Check out this petition in the Socialist Voice and sign it if you are concerned about the police action that took place at the G20 meetings in Toronto and join in the call for a public inquiry.

Many Canadians are concerned about the affair as it constitutes an overall shift in the role and powers of the police.  The first few lines of the petition say it best:

The police response to the protests against the G8/G20 in Toronto was the largest mass arrest in Canadian history, surpassing the 1993 Clayoquot Sound logging blockade.

It constituted the most far-reaching single assault on political rights in the Canadian state since the War Measures Act of 1970…

On Saturday, June 26, the mass arrest of protesters began. The pretext for this crackdown was the limited property damage in protests that day, which was similar to recent hockey riots in various cities but treated very differently, as pointed out by journalist Linda McQuaig.

Here is a link to the petition: Toronto Appeal: No More Police State Tactics! Please sign it if you share the concerns of many other Canadians and people around the world who are also concerned about the increasingly heavy handed tactics used by police to segregate the leaders of G20 from the peaceful protesters who are simply exercising their democratic rights to free assembly and free speech.

Peaceful protests have always been considered a part of the democratic process, but in recent years there has been a concerted effort to curtail those rights through nondemocratic and covert means.  Canadian police were caught at Montebello, Quebec a few years ago dressed as “Black Bloc” members with rocks in hand.  No doubt their aim was to discredit the protests by inciting violence.  This time it is not clear if they managed to infiltrate the “Black Bloc,” but again the violent actions of those few idiots was used to shut down all demonstration even though their violence was far from the main body of the peaceful protesters.  They could have targeted the rioters alone, but they have hidden behind poor rhetoric and lies to justify their attack on the peaceful crowds.

If you want to an inquiry into the matter of the police action, please sign the petition, here is the link again: Toronto Appeal: No More Police State Tactics!

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