CEP 87M backs call for G20 inquiry
Editorial
Ontario's largest media union is demanding an independent, federal inquiry into police actions at the G-20 summit in Toronto, particularly with respect to their actions toward media covering the event.
"While we recognize that police faced an extremely difficult situation – and initially acted with great restraint against hooligans attempting to destroy our city – we strongly object to the roughing up and detainment of journalists who were simply attempting to do their job” said Brad Honywill, president of Local 87-M, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Ontario's largest media union.
Honywill said the union has received numerous reports of journalists being held for hours after being caught in crowds that were subjected to a police dragnet.
Journalists report that they were given no warning before police charged in and swept them up along with other individuals in a large group of people.
VIDEO: Paikin on police attack against peaceful protest.
Highly respected veteran TVO host Steve Paikin has also given an eyewitness account of a journalist working for the London Guardian being felled by a punch to the stomach by police, then elbowed as he lay on the ground, simply for asking why he was being held.
"The media is one of the pillars of our democratic society. They have to be in the centre of the action to ensure that they are reporting with accuracy," Honywill noted. "That doesn’t mean that they are above questioning. But it does mean that, once they prove their identity, they should be allowed to do their job and they should not be subjected to beatings in the process. Nor should they be threatened with detainment if they videotape police, as another journalist reported."
Honywill said the inquiry should go beyond that initiated by the Toronto Police Services Board earlier this week. Afterall, this was a federally-coordinated police response so it only makes sense that the investigation be at the federal level. Otherwise, questions will be met with the classic "not my department" response and the public will never get to the truth and crucial lessons will never be learned.
It’s ironic that the actions of the police, who were ostensibly there to protect freedom and democracy, resulted in a dilution of our rights and freedoms.
It’s easy to say that, in these particular circumstances, it’s justifiable to suspend our democratic rights. But if we surrender our hard-earned freedoms without challenge, we begin that slide down the slippery slope toward fascism.
And that’s a ride we don’t want to be on this summer, or any other summer.