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Marin released a report about Ontario Regulation 233/10 under the Public Works Act, which allowed for arbitrary search and seizure near the securtiy fence. He found the regulation was probably uncon- stitutional and went on to call the G20 police action "the most massive compro- mise of civil liberties in Canadian history." Des Rosiers says all of these forums' combined efforts will fall short of what a federal-provincial public inquiry could accomplish in terms of identifying and remedying any mistakes that were made during the summits. The only way to answer many lingering questions is by compelling evidence from police, she argues. "We still don't understand how come, with all these police officers in town, there was no attempt to catch the vandals that went about their criminal actions for quite a long time," she says, referring to the group of Black Bloc protestors who dam- aged businesses and set police cars ablaze. Those vehicles burned for hours while police and firefighters failed to respond to emergency calls from citizens concerned the cars would explode. The CCLA and others also want to find out why police tactics seemed to change so abruptly after the Black Bloc protesters went on their spree, with a far more confrontational approach setting in afterward, and why many officers went rogue and removed their name tags once that shift took place. Many also want to know why opera- tions at an ad hoc detention centre at 629 Eastern Ave., just outside the downtown core, seemed so disorganized. There have been accusations that police did not prop- erly process detainees, and that access to food, lawyers, and phone calls was inad- equate. "There's a lot of questions about the competence of the police, and the way in which they undertook that task, but also there were certainly some abuses of power," Des Rosiers asserts. While the various reviews with nar- row mandates will look at aspects of these complaints, the CCLA believes only a wide-ranging public inquiry could delve into the communication between the var- ious police forces that contributed to the security presence. On top of that, it would likely be a lot cheaper to combine the reviews into a single overarching forum. The association has sent formal requests for that type of inquiry to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who directed them to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who has not responded. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also been silent on a petition calling for a full public inquiry. That has left it up to the House of Commons public safety committee to try to shed light on the federal government's role in summit planning and execution. The committee has held hearings where it received comments both from those who felt they were aggrieved during the summit, as well as those involved in over- ing questions will be answered. "We still, to this day, have the federal government saying they weren't responsible for secu- rity, and yet they were supposed to be at the top of the food chain," he says. "They were the ones who had the Integrated Security Unit and were heading it up, and yet they're saying they were not head of security. So when you have that lack of responsibility, it leaves the door open to a lot of problems." While the federal public safety commit- tee's findings will outline many concerns about the summit, Holland admits it will fall far short of the wide-ranging review "They can make all the points they want to make by proceeding against five or six people they allege are the main people. To create this monster that's going to be, quite frankly unmanageable, is real folly on their part." Howard Morton seeing the federal government's security efforts. The committee is now putting together a report on its findings, which Liberal MP and committee vice chair- man Mark Holland expects to be released sometime this spring. "Clearly what hap- pened was deeply disturbing," he says. "There were very clear violations." Yet the Liberal critic for the public safe- ty and national security portfolio sympa- thizes with police forces that were required to pull a plan together within months after the federal government decided the initial plan to hold both summits in Huntsville presented logistical issues, with the small town north of Toronto lacking adequate infrastructure to service leaders and their entourages. Holland suggests most G20 hosts have years to plan their security strategy. But for Canada's law enforce- ment establishment, "It landed on their lap," he says. He would like to know how that decision was made. Holland would also like an explanation for the ambiguous chain of command that was set up through the Integrated Security Unit. The lack of clear decision-making powers has made it easy for authorities to pass the buck, but unlikely that pierc- that is truly needed after the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. He believes an additional review of the federal govern- ment's actions surrounding the security effort is vital, although he does not believe it should be costly. It just needs the power to compel evidence. "The committee was unable to get most of those answers. Many of the witnesses who came simply refused to answer, or kept saying it was somebody else's responsibility. Well, ultimately it was somebody's choice, somebody's respon- sibility. Somebody made these decisions, and we need to find out who and why. That's the only way we can really assure that it doesn't happen again." If those answers aren't extracted and accountability made, a message will be sent that "you can get away with anything by blaming anyone and everyone," he con- tinues. "It's a strategy that, if vindicated, is dangerous, because it essentially says, 'This is a good way to go. Just point your finger in seven different directions, and eventually everything will go away and no one will face any consequence for what happened.' That's not acceptable, and it sets a dangerous precedent, and that's why we need to get answers." www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M A RCH 2011 29