[Ayes]

I think this is a really important issue.

We should make a note of saying that we don't want anyone to have their rights taken away, even temporarily.
This is a dangerous area of leadership. Whose to say FutureConservative 2050 won't invoke the war measures act over a threat (superficial or legitimate) and then stretch it out eternally? This would essentially turn everyone in Canada into slaves or prisoners.

There is no excuse to give the government the kind of power they've excercised at the G20 summit, and that is because it goes against what Canada should be, and it is eerily totalitarian.

Why should Canada have laws that give the government the literal power to turn us into their slaves?

It's not that the Harper government is going to enslave us, but for future generations, I think we can all agree, the best thing for us to do is set a precedent now that people should be able to keep their rights because that is why we have them.

To make sure they aren't abused in the future by god knows what.  Government office is corruptable, so we need to design law to protect people from the potential of malicious or power tripping leaders.

[phro]

There is no excuse to give the government the kind of power they've excercised at the G20 summit ...

Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

[Ayes]

Before you read anything, watch this video and note in your mental diary how it makes you feel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qynihO0WFHc

The province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search.

A 31-year-old man has already been arrested under the new regulation, which was quietly passed by the provincial cabinet on June 2.

The regulation was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who wanted additional policing powers shortly after learning the G20 was coming to Toronto.

The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.

In Toronto, more than 900 people were arrested in a 36-hour period.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has described the arrests as unprecedented, disproportionate, arbitrary and excessive.

The justification for the insane shit is mostly to defeat the Anarchists, the Black Bloc, who have a proven past of sometimes having agent provocateurs among them, paid phoney government protestors there to escelate tension, cause damage, and allow the protest to be disbanded.

JAY: And there was an incident in Quebec, right, where there actually—eventually the QPP had to admit they had people inside the black bloc, and it was quite controversial.

MILLER: That's true. I can't dispute the past. All I can talk about is what's happening in Toronto. And I've got confidence in the leadership of the Toronto Police Service, because I have watched the way they police. Every police officer here outside the secure area is under their command. Inside, it's the RCMP, but they're not policing the demonstrations. This is under Toronto's command.

JAY: Okay. One more quick question. What do you make of this legislation that—the Public Works Act, which is—I don't know if you got a chance to read it. It actually in some places seems to go further than the War Measures Act. And, apparently, it comes from 1939, just before the start of the war. But it actually allows, if I understand it correctly—and I have it here—it gives a police officer, or anyone the government deems to be a guard, the authority to define what public property is. It can be any amount of space, and it can't be opposed in a court, and someone can go to jail for two months.

MILLER: So, I've been briefed on it; I haven't read the legislation, but I've been briefed on it. My comment would be that the one thing I think should've been handled differently is these regulations, like any normal regulation, should have been posted for public comment. I think that's the way they should be handled. And then people can make all of the comments that they're making now ahead of time. That's the way regulations are supposed to be done in this city and this country. That's what democracy's all about. They should be posted. People can comment on them and their appropriateness for or against.

http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5325

Steve Paikin[/url]]Back in the early 1960s, the government of John Robarts tried to pass a similarly far-reaching law (Bill 99), which would have given the police powers similar to what they had this weekend. The government's own backbenchers found the law so inappropriate and inconsistent with our democratic traditions that they mutinied. Premier Robarts' attorney-general, Fred Cass, was forced to withdraw the bill and resign.

I have lived in Toronto for more than three decades. I have covered my share of demonstrations. We have a wonderful history of peaceful democratic protest in this city. But at the incident I found myself in on Saturday night, democracy took a major step backwards. And many will have to answer for that.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/black+democracy/3213726/story.html#ixzz0sTHWg6qE

user generated media youtubes:
G20 DAY 2 - POLICE SNATCH SQUAD KIDNAP PROTESTER FOR GETTING TOO CLOSE TO THEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3y2nOlAj44
G20 Toronto Protest plainclothes cops arresting a dude / scary cop lady / agents provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XgEI5dCrE
G20 Toronto: HUNDREDS OF COPS SEAL OFF AND SHUT DOWN FREE SPEECH ZONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9dlcBrKPoQ

[phro]

Sorry man, I should have been more specific.  I live in downtown TO and I work on Front street. I also went and met a journalist friend of mine as he was released from the Eastern Ave detention center.  I have a good understanding of what happened during the protests.  (Note with regard to the first video you posted I have heard from another friend who was present that someone started smashing windows on to the left behind the singers.  Can't say for certain however, I wasn't there.)

