Ipso Facto Feature: G20 Legal Observers

The G20 summit has come and gone and while most Torontonians would like their city to go back to “normal”, many of us who were involved in the protests or affected by them are still reeling from the weekend and trying to make sense of what happened.

For much of the weekend I acted as a volunteer legal observer. I along with over 50 other lawyers, law students, and non-lawyers became the on-street eyes and ears of the legal defence team which was set up by the Movement Defence Committee to support all demonstrators throughout the week.

Our role was three-fold. First, to provide know-your-rights information to demonstrators and distribute the telephone number that could be called in case of arrest.  Second, to gather information about people who were being arrested, such as their name, description, any friends or witnesses, their charge and the name and badge number of the arresting police officer. This information would later be written up in an arrest report and given to the legal defence team who could then start tracking the arrested person through the system and provide legal support. Third, our role was to bear witness to any police brutality or misconduct.

At all times, our solidarity was with the demonstrators without judgment.  Regardless of whether one was a peaceful protestor, a passerby, or a member of the so-called Black Bloc, our job was to support the demonstrators without judgment as to their tactics or strategies of protest.

On Saturday, June 26, there I was with my partner in our bright orange legal observer hats, soaking wet from the rain, walking around Queen’s Park handing out legal information and the arrest number before the big civil society march got underway. People were singing and dancing, making speeches, handing out food, hugging comrades, and getting ready to march in protest of the G20. There were almost no police officers to be found.

As the day went on, I bore witness to unprecedented events in Canadian history: tear gas was used for the first time in Toronto, the largest mass arrests in our nation’s history, traumatizing police brutality, and scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie with the infamous burning police cars and smashed in windows of Queen West and Yonge St.

I was there at Queen and John when a breakaway group first tried to make their push south to the security fence and were met by a line of riot police who promptly and without warning started smashing heads. My partner and I saw protestors quickly emerging from the mess with blood on their face and a woman with a potentially broken arm.

Shortly after that, my partner and I witnessed an arrest of two individuals in an alleyway north of Queen on Spadina. Out of sight from the rest of the protest, a car had been pulled over by three unmarked vans and uniformed and undercover police officers together were arresting two individuals. Four other officers created a barrier wall so that we could not get close enough to get proper descriptions or names of the people. We took notes, describing everything we could.

My experience as a legal observer at the G20 summit came at unique time for me as I transition from being a law student to working as an articling student.  It has helped me meet other progressive law students and lawyers and provided some much needed “real life” experience.

Although the G20 might be officially over, the consequences of that weekend are just starting to emerge.  Calls for a public inquiry into police misconduct and potential class action and civil suits against the police are starting to take shape. In some cases, the presence of legal observers during the protests helped to keep police action in check. In other cases, our presence on those days will allow us to play a positive role in the aftermath.

Guest contributor Robert Tarantino is an alum of the University of Windsor Faculty of Law.  For more of our G20 coverage, check out our feature episode from October 6th 2010 on www.cjam.ca

Photos by Meg Banks.