The following speech was made by Canadian activist Naomi Klein at the telethon held to raise funds the legal costs of G20 protesters. The telethon took place in Toronto on Nov. 11 and rabble.ca carried it live. It can be viewed here.So we are here to raise money.
But more fundamentally, we are here because we know what happened in this city during the G20 and the wrong people are on trial for it.
There are police officers that should be facing charges for assault and harassment -- and so should any supervisors who enabled or covered over those abuses.
So far no one in authority has paid any price for what happened.
According to the Parliamentary Committee underway in Ottawa, the worst crime the cops committed was taking off their name tags.
And let's not forget that our outgoing city council -- lest we get too nostalgic given the incoming city council -- unanimously passed a motion to "commend the outstanding work of Chief Bill Blair, the Toronto Police Service and the police officers working during the G20 summit in Toronto."
But this is not just about the cops. There are also high-level politicians who should be under investigation -- for their role in ordering the militarization of our city, for subverting the legislative process to increase police powers, for grossly misappropriating public funds, using them to buy off constituents and grease donors. Tony Clement
(Conservative MP and Minister of Industry in the Harper government /JC), we are talking about you.
snip
In all, over 1,100 people were arrested -- the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.
Roughly 800 of them were jailed.
From them we have heard many reports of beatings (including beatings of people in handcuffs). Of racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs and threats, of people being screamed at for speaking in languages other than English. Of strip searches of women by male officers, of groping by police, sexual solicitation, rape threats.
We also heard about the shocking detention conditions: people crammed into cells, unable to lie down. Medicines were denied, as was the right to counsel.
I heard from women who were not given sanitary napkins, from others who were denied water and food for longer than a day.
We all owe a great debt of thanks to Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the National Union of Public and General Employees for the hearings they have been holding over the past few days. Providing a space for these stories to be told; doing the job our government won't.
http://rabble.ca/news/2010/11/g20-trials-and-war-activism
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