Computer hacker found not guilty of G-20 summit bomb plot

[mentalfloss]

Apparently he spent 10 months in jail before they could finally come to their senses to let him go.

Computer hacker found not guilty of G-20 summit bomb plot

OTTAWA — A protester arrested as leaders of the world's top economies gathered in Toronto in June 2010 was cleared by a Canadian court Tuesday in an alleged G20 summit bomb plot.

Justice Nancy Spies ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict Byron Sonne, 39, of possessing explosive materials, nor of counseling others to commit mischief.

Sonne was originally accused of assembling explosives in the basement of his million-dollar home in midtown Toronto, several kilometers (miles) from the G20 summit site.

But by the time the case got to trial the charge was reduced to possessing explosive materials, which he claimed were chemicals for his rocketry hobby.

Canadian police had been extra vigilant ahead of the back-to-back June 25-27, 2010 summits of the Group of Eight and G20 nations in the Toronto region.

Some 20,000 policemen from across Canada secured summit sites in Toronto and Huntsville, north of the metropolis.

Sonne's arrest was conspicuous in part because he seemed to be an improbable terrorist, living in a tony neighborhood of Toronto.

The court heard that Sonne had not assembled any bombs and police found neither bomb-making plans nor a detonator when they raided his home, but the Crown argued that he possessed the ingredients to build a bomb.

Prosecutors also said that he incited others through social media to disrupt the massive G20 security apparatus by posting photos of a security fence, surveillance cameras and police officers patrolling the summit site.

As well, said prosecutors, he suggested ways in which one could scale or pull down the three-meter-high (10-foot) perimeter fence around the Toronto summit site that was to be accessible only to delegates and media covering the event.

Sonne, a self-proclaimed mischief-maker whose day job was testing online security systems for vulnerabilities, said he was just pointing out flaws in the security for the summit.

His wife, Kristen Peterson, was arrested two days after her husband but charges against her were dropped. She and Sonne divorced last year.

AFP: Computer hacker not guilty of G20 summit bomb plot: court

 

[petros]

Bomb making materials? I'd better clear out all my cleaning products before I get busted.

 

[taxslave]

Bomb making materials? I'd better clear out all my cleaning products before I get busted.

Don't forget to dump your diesel tanks and burn your fertilizer. Got an alarm clock? How about a remote control? Dump them as well since they can be used for timers.

 

[mentalfloss]

G20 police trampled ‘basic rights of citizens,’ scathing report concludes

High-ranking Toronto police commanders overreacted during the G20 summit in June 2010 and assumed an “autocratic structure,” with superior officers — including police chief Bill Blair, according to one superintendent — disseminating orders to “own the streets” and take them back from the “terrorists that were attacking our city,” a scathing report from the province’s police complaints watchdog has found.

The result on the ground, according to the sweeping report, was officers “blindly following orders” and using excessive force, “ignor(ing) the basic rights of citizens under the Charter,” and acting unlawfully when they boxed in hundreds of people at the Novotel hotel and at the intersection of Queen St. and Spadina Ave.

But some officers on the ground strongly disagreed with orders coming from the top, and one officer accused the Major Incident Command Centre (MICC) of being “maniacal,” according to an audio recording quoted in the report. Other officers disobeyed direct orders to corral people at Queen and Spadina and “personally removed non-protesters and peaceful protesters.”

The highly anticipated 300-page report — released Wednesday by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) — is the most comprehensive probe into police actions during the June 2010 summit weekend to date.

Officers told the OIPRD they were ordered to investigate anyone carrying a backpack and anyone wearing a disguise (such as gas masks, balaclavas or bandanas), thus violating citizens’ basic Charter rights.

Poor documentation made it impossible to know exactly how many people were arrested, the report said. In his own review of the G20, Toronto police chief Bill Blair said the total was 1,118; the OIPRD report, however, estimates at least 1,140 people were arrested.

The OIPRD review found that police officers at the G20 were woefully ill-prepared – with officer training “largely delivered electronically” – and that officers from out of town had trouble finding their way around the city, with one using a “rudimentary map from a subway box.”

