G8/G20 June 2010 Protest Watch

[OldSolduer]

Sounds like a partisan member of the AG staff got ahold of this and leaked it. Whoever did that should be fired.

Or condemned to count trees in Northern Manitoba.

 

[Thompson_JM]

Or condemned to count trees in Northern Manitoba.

At half of what his or her current pay is....

 

[larry Strong]

At half of what his or her current pay is....

and no bug juice ;D

 

[The Bread Guy]

Note how CBC's latest version of this story as of this post (also attached if link doesn't work) doesn't say how CP saw the report :tsktsk:

I stand corrected:  the latest version DOES include this tidbit of important information (newest version attached):

.... a Jan. 13 draft of the chapter on the G8 legacy infrastructure fund was obtained by a supporter of an opposition party and shown to The Canadian Press ....

 

[OldSolduer]

and no bug juice ;D

Or condemned to sit next to this guy...forever

 

[The Bread Guy]

from The Canadian Press:

The Toronto G20 summit struck out big time with the city's baseball team, prompting the Blue Jays to seek almost half a million dollars in compensation from the federal government.

The Jays filed a claim for $470,854 after the high-level, high-security meetings forced the team to shift a series of games to Philadelphia, records obtained by The Canadian Press show.

The move spoiled the keenly anticipated appearance of ace Philadelphia pitcher Roy Halladay, whom the Jays traded to the Phillies during the off-season.

Downtown Toronto became a high-security zone late last June when leaders of the G20 countries met for talks, disrupting many popular events at the height of tourist season.

"It was, to put it mildly, a huge inconvenience," said Patrick Taylor, executive producer of Toronto's jazz festival, which has claimed $235,155 in compensation.

The festival experienced lost ticket, food and beverage sales, and spent additional money on security as demonstrators descended on the city, Taylor said. A lucrative sponsorship arrangement with a large hotel also evaporated because the rooms were needed for G20 summit participants.

Porter Airlines, which operates from a downtown airport, topped the list of claimants, seeking more than $1,110,411, according to the records released under the Access to Information Act.

The owners of the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower requested $629,375, and the National Ballet of Canada applied for $355,265 because the summit put a crimp in audience numbers.

Not far away at the Zanzibar Tavern on Yonge St., lithe dancers of the more exotic variety apparently saw fewer patrons as well, prompting a claim of $10,832 ....

 

[The Bread Guy]

The bill for security at last summer's G8 and G20 summits could have been much lower if the government had used more military personnel instead of police officers, Canada's parliamentary budget officer says.

Kevin Page's comments on Monday came in response to a CBC/Radio-Canada report that revealed the RCMP contracted hundreds of police officers from across the country to travel to Ontario for the two summits, and paid millions in premiums to them for working on days off or during vacations.

Page also cited the decision to host the dual summits at separate venues in Toronto and the Muskoka region as the main reason why the final price tag is expected to exceed more than $1 billion.

"Could we have saved money? Yes. If the decision was made that we could have had one venue as opposed to two, we could have reduced those costs quite significantly," Page said Monday.

"If we were comfortable having more of a military presence, as opposed to an RCMP presence, we might have been able to save costs further." ....

More on CBC.ca here.

 

[mariomike]

More on the above:
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/05/31/three-smalltown-cops-rake-in-38gs-for-g20
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/05/29/g20-police-bonus-pay.html

 

[The Bread Guy]

Life after the G20 protests
by Nicholas Köhler and Stephanie Findlay on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 9:00am
LINK
Two activists who spent 24 days in custody are out and talking—and the police are still listening
.... during an interview with Maclean’s at (Alex) Hundert’s mother’s home in Toronto’s Earls­court district, where (Leah) Henderson is under house arrest, they present themselves as polite and articulate—social justice activists whose deep concern with both Aboriginal self-determination and the environment approaches the religious. With their chunky black spectacles, tattoos and long hair—his is worn in a ponytail—they accept the prospect of more jail time with almost martyr-like resignation. So severe is their anti-colonialist philosophy that they call themselves “settlers.” Such sympathy with militant First Nations groups is a common thread among Canada’s leftist radicals ....

A little follow-up, from Postmedia News:

Six people pleaded guilty Tuesday to counselling others to commit mischief in relation to last summer's G20 summit in Toronto, which saw a small group of protesters wreak havoc on downtown streets.

