Yes. I'll offer a brief explanation because I know that you want to get to your questions.
On Friday afternoon, there was a demonstration that left from Allan Gardens, which is located in the area of Carleton Street and Jarvis Street in the city of Toronto. It moved west across Carleton Street and College Street to the front of police headquarters. As that protest group moved across College Street, a group within this group donned black disguises, and there were others who were masking as well.
If you get a closer view of these pictures, you can see people masking. You can see how, in the larger protest--a protest of some 3,000 to 5,000 people--a group formed within that group and was donning disguises. From that group, a number of objects began to be thrown at my police officers. There was, frankly, a very real apprehension of a breach of the peace, and we had to bring in public order officers to maintain order.
On Friday afternoon we were successful in preventing this particular group from within the protest from launching a criminal attack on the city.
On Saturday, we were confronted with a greater challenge. On Saturday there was a protest that was organized primarily by the labour movement and the Ontario Federation of Labour and that exceeded approximately 10,000 protesters. They were very cooperative with us. They worked very collaboratively in helping us marshal and rally their event. As we moved around the city with that event, what emerged from within that group were several hundred individuals who obviously did not have the intent of engaging in lawful, peaceful protest, but rather had the intent of trying to penetrate the perimeter site of the summit and to engage in criminal behaviour.
With our public order officers, we prevented their penetration into the summit area, and unfortunately, they turned their criminal intent toward more vulnerable targets. They ran away from our police officers, who were positioned and deployed to protect the summit site, and they began to charge across Queen Street and up Yonge Street. I think you are all familiar with the images of members of that group who were smashing windows, burning cars, looting stores, and generally causing a great deal of mayhem through vandalism and violence in the city of Toronto.
We began to take the steps necessary to contain that threat. Over the course of that weekend, the criminal conspiracy to commit criminal acts did not end on Saturday afternoon, and it did not end when they left Yonge Street. It continued. We were gathering intelligence and information from within the crowd, and we had other sources of information that made it very clear to us that the criminal intent of the people involved in those criminal acts continued throughout the weekend.
Our ability to continue to police lawful, peaceful protests was, quite frankly, compromised by the actions of those who instead undertook the actions of a mob and engaged in criminal acts. Decisions were made by our operational commanders and by our major incident commanders that it was necessary to disperse those crowds to prevent a breach of the peace and, if the crowds refused to disperse, to take persons into preventive detention. And that did take place over the course of the weekend.
I want to tell you that since that event a number of reviews have been taking place that I think will be helpful for this committee to understand. First, on the Monday following the summit event, the Toronto Police Service announced that we would be undertaking and completing a Summit Management After Action Review Team report. That report is in its final stages of draft. When it is completed, it will be presented as is appropriate by me, through my civilian oversight body, our Police Services Board, in order to explain to my board--to which I'm accountable--the operational decisions and tactics deployed in that particular event and to provide information about them.
In addition, we have in Ontario a legislative process for the oversight of public complaints against the police. It is headed by the Independent Police Review Director, Mr. Gerry McNeilly. I understand that approximately 280 complaints have been received by Mr. McNeilly. They are being investigated by his office. He has also announced that under section 57 of our Police Services Act, he will be conducting a systemic review of the policing of the summit event. This is his legislated responsibility in Ontario.
In addition, our Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario are able to address any human rights complaints that are brought forward.
We also have a special investigative unit in Ontario that is an independent investigative body whose responsibility it is to conduct investigations in any matter in which a person experiences serious injury or death. Those investigations are conducted independent of the police. There were five such investigations being conducted by the special investigative unit and we are waiting the outcome of their reports.
My Police Services Board is fulfilling its responsibility and has announced that it is conducting a review of issues with respect to governance, communication, and police deployment. Over the course of the summit event, they have engaged with retired Justice John Morden in order to conduct this review. The Toronto Police Service is cooperating fully with Justice Morden and with all of the aforementioned reviews and investigations that I've mentioned.
In addition, the Province of Ontario has appointed retired Chief Justice Roy McMurtry to conduct a review of the Public Works Protection Act, a piece of provincial legislation that was relevant in the policing of the summit.
In addition, the Ontario ombudsman has announced the he is reviewing the process by which the Government of Ontario passed a regulation. Pursuant to the Public Works Protection Act, there are a number of civil processes currently under way, including class action lawsuits. Many of the complaints will be dealt with not only through the aforementioned processes but through our civil courts.
Finally, there are a significant number of criminal trials that are currently under way because of the work of Detective Sergeant Giroux and his team, which you'll hear about shortly. They have identified a significant number of people who were responsible for much of the criminality that occurred in the city of Toronto during the weekend of the G-20 summit.
I'll be happy to answer your questions.