Another call for public inquiry into G20 arrests

TORONTO, Ont. – Tuesday marked the 100th day since the G20 summit meetings wrapped up in Toronto, and the provincial New Democrat Party marked the date by making another call for a public inquiry into police behaviour over the late June weekend.

Leader Andrea Horwath is tabling a private member’s bill calling for a public inquiry into the G20 violence. If it is accepted, it would be the seventh in a list of reviews into the weekend’s occurrences, as six others are already underway.

Horwath told 680News that a provincial commission would hold greater powers than  the six others, as “none of which has the ability to compel documents, none of which has the ability to subpoena witnesses, none of which really frankly is required to publicly report.”

“There’s no over-arching effort to connect all the dots if you will, and to get a real systemic view of what happened.”

A provincial commission would have the ability to bring in documents and witnesses – including government officials from the ministry, and examine all the evidence in detail before it was obligated to deliver a final report.

“We need to see what kinds of decisions were made, who asked who to do what, how our laws changed in the middle of the night without anybody knowing,” Horwath said.

The NDP requests that the inquiry question everyone from police to politicians, and uncover why over 1,000 people were arrested when many of them were innocent.

Horwath said the event turned into “the largest mass arrest in the history of our country. It speaks to the need to make sure the public understands what went on there, what went wrong there.”

The NDP leader added that if we forget the scars Toronto was left with following the weekend of chaos, it could become a benchmark for the city.

“The worst thing that could happen is that we all just forget about this. That becomes the standard for policing of large events in Ontario,” she said.

“I don’t think that’s a standard that we’re all comfortable with.”