A photograph taken during the June 27, 2010 kettling at Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave., which is the focus of a disciplinary hearing against Supt. David (Mark) Fenton.
By: Wendy Gillis News reporter, Published on Tue Dec 16 2014
A key phone conversation between two high-ranking police officers at the height of G20 chaos became the focus of the disciplinary hearing Tuesday for Supt. David (Mark) Fenton, the most senior Toronto police officer accused of misconduct during the notorious June 2010 summit.
The central question was whether officers on the ground were told to detain each person at the intersection of Queen St. and Spadina Ave. on the frigid night of June 27, 2010 — regardless of their involvement in the demonstrations — or informed they could use their discretion to allow non-protestors to leave.
Staff Insp. David Marks, second in command when more than 250 people were kettled for hours in torrential rain, testified Tuesday he plainly told Insp. Norn Miles, a senior officer on the ground that night, that the officers he was controlling could let some people to leave.
“You have a clear recollection of indicating to him, ‘Of course, you have discretion?’ ” asked Peter Brauti, the lawyer representing Fenton, the major incident commander who ordered the unprecedented arrests.
“I do,” said Marks, who was working out of the major incident command centre (MICC) at the time.
Marks added he was surprised that even had to be said, because it was obvious that discretion should be used.
Not so, Miles later testified Tuesday, after he was recalled to the stand specifically to speak about the conversation with Marks.
The now-retired York Regional Police officer was an on-the-ground commander on the evening of June 27. In testimony given earlier this month, Miles said he told senior officers working out of MICC that there were passersby wrongly detained inside the kettle, but it was “abundantly” clear that he would not be permitted to let them to leave.
“If I had discretion,” Miles said Tuesday, “I would have released many more people.”
Miles previously testified that he was so eager to release people, he faked their arrests to let them go.
Fenton is charged with five counts of unlawful arrest and discreditable conduct in the kettling and mass arrests of hundreds of protesters. He has pleaded not guilty.
A detailed report into police actions during the G20 produced by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director found that the MICC, where Fenton and other senior officers were based, became “an autocratic structure” and that Fenton accepted “little or no input” from officers on the ground.
“In effect, the MICC took all independence and decision-making responsibilities away from the commanders who were placed in tactical command on the ground,” said the report.
For the first time since the G20 summit, Fenton is scheduled to take the stand Wednesday to discuss his decision-making during a weekend that saw the largest mass arrest in Canada’s peacetime history.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
The G-20 Arbitrary arrests are a symptom of a Fas.cist Ontario Government
that under different political parties has slowly evolved into a ruthless
Government where the Rule of Law, justice and equality has gone into a spiral
dive.
Our Police forces are unaccountable Criminal Cartels where abuses of process,
malicious prosecutions, a Government gender Superiority Program that promotes
domestic violence towards fathers that results in 99% of children in custody
cases being placed with women even women who attempt to murder the fathers of
their children.
Ottawa Police Detective Peter Van der Zander had a woman brought in by offices
arrested for assaulting her husband by CHOKING.
The officers report clearly identified that he had scratch marks around his
neck, some blood on his neck and significant bruising.
He then Fabricated an Occurance report that read "she denied pulling his hair
and attempting to choke him".
The Ottawa Police took nearly two years to provide disclosure of that video
interview and it shows that he never asked her the question. He did however
express concern that she might next time kill him with a knife and "next time"
she should call police and ask for help. With that he sent her home with a
Victim Support worker in the worker car with out any charges being laid.
Det. Peter Van Der Zander then terrorized the male victim of the strangulation
with an interrogation that alluded he was a pedophile. He was released then 16
hours later after he arranged for the children to be taken from his full time
care and placed with the violent mother.
The OIPRD refused to investigate as did his Supervisors Sgt. Granger and Norm
Freill and even the Chief of the Ottawa Police.
Ottawa Mens Centre