The temporary detention centre on Eastern Ave. was “poorly planned, designed and operated,” leading to “gross violations of prisoner rights.” Although many prisoners were arrested for “breach of peace” violations, there was no plan in place at the temporary jail for how breach-of-peace arrests were to be processed.

According to the report, police switched tactics on Saturday, June 26, shortly after black-clad vandals broke out from peaceful protest marches and began vandalizing property and torching police cars.

In a statement to the OIPRD, incident commander Mark Fenton said a meeting was held at the major command centre to address the outbreak of violence. Many people were in attendance, including the chief, who “appeared to be angry and frustrated in his demeanour.”

“At a point where there was silence, I asked the question, ‘Why are we not arresting these people?’” Fenton is quoted as saying. “The Chief responded by looking at me and saying, ‘That is a very good question, Mark.’”

Fenton said he also asked another incident commander how the situation had spiraled out of control.

“Superintendent Ferguson responded by shaking his head and saying words to the effect of, ‘I tried, but I could not get the public order to move’ … I asked them to move and I was told that they couldn’t.’”

Fenton took over control at that 5:25 p.m., according to the OIPRD report, and was told by a deputy police chief Tony Warr to “take back the streets.”

“I understood his instructions to mean that he wanted me to make the streets of Toronto safe again,” Fenton explained in the report. “He wanted the streets that had been made unsafe by the terrorists that were attacking our city to me made safe again by restoring order.”

In the early hours of June 27, the second day of the G20, Ferguson asked Fenton about direction from the chief. Fenton answered, “Own the streets,” according to the report.

The result, the report said, was an overreaction at the major command centre, “causing an almost complete clampdown on all protesters and the mass arrests.”

In total, officers contained people on at least 10 occasions during the G20. On the Esplanade and at Queen and Spadina, protestors were contained specifically to be arrested — a response that “conflicts with the policies and procedures of the Toronto Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, and most other police services,” according to the report.

“However, this tactic was part of one Incident Commander’s strategy to ‘take back the streets,’” the report said.

During the Queen and Spadina kettling, commanders on the ground made two requests to the major command centre at police headquarters: to use the LRAD – colloquially referred to as a “sound cannon” – to communicate with the crowd, and for an exit route for people to leave.

“Both requests were denied,” the report said.

OIPRD director Gerry McNeilly said his arm’s-length agency received 356 public complaints and investigators interviewed 200 civilians, 600 police officers and combed through tens of thousands of documents, videos and personal testimonies.
He made 42 recommendations in his report, including:
[SIZE=+2]•[/SIZE] Changes to the Police Services Act and police Code of Conduct that would impose a duty on officers to disclose potential evidence of misconduct
[SIZE=+2]•[/SIZE] Senior officers especially should not condone or distance themselves from the misconduct of subordinates or colleagues
[SIZE=+2]•[/SIZE] Toronto Police Service should exercise its discretion to expunge record of those people who were not charged or whose charges were withdrawn where it is not in the public interest to keep them.

Toronto News: G20 police trampled

 

[mentalfloss]

Top 10 recommendations from the G20 summit report

The G20 summit report from the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) that was released today made 42 separate recommendations, compiled in a summary at the beginning of the report. Here are some of the most significant:

1. Take more time to plan. Police and governments had only four months to prepare for the G20. They needed much more.
2. Be ready with contingency policing plans for unexpected and urgent situations.
3. Teach police how to de-escalate potentially violent situations and communicate effectively. That should be the police officers' primary goal.
4. Toronto police should develop policies for breaches of the peace at large protests. "The objective should be to remove people from the scene of the protest and to restore the peace."
5. Police officers' movements must be more fluid to keep up with protesters. Develop better ways of tracking where officers are — both for effectiveness and for their own safety. Same goes for communications.
6. Be ready for mass arrests. That includes tracking prisoners, protecting their rights and dignity, and training the people running holding centres.
7. Supply public order units with uniforms and gear that give them better agility and mobility.
8. Say cheese. People will take pictures and videotape police at work, and police must recognize their right to do so "without being subject to detention, search, or confiscation and destruction of property."
9. Accredit all media (including new media and non-traditional media) through one office, and then ensure police respect the credentials. Involve the media in creating the policies, and make the policies public.
10. Get better at communications and record-keeping. Police also need to set time limits for investigating civilian complaints, and prepare for earlier disclosure of documents with the review agencies involved.

