Police question man 45 minutes over placards

BLOG POST posted on June 25, 2010 by Andrew Mindszenthy

Police stopped and questioned Michael Walsh for 45 minutes after they found him carrying protest signs and asking for directions to the Toronto Community Mobilization Network's (TCMN) protesters Convergence Space.

A marked cruiser and unmarked Budget rental van supported almost a dozen officers who surrounded Walsh on Bathurst St during rushhour Thursday, June 24.

Walsh says police told him they "do this all the time" - "go around in the community and ask questions", and that when one officer searching through Walsh's placards without consent found one stating "$1 Billion waste", the officer said "Well, I don't know that its a waste".

Walsh was carrying his travelers' packs and asking two street-involved men for directions when police intervened. The Movement Defence Committee, a volunteer group of legal experts working with TCMN to support G8/G20 protesters, says police have been targetting homeless and street-involved people in illegal detentions and searches leading up to the controvertial sumit that starts Saturday.

Says Walsh: "I feel actually quite badly for [street-involved] people who have those sorts of encounters with police on a regular basis and I'm actually quite concerned about what's coming next [...] civil liberties seem to be going out the window these days."