By Frank Moher
Charlie Veitch, one of the first activists arrested at the G20 in Toronto, was arrested a second time on Tuesday as he attempted to catch a plane home to England. According to a Toronto Police Service media release (pdf) issued on Tuesday night, Veitch has been charged with impersonating a police officer.
It is to laugh. Or rather, not to.
Here’s video of the incident that’s gotten Veitch, a gifted satirist (especially when he’s on his feet), into trouble. To cut to the chase, scroll forward to the 6:20 mark.
In it, he deadpans to a security guard outside Union Station in Toronto that “We’re from British military intelligence, I’m here with the Metropolitan Police, see, so it’s all fully authorized to the highest levels.” As if conflating the military with city cops isn’t absurd enough, he continues: “Have you heard of what an agent provocateur is? Sometimes when there are big demonstrations — I can tell you this because you’re security — they use fake protestors to cause trouble. And we’re here to be those fake protestors.”
My favourite part is: “I can tell you this because you’re security.” Note also that, besides revealing all this to a security guard, he is being videoed by at least two cameras, which would make him the least competent undercover agent in the history of British Intelligence. Or is that the Metropolitan Police?
In the next video, also filmed by pressfortruth.ca, he tells the first actual police officer who approaches him, quite clearly, that he’s “from The Love Police. We’re kind of absurdist, surrealist filmmakers.” That part, mind, is true.
The cop goes on to tell one of the the accompanying cameramen that he can’t film (wrong) because they are within five metres of the G20 security fence and the “Public Works Act states that.” Wrong again. It’s telling, though, that the first thing the police want to do is stop the filming.
Eventually Veitch is arrested, not for impersonating an officer, but for failing to provide identification which, he is told, is also a crime under The Public Works Act. Wrong, wrong, wrong. On Tuesday, the Ontario government announced that it never did pass “a secret law that gave police additional power to arrest people during the G20 summit in Toronto,” despite widespread reports to the contrary. And apparently the Chief of Police knew it. Reported Canadian Press: “Asked Tuesday if there actually was a five-metre rule given the ministry’s clarification, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair smiled and said, ‘No, but I was trying to keep the criminals out.'”
Nice. So in addition to misleading the public, Blair hung his officers out to dry, enforcing a law that didn’t exist. The province insists that no one was arrested under the Act. That will come as news to Charlie Veitch.
We can hope that when Veitch comes before a judge this afternoon, on the impersonation charge, it’s one who has a sense of the absurd, or who at least knows a vexatious and vindictive use of the law when s/he sees one. With hundreds of people inappropriately arrested and still to be processed by the courts, did the Toronto police really need to add one more? If they want to keep charging people, how about the cop who was making up the law as he went when he approached Veitch last Thursday? How about the ones who arrested him under a law that also didn’t exist? Or better yet, their boss, who told them it did? How about the ones who broke the Charter of Rights on the weekend — broke it into a million pieces and then stampeded their horses all over it?
That’s who should be in court today. Not Charlie Veitch.
Update: Veitch was released on bail; court appearance scheduled for August 23rd:
mashj50 says
It’s obvious from the video footage that Charlie is a very dangerous individual indeed. Like John Lennon and other articulate peace activists before him Charlie represents a toxic mindset that completely threatens the Vampires and Satanits running this system in their crypts deep underground. The manifestation of Agent Smith’s in the video prove this is the case. Love and a complete lack of fear will not be tollerated as this sends bad messages to the rest of the herd. Especially disturbing is Charlie’s rant about how the global elite would like us to live eat, shop, pay your taxes and DIE ! How dare he point out the obvious truth like that ! it’s so impolite ! what a rude young man he truly is ! As for the police their law is a kind of policing rap, you know you make it up as you go along like M & M just whatever is in your heart you express in real time depending on the situation at hand, it must be fun having this sort of creative power in your hands knowing that the system will back you all the way ,even fingering young girls in strip searches will be tolerated and threatening to gang bang them and rape them is cool ! as seen in this video report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcXhEd_mDt4&feature=player_embedded The G20 was a major PR win for Toronto Police they come out smelling like roses or will do once the courts have whitewashed everything.No wonder so many nice young men and women join police forces all over the world so they can express themselves in this way. Charlie’s crime is his unflinching lack of fear to speak the truth in public places and his unforgivable humour and insight into how the system enslaves us. He’s not the messiah he’s just a very naughty BOY !!
Jeff says
Great beta-testing for the NWO social engineers though
Karl Harvey says
“The province insists that no one was arrested under the Act.” – they’re right – they wqere kidnapped and falsely imprisoned.