The six were part of a group of 17 previously charged with conspiracy in relation to the 2010 world leaders' summit.

Among those who pleaded guilty were Leah Henderson, Peter Hopperton, Erik Lankin and Adam Lewis.

Alex Hundert and Amanda Hiscocks also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of counselling others to obstruct police.

According to agreed statements of fact read out in court, two undercover Ontario Provincial Police officers attended meetings of "anarchist groups" that were planning G20 protest actions. During those meetings, the six individuals were identified as having encouraged others to commit criminal acts, including property damage.

Hundert and Hiscocks also encouraged others to obstruct police, the statements note.

Hundert, for example, taught "de-arresting" strategies to interfere in the arrest process.

The statements cite no evidence that anyone involved in the Black Bloc G20 riots did so as a result of counselling by any of the six ....

If you're interested, the folks have also issued a collective statement (attached, lest we bring traffic to the Conspire to Resist page).

 

[The Bread Guy]

An interesting overview of the monitoring of the groups - including a media outlet sharing (at least some of) the documents they obtained through ATIP:

.... The two undercover officers at the core of the Crown's case were just a small part of a Canada-wide operation to spy on activist groups in the lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the G20 summit in Toronto and the G8 meeting in Huntsville, Ont.

RCMP records obtained under freedom of information legislation reveal that at least 12 undercover officers infiltrated groups. Organizations in Vancouver, the southern Ontario cities of Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto and Montreal were scrutinized.

In all, the RCMP-led joint intelligence group — a conglomeration of federal, provincial and municipal police tasked with G8/G20 reconnaissance — employed more than 500 people at its peak, the records show. The group ran undercover operations, recruited confidential informants and liaised with domestic and foreign governments, law enforcement agencies and even corporations.

The JIG's targets included activists protesting the Olympics, the migrant-justice group No One Is Illegal, Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance and Greenpeace.

"The 2010 G8 summit in Huntsville ... will likely be subject to actions taken by criminal extremists motivated by a variety of radical ideologies," reads a JIG report from June 2009, before the G20 summit was scheduled, that sets out the intelligence group's mission. "These ideologies may include variants of anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, nihilism, socialism and/or communism.

"The important commonality is that these ideologies ... place these individuals and/or organizations at odds with the status quo and the current distribution of power in society." ....

CBC.ca, 22 Nov 11

Interesting bit fro the story:

.... Earlier this fall, (one of the undercover officers) told the court about how he attended a meeting prior to the Toronto summit. There, a protest-planning group that included several of the 17 main G20 defendants was discussing whether to lend their support to a First Nations rally.

Adam Lewis, one of the 17 accused conspirators in the G20 case, interjected, “Kill whitey!” The group chuckled. Lewis, like all but one of his co-accused, is white.

When a Crown lawyer asked the officer what he thought Lewis meant, Showan said in complete seriousness, to "kill white people."

"Deliberately or accidentally, the undercover officers misinterpreted hyperbolic jokes as literal statements of belief," said Kalin Stacey, a community organizer, friend and supporter of the defendants ....

I'm guessing they wouldn't worry, then, about similar statements made about their groups or individuals, then?  Or are those to be taken more seriously than other "misinterpreted hyperbolic jokes"?

More from the documents themselves:
G8 summit intelligence report
RCMP's post-G20 internal review

 

[The Bread Guy]

One more file closed....

A G20 protest organizer was sent to jail for 10 months at a noisy sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Supporters packed a suburban Toronto courtroom as Leah Henderson, 27, was sentenced for encouraging vandalism at the summit in June of last year.

Like other organizers prosecuted in the wake of the summit, Ms. Henderson was unrepentant as she addressed the court.

“All you need to know about me is that I am a person of conscience. I came here from a place of morality. I stand here guilty of breaking your laws, not the laws of justice,” she said. “I submit to your jails because you hold the weapons, but that will not always be so.”

Court heard that Ms. Henderson, a native of Alberta, moved to Toronto in recent years and quickly became involved in various activist causes. She identifies as an anarchist.

Crown attorney Jason Miller said Ms. Henderson is a licensed paralegal and a talented mediator, and that she has no criminal record.

“She has a degree of maturity that is beyond that of the others we have dealt with,” he said. “This cuts both ways: Ms. Henderson ought to have known better.”

