also takes away from the commitments re. 'breach of peace' (a Criminal Code provision that allows people to be held w/o charge) because it relies on the language of 'peaceful protest'...
"The possibility that a detainee may join a peaceful protest if
released is insufficient grounds for their continued detention by police" - lots of room there for continued detention whatever the actual conditions on the ground.
released is insufficient grounds for their continued detention by police" - lots of room there for continued detention whatever the actual conditions on the ground.
