Communist Party Leader Calls for Independent Inquiry into Police Repression during G20

 Communist Party of Canada leader Miguel Figueroa today sharply denounced the wave of police repression which swept over downtown Toronto since last Saturday afternoon during the G20 Summit, and has called for a comprehensive independent public inquiry, including a thorough investigation of those politically responsible for giving a “green light” for the police thuggery and the unprecedented number of detentions and arrests.

 “Most of the 900 people – mainly youths – arrested on Saturday and Sunday were not engaged in any unlawful activity…. nor were they anywhere near the perimeter fences. They were expressing their democratic right to dissent in public,” CPC leader Figueroa said. “Even media workers and curious bystanders were victimized when the police charged and began indiscriminately beating, bloodying and detaining all those in the vicinity.”

 “This outrage has been compounded by the ill-treatment of the detainees – most of whom are still awaiting their bail hearings. Reports are already filtering out of the arrested being herded into cold, dirty and cramped quarters, and denied even basic access to food, water or bathroom facilities, in violation of their rights.”

 “The police ‘riot’ and the mass arrests did not come about spontaneously, or result from the overzealous behaviour of individual officers,” The CP leader added. “It is obvious that the police tactics had been carefully worked out well in advance, provided with legal ‘cover’ by Ontario premier Dalton McGinty’s secretive Order-in-Council measure, and vetted by the Office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.”

 “All three – Harper, McGinty and Toronto Police Chief Blair – are culpable for this ‘reign of terror’ on the streets of Toronto.”

The Communist Party, along with many other labour and democratic organizations, are also furious about the mounting evidence that police sent in undercover agents provocateurs to mingle among the protesting anarchist groupings, and instigate property damage and the torching of police vehicles in order to provoke clashes and justify the heavy-handed police attacks.

 “These tactics are not new – the use of police provocators masquerading as members of the anarchist “Black Bloc” or similar ‘direct-action’ groups was well documented in the 2007 SPP protests in Montebello, Quebec, and at other summit protests around the world,” Figueroa noted.

 “And their purpose is all-too-clear – to discredit and delegitimize genuine mass protests against the capitalist policies of the monopolies, the banks and their governments; to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation to frighten others from openly expressing their opposition; and to pave the way to ever more authoritarian limits on civil liberties and political rights.”

 “Such repugnant tactics have no place in our society… those responsible for organizing and authorizing these proto-‘police state’ actions must be identified and brought to public account.”

 The Communist Party leader also criticized the adventurist policies and actions by various anarchist groupings – especially the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance (SOAR) and the somewhat amorphous “Black Bloc” – for playing into the hands of state repression.

 “It is high time that the anarchists and their misguided and counter-productive policies be publicly repudiated and condemned. Their infantile antics pose absolutely no threat to the ruling class and its state apparatus,” Figueroa said.

 “On the contrary, such actions are extremely harmful in that they scare away the masses of working people from political struggle, and provide a convenient cover to those trying to further curtail the democratic rights of the people.”

 The Communist Party leader concluded by reiterating his Party’s demand for immediate measures to guarantee the rights of the detained people, including their speedy access to a court hearing; for a full and independent public inquiry into this appalling incident; and for stepped-up efforts to build a broad, militant and united Canada-wide campaign to defeat the Harper Conservatives.