Top 10 recommendations from the G20 summit report - Canada - CBC News

 

[Walter]

Nothing to see. Move along. Everyone buries chemicals in their backyard.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Nothing to see. Move along. Everyone buries chemicals in their backyard.

What would the police think of your stockpile of Viagra, Walt?

 

[Walter]

What would the police think of your stockpile of Viagra, Walt?

Dohno. You?

 

[mentalfloss]

What would the police think of your stockpile of Viagra, Walt?

They could probably use it to prove he's a pedophile. :lol:

 

[mentalfloss]

G20 report identifies officer responsible for orders that breached civil liberties

The question has lingered for two years: Who gave the orders for mass arrests and the kettling of people at Queen and Spadina — a move that a report now says was unlawful?

Police Chief Bill Blair has avoided singling out individual officers, but Wednesday’s report by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director has made clear that one man — who said he was following directives from his superiors — was responsible for several specific orders now found to have breached civil liberties and contributed to the largest mass arrest in Canadian history: Supt. Mark Fenton.

Fenton was the night shift incident commander at the Major Incident Command Centre (MICC), the central point of command and control for Toronto Police Services. Both he and day shift incident commander, Supt. Hugh Ferguson, were entrusted with the role by Blair.

It all started with eight words Deputy Chief Tony Warr said to Fenton, hours after black-clad vandals began wreaking havoc on city streets: “I want you to take back the streets.”

The interpretation of this sentence triggered a dramatic change in police tactics during the G20.

According to his statement to the OIPRD, Fenton asked Warr to keep him in check. Warr nodded “OK,” and Fenton said he updated the now-retired Warr with what was happening on the ground.

According to the report, during his shifts on Saturday and Sunday, Fenton ordered protesters to be “boxed in” or “blocked in,” asked about, or had operations request it be done on 10 separate occasions without taking into consideration that there may be legitimate protesters or innocent bystanders caught up in the crowd.

The night shifts on Saturday and Sunday became “dysfunctional,” said the report, noting the MICC “essentially became an autocratic structure,” where Fenton “accepted little or no input” from the operations chief and field experts.

“In effect, the MICC took all independence and decision-making responsibilities away from the commanders who were placed in tactical command on the ground,” said the report.

Fenton did not return a request to his office for comment by the Star Wednesday.

After taking over from Ferguson on Saturday evening, Fenton informed his command staff steps would be taken to restore order. He then ordered mass arrests at Queen’s Park and that anyone involved in a protest be arrested for breaching the peace.

“We were three and a half, four hours into riots on our streets. Enough . . . it had to end,” he told the OIPRD.

Later that evening, just after 10 p.m. on the Esplanade, more than 260 people were arrested after being boxed-in at the Novotel hotel.

Explaining his order to box in the people, Fenton told the OIPRD he saw security camera pictures of “bottles that formed a street medic kit. This was clear evidence that this crowd at the Novotel hotel were part of the violent protests ongoing in this city, and that they were ready and equipped with countermeasures to police use-of-force options.”

Just before 5 a.m. on June 27, Ferguson returned for his day shift. When he asked Fenton about direction from the chief, Fenton answered, “Own the streets.”

Fenton came back on duty after 5 p.m. and ordered police to box in about 400 people at the corner of Queen and Spadina. Fenton told the OIPRD he ordered the kettling because he had “intelligence regarding an imminent attack on the (security) fence” and that “The safety of citizens that lived and worked in the area of Queen and Spadina in particular was in jeopardy.”

As a torrential rain began to fall and commanders on the ground were relaying concerns of hypothermia, an audio recording of a police officer quoted in the report can be heard saying, “He’s maniacal this MICC, he’s maniacal.”

Protesters were kettled with the specific goal of arresting them (a response that conflicts with Toronto Police, OPP and RCMP policies and procedures — as well as most other police services), said the OIPRD report.

“However, this tactic was part of one incident commander’s strategy to ‘take back the streets,’ ” the report said, referring to Fenton.

Toronto News: G20 report identifies officer responsible for orders that breached civil liberties - thestar.com