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A disciplinary hearing began today — for the Toronto police superintendent accused of over-zealous policing during the G-20 summit, four years ago.
Superintendent David Mark Fenton is charged with discreditable conduct for his role in the mass arrests of nearly 300 Toronto citizens, over two days. Some of those detained, were doing nothing more than walking their dogs. And there’s already a battle brewing over just how far the hearing should go.
Superintendent Fenton is the highest ranking officer to be charged with discreditable conduct in the fallout of the G-20 summit. He was the major incident commander on duty, on both June 26th, and June 27th, 2010 when Toronto police arrested nearly 300 people — and detained them for more than 24 hours only to finally let them go, without laying charges.
Lawyer Janet Borowy: “This fundamentally, is about a violation of Charter Rights.”
The lawyer representing two of the people detained says Fenton, over-stepped his authority: “There weren’t reasonable grounds for those mass arrests, and there certainly weren’t reasonable grounds for the detentions that lasted well over 24 hours.
But Fenton’s lawyer Peter Brauti cautioned that unless the hearing stays focussed on the specific actions of Superintendent Fenton, it may step out of bounds: “This is Mark Fenton’s trial. It’s not the trial of the Toronto Police Service. That would be a different trial.”
Early in the day on the 26th, violent protesters associated with the so-called Black Block Group”, had smashed windows, set cars ablaze, and sprayed graffiti across the business district.
When Fenton came on duty late that afternoon, another group of peaceful protesters had gathered on the Esplanade.
Fenton ordered officers to move in; surround them, in a process known as kettling, and arrest everyone no matter what they were doing. His lawyer will argue that Fenton had ample grounds to do so, because of police intelligence information he was receiving at the time.
Brauti: “Maybe some of that intelligence is accurate and maybe some of that intelligence is inaccurate. But he’s gotta’ make a decision based on the information he has.”
One day later, another group of peaceful protesters near Queen and Spadina was surrounded and arrested en masse. Once again; Fenton was the officer who gave the order. Many complained about rough treatment both at the scene, and later in the temporary mass jail set up to detain protesters.
Brauti: “Superintendent Fenton can only answer for the decisions he made. He made certain decisions to order the arrests, but he can’t speak to the conduct of the officers on the ground.”
But lawyers for the complainants will argue that Fenton was ultimately responsible.
Borowy: “If you’re on the top, you’re on the top — you’re controlling what’s going on, on the ground, at the same time.”
Four weeks have been scheduled to hear the evidence in a complicated case.
