Tag: G8/G20

Note that most of these people were arrested in pre-dawn raids BEFORE the G20 demonstrations began, thanks to the use of infiltrators and police spies and agents provocateurs. And it cost taxpayers about a billion dollars, not including the fake lake and Tony Clement’s gazebo.obviously these 17 people posed an

It was reported yesterday that the Harper Government™ (apparently they really do want to be called that) intends to bring back a couple of "extraordinary anti-terror powers for police": preventative detention and compulsory (and secret) testimony. These are measures which were part of the original Canadian response to 9/11 but were allowed to sunset in 2007 because the Conservatives couldn’t get enough opposition support to keep them in force. The Ottawa Citizen has published an unsigned editorial opposing the measures and makes the obvious observation: The actions of police at the G20 summit in Toronto last year, when more than 900 people were arrested during a single weekend, showed that even in a well-governed and free country such as Canada, we can never simply trust that authorities will use extraordinary powers appropriately. In the last few years, police forces have not demonstrated that Canadians should entrust them with more power; if anything, they have eroded confidence in their judgment. If anything, that’s understated. In the last few years the media have been full of stories involving law enforcement and intelligence agents who have abused the authority they already have and sometimes demonstrated gross incompetence in the process. Mostly, they investigate…

Since the Harper Government™ spent as much money on security for 2010’s G8/G20 summits as any other ten countries would have, you’d think they’d at least have earned high marks for, you know, security. You’d be wrong. An internal RCMP review says the Conservative government’s choice of Ontario cottage country as the 2010 G8 Summit venue offered would-be snipers "ideal conditions" to assassinate a world leader. It says the hilly, wooded terrain around Huntsville, Ont., featured not only excellent vantage points for gunmen, but covered approaches for intruders, and problematic land and water routes leading in and out of the area. … It also says the decision to host the G20 Summit in Toronto immediately afterwards "added a significant planning challenge" that prompted a "complete re-examination of the G8 Summit security." And here I thought security was one of those areas that ranked right up there with the economy as a core competency of Conservatives. The editorial board at the Globe and Mail must be so proud….

This is just one paragraph plucked out of the middle of a long post at A Canadian Lefty in Occupied Land. The post makes the case for this conclusion and then goes on to a thoughtful discussion about where activists go from there. This sums up something important and it comes at a time when the actions of the police last June are once again in the headlines. The worst thing about the policing at the G20 summit was that it delivered both a symbolic and a material message to keep us passive and inert precisely in anticipation of this moment when a majority Harper government could begin amping up its attacks on ordinary people. The messages were "protesters are dangerous" and "protest is risky." The brutality then was to encourage as many people as possible now to stay home. Elites want us to mistrust the people who are saying, "We can do something about this if we do it together." They want us to look at the billy clubs and the tear gas and the sexual harassment and the rape threats and all the rest of the nastiness from the cops and say, "Yeah, this Harper stuff sucks, but…