The Lawyers Weekly - December 16, 2011

ALL HANDS on deck in Halifax ship deal...................................1

‘MASSIVE DIFFERENCE’ in refugee cases ..........................1

CALL FOR Toronto G20 protest inquiry growing.........................2

ARBITRATORS GRANTED wider berth in applying law ..... 3

REVENUE QUEBEC funds suit against it .................................. 4

GLASS CEILING bends, but is not broken................................ 5

B.C. BENCHERS indefinitely renew mobility deal.................. 5

OMAR KHADR’S fate rests at ‘high level’................................ 9

FOCUS

Personal Injury
WHEN RIDES go wrong ....... 11

MUNICIPALITIES NOT liable when drivers are reckless ..... 12

MINOR INJURIES, major changes ................................ 14

Year in Review
SUPREME CONTROVERSY over
nominees ............................... 17

CRIME BILL doesn’t play ...... 18

A YEAR of boutiques and behemoths ............................ 18

G20 LEGAL FALLOUT to continue into 2012 ................ 19

INSITE EXEMPTION

celebrated ............................. 21

2011 WAS a year of links, locks and bots ................................ 22

BUSINESS & CAREERS

BOOMING INTERNET biz threatens small firms ............. 27

MAKING CHARTER history was not as easy as pie ................. 29

DEPARTMENTS

Announcements. . . . . . . . . 29

Careers ............... 30

Classified Ads . . . . . . . . . . 25

Lawddities............. 16

Profile ................ 29

Weekly Digest.......... 23

CHRISTOPHER GULY

Following revelations that two OPP officers infiltrated Southern Ontario activist groups over 18 months prior to last year’s G20 summit in Toronto, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has renewed its call for a public inquiry into the massive security operation surrounding the gathering of world leaders.

Details of the undercover RCMP-led Joint Intelligence Group operation arose from evidence presented in the case of 17 alleged co-conspirators involved in G20 turmoil. In November, charges were withdrawn against 11 of them while guilty pleas on lesser charges were entered by the remaining six.

The new findings about the nature and extent to which groups were under surveillance as part of what the RCMP considered the largest domestic intelligence operation in Canadian history raise “additional, significant concerns about the way in which security and public order policing was planned and implemented” for the 2010 G20 summit, says the CCLA, which has been calling for a public inquiry since June, 2010.

“Our position has always been that, in light of the largest mass arrest [of 1,118 people] in Canadian history, involving multiple jurisdictions, nobody has been systematically looking at the entire picture,” says lawyer Abby Deshman, who serves as the CCLA’s public safety program director.

She says several G20-related investigations are underway involving the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, Ontario’s Office of the Independent Police Review Director and an investigation initiated by the Toronto Police Services Board, all of which received complaints and requests from the CCLA to identify officers and forces involved in specific actions.

The CCLA also sent complaints to various other Canadian police oversight bodies regarding the conduct of their officers during the G20.

“They haven’t released any specific information that implicates specific officers, so a lot of the

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DARREN CALABRESE / THE CANADIAN PRESS

A police officer prepares to strike an activist during G20 protests in Toronto on June 26, 2010.

requests came back with no results, which to us is another indication why we need a more comprehensive look at identifying exactly who was involved in what actions and at what time,” Deshman says.

University of Toronto constitutional law professor David Schneiderman says that, since no authority is willing to take responsibility for what occurred during the G20, a public inquiry is necessary to address a raft of issues that emerged from security surrounding the summit—from the Ontario government’s decision to extend authority under the Public Works Protection Act granting police broader authority, to the “abuses of authority” by police forces with the “presumed” knowledge and direction of leadership either in police or in politics.

“Who directed a large number
of police officers to remove their
badges so they couldn’t be identi-
fied? Who gave directives about
kettling — about withdrawing
police when the Black Bloc started
smashing things, about the round-
ing up of peaceful protesters?”
“Who made those decisions
and how did they make those
determinations? Were they based
on genuine security needs of the
G20, or were they more politic-
ally driven?”
The CCLA’s Deshman says a
public inquiry should both
demand accountability for what
occurred during the G20 and pro-
vide recommendations for any
future similar wide-scale, multiju-
risdictional security operations.

“The entire public order policing framework and several legal frameworks involving common law, criminal law and constitu-

In light of details about police surveillance leading up to the G20, there are now questions about the extent to which police can infiltrate law-abiding groups that may simply be dissenting from public norms.

“

Abby Deshman, Canadian Civil Liberties Association

tional law need to be critically examined,” she says.

“An inquiry would have to look at how breach of the peace, unlawful assembly, and search-and-seiz-ure powers were used during the G20 and how they comply with the Charter going forward. There are a whole host of Section 7 issues in terms of use of force on peaceful crowds, detention centre conditions, right to counsel, and so forth.

“And in light of details about police surveillance leading up to the G20, there are now questions about the extent to which police can infiltrate law-abiding groups that may simply be dissenting from public norms,” Deshman says.

The CCLA also believes the
role of the Crown in managing the
prosecution of charges should also
be examined, including the
imposition of bail conditions that
“limited democratic rights.”
In August, 2010, the associa-
tion sent a letter to both Public
Safety Minister Vic Toews and
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson
calling for a federal independent
inquiry into governance and poli-
cing at both the G8 summit in
Huntsville, Ont., and the G20.