Evidence of meeting #38 for Public Safety and National Security in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was summit.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Are you aware of anybody, such as Mayor Miller, who recommended that it be held at the CNE grounds?
Chief, Toronto Police Service
I had some conversations with our mayor in which he expressed to me some thought that it might be a good location. I offered my opinion to him on that.
November 3rd, 2010 / 5:15 p.m.
Chief, Toronto Police Service
My opinion to him was that it would not have a significant impact on our security arrangements, except that it might give us a larger area to protect.
Liberal
Chief, Toronto Police Service
As an area to secure, if it had been held in one of the buildings, because it's isolated from other buildings, it would perhaps have had less impact on other businesses and citizens. In the area where the summit subsequently took place, there are a number of condominium buildings. There are people who live and work in that area. It might have had less impact on their daily operations and lives if the summit site had been at that location.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Would it have potentially been less disruptive to the downtown core and potentially less costly or harmful to the businesses there?
Chief, Toronto Police Service
It's difficult for me to speculate. Frankly, I was looking at it in terms of how you maintain the security of such an event. We had a community liaison group within the planning process. We were working with businesses and community groups to try to minimize the impact of the summit weekend activities on them and were giving them as much information as possible.
We even went to the extent of delivering over one million flyers to the people of Toronto and about ten thousand flyers to the businesses impacted in that location. We spent money and took out advertisements in six of our newspapers, including in several different languages, informing the people of Toronto of what they might expect as an impact, both through traffic disruptions and their ability to move through the area secured for the summit.
We wanted to provide as much information as possible to our citizens to minimize and mitigate the impact of the summit on their daily lives.
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Deputy Commissioner, my understanding—correct me if I'm wrong, please—is that there were no arrests at the G-8 in Huntsville. Is that correct?
Liberal
Andrew Kania Liberal Brampton West, ON
Chief Blair, can you explain why there would have been no arrests in Huntsville, yet 1,000 people, roughly, were arrested and let go without any charges?
Chief, Toronto Police Service
Certainly. There were a number of people arrested in Toronto because criminal acts occurred there, and people were arrested and charged with those criminal acts.
In addition, there was a very significant breach of the peace that took place on Saturday. There was, in my opinion, a very reasonable apprehension of a continued risk of a breach of the peace that continued throughout that weekend at a number of different locations. Decisions were made by the incident commanders and operational people on the ground that it was necessary, to prevent a breach of the peace, to detain those individuals under the breach of peace legislation of the Criminal Code, and that was done.
A significant number of people who were apprehended were not apprehended with the intention of bringing criminal charges against them. Rather, they were apprehended under the breach of peace legislation to prevent that breach. The circumstances were such that I think we had a very real apprehension that the peace was very much at risk from the demonstrations taking place over that weekend. Certainly there was strong evidence from what transpired on Saturday afternoon about the intent of those individuals.
People were apprehended and detained under that legislation without an intention to bring them up on criminal charges, because there is no charge under breach of the peace. It is simply preventive detention to maintain the public peace.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you very much, Mr. Blair.
We'll now go to Madame Mourani.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Blair, just now, you said that you have identified 90 police officers who are going to be disciplined for concealing their names, contrary to police rules.
In your opinion, in your experience, why does a police officer conceal his name?
Chief, Toronto Police Service
There could be a number of reasons and we are investigating the reasons why the person was not wearing his identification. As I've indicated to you, they're attached with Velcro. Because there were struggles on the street in many cases, there may be some circumstances where they were removed. We'll investigate to determine if anyone was engaged in misconduct.
I believe some officers removed them so they would not be identifiable. Of course, we now have identified them, and we'll hold them accountable for that. We take our rules very seriously. It's a serious rule in the Toronto Police Service.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
Fine. But why would they not want to be identified, in your opinion?
Chief, Toronto Police Service
Again, you're asking me to speculate. I can speculate that they may have wanted to avoid being held accountable or being identified.
We've had quite an issue in Toronto. I'll explain this as quickly as I can. When I issued an order that we would wear name tags, a number of concerns were raised by our police union. If people were identified by their name tags, they could then be subject to harassment through the Internet--they could be identified. We actually went before an arbitrator, and we've been awaiting a ruling for over two and a half years. But they expressed an apprehension that if they were identified by name, persons could identify them, locate their addresses, and perhaps subject them to threats and things. So that is one possibility.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
Okay.
I have another question. Explain to me how, in Canada, a person can be detained for two, three or four days without a warrant. How can that person be held? Under which act? I have to confess that I do not understand.
Chief, Toronto Police Service
Let me be very clear. I've mentioned the apprehensions and the preventative detentions that took place under the breach of the peace legislation. That legislation is very explicit. It is only while there's a reasonable apprehension of a breach of the peace, and in any event, not for longer than 24 hours. That's the law.
Chief, Toronto Police Service
It's to prevent a breach of the peace. A person can be detained while the threat to the peace exists, and not for longer than 24 hours.
Bloc
Maria Mourani Bloc Ahuntsic, QC
But the person cannot be held for more than 24 hours. Correct me if I am wrong, but, if I use the example of what happened in the gymnasium, it is easy to conclude that, for all kinds of reasons that I do not want to hear about—I understand that it is part of the investigation—there was a forcible entry without a warrant. The police had no warrant allowing them to go into that place, arrest people and hold them for two, three and four days on charges of conspiracy… Mr. Gagnon, could you remind me of the charges?
As an Individual
I am not clear on that. It was not the same in French as it was in English. There was “unlawful assembly” and “taking part in a riot”. But I would like to add that, to start with, after going around the gymnasium, the police left after five minutes and told us “It's okay, you can go back to sleep now.” Then they came back.