Categories: Need to know

Toronto Police Chief admits mistake during G20

“Kettling” for four hours was inappropriate: Chief Bill Blair

by macleans.ca on Friday, September 3, 2010 12:33pm - 0 Comments

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair admitted that his force made a mistake on Sunday, June 27 when they boxed-in roughly 250 people during the G20 summit and held them for four hours in the pouring rain. “When I became aware of [the ongoing containment], I said, ‘That’s it, release them all immediately and unconditionally,’ and that was done. But it probably could have happened sooner,” he told the Globe and Mail. Police resorted to the “kettling” technique when they surrounded both protesters and bystanders on all four sides of the intersection of Queen and Spadina Streets in the late afternoon. Chief Blair said police were justified in kettlling the crowd at that point; it just should have ended sooner. Blair’s remarks came the same week a Toronto lawyer launched a class-action lawsuit seeking $115-million for roughly 1,150 plaintiffs alleging police failures during the three-day summit. A separate $45-million lawsuit was launched earlier this month by 800 people arrested that weekend.

Globe and Mail

Tags: G20, G20 policing, summit

Mike Wheatley

My god, what an empty half apology that is. We all know, it's much easier "to ask for forgiveness than to get permission".
Apologies are much too easy to make these days and they're are never any significant consequences.
true north

Chief Blair didnt make an apology, he admitted that the police force made a mistake which was corrected…Agree, apologies are much to easy to make these days,thats probably why he didnt make one .
Big Man

Eventually releasing your captives does not exculpate you of forcible confinement/ wrongful detention… see you in court, Fascist!
Jenn_

Are you guys kidding me? Apologies are apparently the hardest thing ever to do. Nobody apologizes for anything anymore, even when it is plainly required. Like in this case, where Chief Blair certainly should have apologized when he admitted the mistake. It's another three words or so, I just don't get it.

Having said that, why is it Chief Blair? I thought the security response (for all the police and security forces) was being coordinated by the Integrated Security Unit of the RCMP? Wouldn't they have been the ones to order the kettling?
true north

If the RCMP were co-ordinating the exercise, is it then possible that Chief Blair was taking his instructions from ISU. ?
Jenn_

Well, that's what I mean. Is the real story here that ISU left Blair out to dangle in the wind, and this admitting a mistake is Blair's way of defending himself? Because, you know, I think he'd have been able to put a bit of a finer point on it than that. So was ISU NOT running things after all, or how did this work operationally?
sea_n_mountains

great questions Jenn!
true north

I would bet you are right that ISU is calling the shots, and Blair is the one taking the heat …..
Thwim

Meh. You're assuming competence within the ISU to put together a detailed set of orders and get them to the right people at the right time. At least four separate organizations made up the ISU, put together in rather rapid fashion specifically for this one event. To think that it's operations would run smoothly is to give all of the groups a hell of a lot of credit.
true north

In other words , the left hand dosn't Know what the right ones doing ?
true north

Ooops, typo..doesn't…..