Trust Jim Bradley to sweep his Liberal secret-G20-law under the rug

Antonella Artuso reported in " 'Martial law' imposed during summit: ombudsman" (Toronto Sun, Dec.8, 2010):

"Torontonions were effectively placed under martial law during the G20 Summit, says Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin.

The provincial government’s decision to secretly invoke an obscure 1939 war measures law to give police extreme powers to detain, search and arrest people was likely unconstitutional and unnecessary, Marin says in his report, Caught in the Act, which was released Tuesday.

Toronto Police also went beyond the unusual powers granted by the Public Works Protection Act regulation, using it inappropriately to stop and search possibly thousands of citizen across the downtown core in violation of their Charter rights, he said.

“For the citizens of Toronto, the days up to and including the weekend of the G20 will live in infamy as a time period where martial law set in the City of Toronto leading to the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history,” Marin said. “And we can never let that happen again.”

The now infamous Regulation 233 was quietly passed by the Dalton McGuinty government at the direct request of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair in the days leading up to the June summit.

“Regulation 233’s ground zero was in Chief Blair’s office. No other police agency wanted anything to do with this police regulation,” he said.

Ignoring warnings from his own staff that the legislation might be

problematic, then Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci agreed to the regulation, the report says.

The ministry made a conscious decision not to publicize the rule, essentially “entrapping” protesters who were unaware that their legal rights had changed dramatically, Marin said.

“Aside from a coterie of senior officials in government and the Toronto Police Service, no one else was aware of the existence of this regulation or the fact that it would trigger what amounted to martial law in downtown Toronto,” he said.

Blair, speaking after someone had already been arrested for approaching the fence, told the media at the beginning of the summit that the law gave officers the right to search and arrest anyone who came within five metres of that structure.

It was only after the weekend had passed that it became clear the

public had been misinformed and that the rule only applied within the fence.

Marin said he got “zero cooperation” from the police chief who said no to interviews on behalf of himself and his officers.

The Toronto Police Services Board issued a statement saying it expects lawful and professional conduct from its officers.

“The Board has confidence in Chief Blair’s commitment to upholding, at all times, the professional standards and core values of the service,” the statement says.

Community Safety Minister Jim Bradley, who was shuffled into the position after the G20 summit, said the government should have been more clear in notifying the public about Regulation 233.


The Public Works Protection Act is currently being reviewed by retired Chief Justice Roy McMurtry, and he expects that changes to the law will be recommended.

Marin has told the government that it should rewrite or drop the Act and take further steps to prevent similar abuses.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said it’s clear a public inquiry is needed to get at all the issues raised by the G20 Summit.

PC Leader Tim Hudak said Bartolucci, who’s still in McGuinty’s cabinet, should be fired.

McGuinty said Tuesday that he had not read Marin’s report but his government has welcomed and implemented the ombudsman’s recommendations in the past. "

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Unbelievable, isn't it: Ontario's ombudsman releases his report regarding the worst civil rights violation by government in Charter history - and yet the disgusting Liberal premier of Ontario claims HE HASN'T READ THE REPORT!!!

Seriously?!? He 'didn't read the report'??!!

Are we supposed to believe that McGuinty had SOMETHING BETTER TO DO than read this extraordinary report which outlines the frightening extent of McGuinty's fascist-style police state?!!!!!!! [That's an evasion tactic similar to Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's, who, just after the NHS's HIP report was released in 2008, told us he still had to read the report - and we've not heard his reaction to it ever since!]

The St.Catharines Standard newspaper, in Jim Bradley's own riding, has not once written a story providing a local interview with Jim Bradley about the G20, or, more recently, about the Auditor's 2010 report - see here.

No one in the local press has bothered to ask newly 'shuffled' [as Artuso makes great pains to tell us - as if that makes him somehow less suspicious!] Bradley - the puppet-master now in charge of the G20 limited-scope cover-up/ fake investigation, for cryin' out loud - to publicly reveal when he first learned of his own government's secret G20 law.

When exactly did Jim Bradley learn of his own Liberal government's secretive actions?

Why hasn't Bradley revealed that tidbit of information?

Isn't that important for the public to know, seeing as McGuinty 'shuffled' Jimmy to head the Liberals' sweep-the G20-under-the-rug campaign?

Where was Jim Bradley when his Liberal goons were passing secret laws and planning to violate our Charter of Rights with a virtual martial law? [Wasn't that exactly your dictatorial Liberal government's intent, Jim?] Where was Jim Bradley when the riots were occurring? What did Bradley do - prior to, and during, the riots - to subsequently deserve being promoted by McGuinty to become the Grit's Chief G20 Sweeper-Upper?

When Bradley says that his Liberal government "should have been more clear in notifying the public", is Bradley referring to himself also? Did Jim Bradley - McGuinty's new G20-Clean-Up/Cover-Up Man; the new Grit fox guarding the hen house - know about the G20 law for weeks prior to its public revelation? Did Bradley himself fail to warn Ontarians about his own Liberal government's secret G20 law? Or did Jim only find out about his Liberals' G20 law while watching the riots on TV?

McMurtry's limited-by-clever-Liberal-design 'probe' is about the old 1939 act, and not about what McGuinty's Liberal dictatorship did in enacting a secret law and then casually sitting by as the ugly aftermath unfolded.

McGuinty's Liberal cabinet should be indicted on criminal charges for what they purposefully created.
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[Shouldn't it be "Torontotonians" not ...onions?!]
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