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You are here: Home / Politics / Bill Blair’s G20 alibi

Bill Blair’s G20 alibi

06/27/2011 by backofthebook.ca

bill-blair90By Alison@Creekside

An interview with Andre Marin, Ontario Ombudsman and author of the G20 report “Caught in the Act,” sheds a little light on the blackout surrounding who was responsible for ordering kettling at the G20 a year ago.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, as we have previously heard, had not heard of the term kettling before he saw it taking place before his very eyes on TV at the G20. A whole year later he still claims not to know who ordered it.

Paul Jay reads from Marin’s report :

“The former RCMP official who was in charge of ISU security at the time advised us that by June 24, which is, what, two days before, the Toronto Police Services representative on the ISU steering committee had left the ISU building, and that by noon on Saturday, June 26, when all hell’s breaking loose, communications between the ISU and the Toronto Police had broken down. By 4 p.m., the Toronto Police Services had completely gone off the ISU radar.

These guys had months to prepare, like, an unlimited budget, like, a billion dollar budget, and it seems like what they told you is that the communication had broken so down that the RCMP had no control over the events that were going on in Toronto.”

And where was Blair during all this? At the Intercontinental Hotel meeting President Obama.

Now that’s what I call an alibi.

According to Marin, the ISU responsibilities were divided up between: “the RCMP responsible for security within the fence; the Toronto Police responsible for the security outside the fence.”

On CBC’s “As It Happens” on Friday night, Blair made this statement about his relationship to the RCMP-led Integrated Security Unit:

“Quite frankly I was not involved in much of the planning. I was aware of some of the things that were being planned, I was being briefed, but I was not the Operational Commander, I was not on the Unified Command Team or in the steering committee.”

Well that’s handy, isn’t it?

Blair’s in charge of the streets but is not inside the ISU command loop.

Then while he’s off receiving his thank-you-masked-mans from Obama, someone uses the power vacuum at ISU to suck people at Queen and Spadina up as extras in a police crowd control exercise under martial law.

Blair declined to appear before Marin’s investigation and does not support the idea of a public inquiry.

One year later, although the Toronto Police have pledged not to use illegal kettling again, the extraordinary powers of the “Queens breach” and the Public Works Protection Act remain in effect..

Extra reading : When police stick to phony script: the Miami Model from Catherine Porter in the Star

h/t Nadine Lumley.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: Bill Blair, Canada, G20, law, NDP, Ontario, Toronto, Toronto Police Service

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Comments

  1. Ann says

    06/27/2011 at 8:52 pm

    These problems run very very deep. The police force is not the only ones on the edge of stupidity. Our schools may have great policy to stop bullies and our hospitals have amassing policy to get rooms clean but in both cases they are complete failures. In schools children are so bullied they commit suicide rather then go to Ontario Schools. Walk passed any school in the province and listen to the filth coming from the mouths of children. What can you expect when sex offenders are allowed to teach our children. See below. How many people have died in Ontario Hospitals in the last few months from bacteria passing from the same cloth used to clean toilets and then used to clean beds.
    These agencies take great pride in their outrageous conditions..read these statements and tell the victims of these people that it the criminals right to be in Ontario Classrooms or are members of the police force. .
    Paul Fortin, OCT,
    Teacher allowed to re-enter teaching after ???????? with child
    http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/march_2011/go/dispute_resolution.aspx
    http://www.oct.ca/PublicRegister/memberDetails.aspx?memberID=530290

    Principal knows about questionable “sexual behaviour” of Teacher and does not Report Teacher to College
    http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2121249

    Student Killed while school adminsitartion does nothing about violence.
    http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/429189

    Let him out of jail to Teach.
    http://www.oct.ca/investigations_hearings/decision_summaries/sept_03/sept_abdallah.aspx?lang=en-CA

    Female Sex Offender allowed to Teach.
    http://www.oct.ca/investigations_hearings/decision_summaries/dec_05/dec05_webb.aspx?lang=en-CA

    How about this level of gross ignornace….
    Tracy Burns Strip Search
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2010/11/25/ottawa-bonds-video-115.html
    $880,000 Taken from School Board and no one notices.
    http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/01/27/17058051.html

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