What I wanted to know more about was what you mean by your comments about giving power.  From my perspective an appropriate amount of power was given, but your examples show that an excess of power that hadn't been given was taken in secret and used anyway.  If you agree with that reasoning then it would follow from one of PPCA's basic positions of increasing gov't transparency that we already endorse efforts to build legal structures that hinder corrupt officials (both policymakers and civil servants like police) and make them accountable.

Is there a more specific position than that you think we ought to take up?

[Concerned Citizen]

I don't know... maybe not turning downtown Toronto into a police state because 20 bigshots and their entourages want a 2 day vacation in Toronto?

This is our city, we didn't want the G20 to come here. Now if we had a mayor with a pair instead of Miller he would have told Harper where to shove his G20 summit.

[phro]

I didn't say hosting it here was a great idea.  I would have suggested Yellowknife.  But stupid scheduling aside is there a platform position here we don't already support?

[Yehoshua]

Just a brief note to correct the misconception that it's the far-right that "will enslave us" in the original post...the War Measures Act has only been used once, and it was by Trudeau (A far-left Liberal) and the "temporary suspension of civil rights in Canada" during the G20 was actually largely at the whim of the Ontario legislature - dominated and led...again by a Liberal.

Beware the left, as much as the right.

[Concerned Citizen]

Beware the left, as much as the right.

I'm more afraid of men who sit around in ivory towers ruling over the common man. They are far too removed from the people they govern to understand their plights. Such is the way of the left, right and middle when they have too much power and not enough responsibility or accountability.

[Nuitari]

They could also do the meeting on an aircraft carrier out at sea.
Or use Cisco's Telepresence.

[Ayes]

Beware the left, as much as the right.

The G20 is stephen harper's baby

plus I think if the war-loving freedom-busting right wing plutocrats were going to enslave us, I think they would probably trick us into thinking we were putting a liberal in office when they did it

[Tyler Jacquard]

*eyeroll*

The riots in Toronto was a complete and utter disaster on both the police and the violent protectors using the Black Bloc tactics. Now I will play devil's advocate here.

We had the riots during the olympics where similar protesters trashed a lot of the area. They continuously turned peaceful protests to what I would describe as orgies of destruction. Mass chaos went rampant and they continuously pushed the laws. Destruction of glass windows, vehicles, mailboxes, and anything that could be used as a threat to the police. The result, the police had to withdraw and simply block them until they gave up.

Now we have the incident that happened here. From the last event, no one can really blame the police chief of fearing the worst situation and wanting restrictions lifted on his forces. Protests come and go, the Black Bloc tactics are used once again. The strategy of the first day of huddling and hoping they would turn away eventually completely failed. Second day they used their loosened powers to decimate any illegal activity and end the black bloc tactics used by the protesters.

In all fairness, I know if there were massive, destructive, riots in the streets, I would want my police to at least end the riot. Whether or not the police arrested a good percentage of bystanders, people were publicly WARNED to stay away from the security zone. Once the peaceful protesters were also gone, I would have hoped that people would have gotten the message.

Correction on when I mean the protesters that were using the black bloc tactics, they were doing CRIMINAL activities and destroying the CITY! "you must learn to distinguish between a patriotic act of protest and mob rule". This doesn't mean that the police have special powers that can throw us into a dictatorship. Given the circumstances and the damage, anyone would want their police to do their job. Because the people living in Toronto don't want to deal with the fallout.

Quote from John Adams [1770's]

[doconnor]

In response to the property destruction cause by the Black Bloc tactics, the police seem to respond by completely abandoning the idea the Canadians have rights that are protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

There may have been about 100 people involved the property destruction, yet the police arrested over 900 people. By all accounts they where mostly peaceful protesters and people who where just walking by (violation of sections 2 and 9 of the Charter). There are numerous reports of people being search without cause (violation of section 8). All reports from the detention centre suggest conditions where unacceptable and most people where denied their right to a lawyer (violation of section 10).

Even if you except what the police say (and many of their statement has been proven to be wrong) it still doesn't justify what they did.

This has been the largest and most blatant violation of Canadian's rights since the Charter was enacted in 1982.

While the Pirate Party of Canada is primarily about digital right, I think the party should very strongly condemn these police actions and call for special prosecutor to be named to investigate police actions and lay criminal or Police Act charges as appropriate, followed by a Judaical Inquiry.