FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 28, 2010
G20 5-metre rule charges against environmental organizer mysteriously “disappear”
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/433
Toronto – Dave Vasey, a 31 year old environmental justice organizer appeared in court today, July 28, to request further details about the charges laid against him when he was arrested under the Public Works Act on 24 June, 2010, only to find that the file was no longer on record either on paper or on the Police database.
The presiding Justice of the Peace called the circumstances “highly unusual”.
“It is obvious that under Harper’s watch, the Police can get away with almost anything - they create fake laws, file fake charges, and then the charges disappear”, said Vasey who was detained for over 5 hours and then separately for over 18 hours.
“The Police carried out politically motivated arrests in an obvious attempt to try and scare people away from speaking out against the G20 policies and the misguided billion dollar circus that Harper rolled through Toronto”, said Claudia Calabro, a community organizer from the Toronto Community Mobilization Network who was detained at Queen and Noble for 3 hour without charge. Another 300 people are facing G20 related charges.
“When people are arrested for walking on the street, for blowing bubbles, for going into their own offices, it is as if the Police had completely lost any good sense”, Vasey added. “It is time for the police to drop all charges related to G20, and for Harper, McGuinty, Blair and Fantino to come clean with what actually happened in that one week in June in Toronto”.
“The mysterious disappearance of the charges points to an ongoing conspiracy to evade accountability around this.” Calabro added. “Those responsible for the G20 so-called security debacle from the Prime Minister’s office down must face the music”.
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For more information, contact
Dave Vasey, 416 820 6007
Claudia Calabro, 647 294 6426
tcmn.media@gmail.com
Twitter: @g20mobilize
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/
I thought I heard something recently about how the Supreme Court had just ruled in a case of illegal detention somewhere and awarded the person arrested $5,000 in compensation. Now the Toronto Cop club can say, "arrest, what arrest?"
I suspect or predict that almost all charges will drop one by one as the judicial process moves forward. Presenting dubious charges before a court of law is not in the police interests, so almost all charges will drop soon.
The current 200 or so charges are a media spectacle, meant to give the people the impression that those "criminal protestors, bent on destroying Toronto" committed illegal actions. As time passes, as the media reduce their coverage and the people start forgetting, the charges will disappear.
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