Chief Bill Blair's Gambit

It is difficult to know exactly what the repercussions will be for Chief Bill Blair, who attempted to go over the heads of his civilian overseers, the Toronto Police Services Board, and appeal directly to Mayor Rob/Doug Ford in trying to stop the mandated 10% reduction of the police budget.

In his most recent meeting with the board, the possibility was held out by the Board that the reduction could be spread out over two years because of the legislative constraints around officer deployment.

As the final motion passed, a notably agitated Blair fought back.

“I have to tell you, I can’t recommend it in good conscience because of the impact it would have on public safety …” the chief said before being cut off.

Perhaps the fact that he was cut off will serve as a forceful reminder to Blair that he isn't running this operation, that civilian safeguards are in place to exercise reasonable restraint on police forces and overzealous, even arrogant police chiefs.

My fervent hope, however, is that the Chief does not resign over the issue of reductions. Any action that makes him look like a martyr will, perforce, lead some people to forget the ignominy he rightly earned over his role in the massive violations of Charter Rights during last years G20 police violence.

And that egregious misuse of state power is something no healthy democracy can afford to forget.

Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.

What Is A Hero?

Having completed at my wife's urgent behest the always onerous task of vacuuming, I sat down a short time ago to peruse The Toronto Star. In it there is another story about Anthony Marco, the Hamilton-area NDP candidate running in Tim Hudak's riding. Already under fire for so-called controversial remarks about nazism, he has again offended someone (i.e. police and firefighters)by sharing his insights publicly.

The story, in the Star's Campaign Notebook but not available online, conveys how Marco said, just before Remembrance Day last year: “I think we throw the term ‘hero’ around a little bit too loosely these days . . . I’m tired of hearing, and no offence to doctors or firefighters or policemen, but automatically calling occupations as heroic . . . you don’t automatically become a hero just because you put on a uniform of some sort or have a title before or after your name,”

To me, what he says makes perfect sense, especially given the misdeeds of the police that are now coming to light on a regular basis. Despite that fact, Jim Christie, president of the Ontario Provincial Police Association, said he found Marco’s comment, especially from a provincial candidate, “very disturbing.”

The blind deference and obeisance to authority is a dangerous thing in a democracy. If nothing else, the police abuses at last year's G20 Summit in Toronto taught us that unless tightly monitored and always questioned, authority can be so easily abused, with very dire consequences to innocent people.

As well, I wonder if police association president Jim Christie also finds "very disturbing" the conviction and sentencing of a former Vancouver police officer, Peter Hodson, for dealing drugs on the job.

Righteous indignation should be directed at those who truly deserve it.

Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.

Two Sunday Morning Links

Echoing some of the sentiments I expressed the other day, this morning's Star editorial endorses the Toronto Police Services Board's decision to deny promotions to nine officers recommended by Police Chief Bill Blair. Is it possible that these officers, who behaved illegally by removing their name tags during last year's G20 Summit, were chosen by Chief Blair to be rewarded for their initiative? After all, if they couldn't be identified while violating people's Charter Rights, wouldn't they have in fact spared the good Chief more serious embarrassment and questions about his flawed leadership during the Summit?

Also in today's paper, Martin Regg Cohn's column, entitled Will Tory Trojan Horse hurt Hudak’s crusade? offers some interesting insight into an extreme right-wing faction of Tim Hudak's Ontario Progressive Conservative Party whose tactics, according to the article, "make the U.S. Tea Party look like … well, a tea party by comparison."

Enjoy the day.

Please sign this petition urging Prime Minister Harper to stop threatening Michaela Keyserlingk and to stop exporting asbestos.

The Toronto Police Board and Bill Blair

It is somewhat heartening that the Toronto police board, which has traditionally enjoyed harmonious relations with the Toronto Police, is showing a bit of spine.

As reported in today's Star, the board is refusing to accept Chief Bill Blair's recommendation for the promotion of nine officers who brought discredit to themselves and the force, not to mention undermined public respect for the police, by removing their name tags during the G20 demonstrations last year.

Apparently the police association, which is filing a grievance on behalf of the offending officers, argues that they were already docked a day's pay for their misbehavior and that further punishment is unwarranted. Funny, I always thought a promotion was a reward for good work, not an automatic bump in pay grade.

One can only hope that the board is sending an unequivocal message to Bill Blair about who is really in charge of the police.

Star Readers Respond To Tony Warr

I recently wrote a post detailing the cavalier attitude of retiring Deputy Police Chief Tony Warr towards the police brutality unleashed on his city during last year's G20 Summit. Frequently a source of inspiration, readers weigh in with their own assessments of Warr's perspective in today's issue of The Toronto Star,

Well-worth the read!

Toronto Police: True Blue To The End

Anyone who might be concerned that recent events have put a strain on police solidarity can rest easy.

In an article in The Star entitled Retiring deputy chief calls G20 reaction overblown, Tony Warr, who is set to retire at month's end, has nothing but praise for the actions of police at last summer's G20 fiasco in Toronto.

A few quotations from the piece, which I am reproducing below, help to amply demonstrate not only police intransigence and misplaced loyalties, but also why the scars of that infamous weekend will likely never heal:

The public and media overreacted to events during the G20 summit, and police should hold their heads high. 

“There was a lot of good work done.”