Mr. Miller argued that jail time was necessary to deter others in future from encouraging protest vandalism, and that Ms. Henderson’s politics were irrelevant to the case ....

Globe & Mail, 20 Dec 11

 

[vonGarvin]

“All you need to know about me is that I am a person of conscience. I came here from a place of morality. I stand here guilty of breaking your laws, not the laws of justice,” she said. “I submit to your jails because you hold the weapons, but that will not always be so.”

Oh really?

 

[Journeyman]

“All you need to know about me is that I am a person of conscience. I came here from a place of morality. I stand here guilty of breaking your laws, not the laws of justice,” she said. “I submit to your jails because you hold the weapons, but that will not always be so.”

She's right. I know all I need to know about her.  :

 

[The Bread Guy]

Nelson Mandela, she ain't....

 

[ModlrMike]

As an anarchist and someone who doesn't believe she's bound by the rules of our society, she'll have much in common with her new house mates.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

As an anarchist and someone who doesn't believe she's bound by the rules of our society, she'll have much in common with her new house mates.

I'm sure her moral superiority, legal posturing and sharp wit intelligence will persevere above the arguments, platitudes and pleas of all her new friends that want to make her their new tattooed bitch.

 

[OldSolduer]

I'm sure her moral superiority, legal posturing and sharp wit intelligence will persevere above the arguments, platitudes and pleas of all her new friends that want to make her their new tattooed *****.

Yes I'm sure it will. I have seen female inmates....and they are worse than men. God (or the higher power if there is one) may need to intervene - or the officers will toss her in seg.

 

[mariomike]

Feb 13 2012
"Nearly two years after the G20 summit, more than 100 senior Toronto police officers are still waiting for $387,000 in overtime pay and benefits — but nobody is willing to foot the bill.":
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1130862--weird-situation-preventing-senior-police-from-collecting-g20-overtime-pay?bn=1

 

[The Bread Guy]

Highlights mine....

WWII and Vietnam-era warfare training and bomb-making reports were among the files found on the so-called “G20 geek’s’’ seized computer, the man’s Toronto trial heard Monday.

Police arrested 39-year-old Byron Sonne on June 22, 2010, and later charged him with plotting to bomb the meeting of world leaders that year. His computer was seized after a warrant was obtained to search his home. Police also obtained chemicals, diagrams and materials they allege Sonne planned to use to make a bomb.

The hobby chemist and computer hacker who faces five charges, including possession of an explosive device and inciting others to commit an indictable offence, has admitted to police in recorded interviews available online that he did possess materials that could be used to make explosives — but that he had not combined them.

During Sonne’s trial, which resumed Monday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Det. Const. David Ouellette, a Toronto police officer seconded to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, testified about an Internet search conducted on Sonne’s computer by the RCMP.

Among the many PDF documents police found was one titled “Unconventional Warfare Devices and Techniques,’’ a 1960s-era U.S. Army technical manual. The file first appeared on Sonne’s computer on Jan. 5, 2009, court heard.

Another, titled “Improvised Munitions Handbook,” showed up on Sonne’s computer, on the same date. It’s a military manual that discusses potassium nitrate, launchers, and other explosive devices, and includes “schematics on how to make an improvised device using materials that are sometimes commonly accessible,’’ Ouellette told the trial.

Sonne spent nearly 11 months in pre-trial custody — longer than any other G20 accused — before being released on bail last May ....

Toronto Star, 19 Mar 12

 

[The Bread Guy]

Not guilty on all remaining counts.....

Byron Sonne, the so-called “G20 geek” accused of plotting to bomb the 2010 summit of world leaders in downtown Toronto two years ago, was found not guilty Tuesday of all charges.

Sonne’s verdict comes nearly two years after the 39-year-old Internet security expert was arrested on June 22, 2010, as the first high-profile detention of the chaotic G20 weekend.

Arguably the most compelling of all the G20 accused, Sonne — a computer hacker from Forrest Hill — seemed an unlikely terrorist when he was pulled off a Bathurst St. bus and accused of assembling explosives in his basement laboratory while inciting others through social media to disrupt the G20 security apparatus.

He was first charged with six offences, including mischief, weapons possession and intimidating justice officials. But by the time the case reached trial, most of the charges were dropped and Sonne was left with four counts of possessing explosive materials and one count of “counseling the commission of mischief not committed.” ....

Toronto Star, 15 May 12 - more here (Google News)