The corralling of 250 people at Queen and Spadina Streets for hours in torrential rain at the end of Toronto’s G20 summit remains a flashpoint in a weekend that saw the largest mass arrests in Canadian history.
In the face of an onslaught of complaints, lawsuits and inquiries, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that he made mistakes that night.
“We probably could have and should have reacted quicker,” Chief Blair told The Globe and Mail. “When I became aware of [the ongoing containment], I said, ‘That’s it, release them all immediately and unconditionally,’ and that was done. But it probably could have happened sooner.”
The admission is a new tack for Toronto police. In a news conference soon after the release of the corral, Staff Superintendent Jeff McGuire said of the detainees, “To those people, I cannot apologize to them, and I won’t.” He called the situation “unfortunate,” but said officers had the right to detain the group.
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The problem was no reaction the day they should have immediately reacted against vandals and then making up for it the next day by cracking down on peaceful demonstrators.
But what I find worse is when they also detained people who where obviously not part of the demonstration and where obviously just going past the demonstration to get to work or cross the street to go home.
Seems like a pattern here with the Chief of Police and the current Mayor of Toronto: Leave gang members alone but close down an old established gun club to solve a gun violence problem.
In this case ignore the ” Black Block ” thugs but harass the peaceful demonstrators and the above mentioned totally uninvolved passers by ! I can see that in the confusion of an angry mob an innocent party might be accidentally detained, but I’m again talking situations where anyone with a brain and not on a power trip would realize that they are targeting the wrong people. ( I assume that most of the cops are good guys just wanting to do their jobs but there are bad cops out there who are fundamentally bullies with a badge on a power trip. And a Chief of Police who want all the power he can get because he doesn’t respect fundamental rights and power just makes his job easier, plus ” brown nosing ” his political masters ).
And it will be a long time before any of this is will be over as many law suits have now been filed. Thanks to Harper for putting his G summit in Toronto, thanks for nothing.
Certainly has the potential of costing the Canadian taxpayer millions of dollars in security, damages and law suits.
Re: #2 — “Certainly has the potential of costing the Canadian taxpayer millions of dollars in security, damages and law suits.”
Not totally agreed.
It will cost Ontario and Toronto big bucks. Blair made a mistake today when he admitted culpability. Why he did that I don’t know. I thought “Chiefs” were smarter but apparently not.
We’ll see how it goes in the days ahead but I am concerned because I don’t know where he is coming from.