“I defy anybody to have an event like that in their city and not have that kind of problem. Ours was a pretty minor one compared to what’s gone on in other cities.”

[T]here “seems to be a campaign by the media to keep this alive.”

Warr said he doesn’t want to second-guess officers for rounding up 1,100 people in the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history.

“Some of the media reaction was just disgusting,” 

Warr also made no apologies for the horrid conditions at the temporary detention centre on Eastern Ave., which was criticized for being overcrowded and having limited toilet facilities:

“People complained about the conditions there, but what did they expect when they get arrested? They’re not going to be taken to the Hilton. Jail is not a nice place,”

When such a shocking lack of empathy, understanding and insight into the seriousness of what transpired last year comes from a Deputy Police Chief, and our political 'leaders', both provincial and federal, display a similar nonchalance about egregious police wrongdoing, is it any wonder that the antipathy and suspicion of Canadians towards the police continues to fester and grow?

Vindication For Those Abused By G20 Police Forces

The vast majority of the 1100 people abused, assaulted and arrested as a result of the thuggish actions of the G20 police forces, apparently intent on suppressing Canadians' Charter Rights last June in Toronto, must be feeling a deep measure of vindication today, this despite the fact that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair have never acknowledged that anything wrong transpired and, of course, have blocked any attempts to hold an inquiry to begin to heal the damage done to our democratic traditions and our trust in the police.

The Toronto Star headline, Aggression during G20 rally ‘perpetrated by police,’ judge rules speaks a truth long evident to those who were either present at the demonstrations or saw a wealth of video evidence depicting an out-of control constabulary wilfully suppressing our democratic right to protest last year in Ontario's capital.

Justice Melvyn Green made his comments after dismissing the charges against a 32-year-old bricklayer from London, Ontario, Michael Puddy, whose only 'crime' seems to have been wearing a T-shirt that offended police sensibilities, leading to his being arrested and charged with obstructing police, concealing a weapon and possession of a prohibited weapon, a pocket knife that he uses in his trade.

As reported in the Star,

The London, Ont. bricklayer was on his way to a concert downtown when he joined the front line of the late-night Saturday rally. Puddy was wearing a “Police Bastard” T-shirt named after a punk band, when he was pushed to the ground and cuffed.

Puddy was shuffled from officer to officer and eventually transported to the temporary Prisoner Processing Unit on Eastern Ave. He spent two days behind bars and was forced to sleep on a concrete floor and use a toilet without a door before he was released on $25,000 bail.

Justice Green made the following comment which, to me, reflects the most serious implications of the unwarranted police actions:

“The zealous exercise of police arrest powers in the context of political demonstrations risks distorting the necessary if delicate balance between law enforcement concerns for public safety and order, on the one hand, and individual rights and freedoms, on the other.”

How do we calculate the true cost of police actions that one normally associates with non-democratic states? How many people, for example, will choose to never (again) take part in a public demonstration or otherwise stand up for their beliefs because of what happened in Toronto?

Even if it is only one person, the cost of the G20 will still have been too high.

G20 Police Abuse Reaches The Stage

Like so many other innocent people who fell victim to the madness that engulfed the police during last year's G20 Summit in Toronto, Tommy Taylor experienced an unwarranted arrest and almost 24 hours of incarceration. His crime? Exercising his Charter Right to move about freely, something the authorities at the time deemed threatening to the security of who-knows-what.

Taylor, unlike many others who were simply traumatized by the thuggish actions of the police, wrote an 1100 word synopsis of his experience and posted it on Facebook; ultimately that posting evolved into a play entitled You Should Have Stayed Home, which will be staged from Aug.4 to 14 at the Theatre Centre, on Queen Street West, as part of the SummerWorks Theatre Festival.

More information about his experience can be found on InsideToronto.com

Revelations Of Further Charter Rights' Violation At G20 Summit

In what has become almost a routine posting to my blog, the Toronto Star has revealed yet another violation of rights arising from last year's federally and provincially supported G20 Summit. An article entitled Police wrong to question man with crossbow near G20 fence, judge rules, a few quotes will be enough, I hope, to persuade readers to peruse the article:

“The law makes clear that an investigative detention of that kind gives rise to a right to counsel,” provincial court Justice David Fairgrieve said Wednesday.

The judge also agreed with defence criticisms of Toronto police for continually denying McCullough’s rights to counsel while he was held at the Eastern Ave. detention centre for G20 detainees.

Just a timely reminder to all of us before we cast our vote in the Ontario election to carefully consider which political leaders have told us an inquiry is not necessary into what was the biggest breach of Charter Rights in Canadian history. No amount of political posturing diminishing its significance can alter the truth.

More Evidence Of Bill Blair's Failed Leadership

The 'offer no apologies and accept no responsibility' head of the Toronto Police Services, Chief Bill Blair, has another facet of failed leadership to answer for. According to a report in The Toronto Star, a U of T student has documented at least eight occasions Toronto police have violated rules in place since 2006 requiring them to wear name tags.

According to the story,Vikram Mulligan says he was so troubled by police failing to identify themselves at last summer’s G20 summit he began photographing officers without proper name tags.

At a time when the Toronto force inspire more fear and loathing than admiration, this is hardly the moment for them to become de facto 'secret police.'

The rogue police behaviour the article describes is yet one more troubling indication that the lack of strong leadership and ability to inspire discipline is continuing to have widespread repercussions.