Real vs. Symbolic Accountability: The Excesses of G20 Policing and the Long Quest for Accountability
The G20 Toronto Summit was a meeting of international heads of state held on June 26 & 27, 2010, which aimed to address the state of the world economy in the wake of an ongoing global recession. Thousands of citizens peacefully gathered in public spaces across the city to make their voices heard. Contemporaneous media images captured the chaos of the Black Bloc, burning police cars, and vandalism, which erupted into clashes between protesters and police. In the days following the event, other images and reports revealed instances of excessive use of force, problematic practices and questionable detentions by the police. Over 1100 people were detained and arrested, making it the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. Class action lawsuits against the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) remained tied up in the courts for ten years.
Henry G20, a play conceived of by Christine Brubaker and co-written by Brubaker and Constantine Anastaskis, is a re-telling of the events that occurred on the streets of Toronto, using Shakespeare’s play, Henry V, as a base to explore a timely contemporary issue. At the heart of the play is Henry, a young female grassroots organizer. As she leads crowds of protesters - the activists, the idealists, the unions, the partiers, the families and civilians - into the fray of the downtown Toronto march, she and her marchers encounter an unexpected battle ground, never seen before on the streets of Toronto.
Almost 11 years later, as part of the Safe in Public Space initiative, Christine Brubaker discusses issues of the accountability of the police and its governing institutions with former TPSB Chair and co-author of Excessive Force: Toronto's Fight to Reform City Policing, Alok Mukherjee.
This recorded conversation took place on December 31, 2020. A synopsis of the topics covered is provided below.
Christine and Alok ask: What does accountability actually mean?
In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many others, as well as the growing momentum for the Black Lives Matter movement, accountability has become a key theme when discussing policing of public spaces.
This conversation highlighted two meanings of accountability that depend on perspective:
For publics and communities directly affected by over-policing, accountability is a component of restorative justice that helps heal from wounds inflicted upon them. It’s the taking of responsibility for what has happened and the enactment of change for the wrongs that have been done, along with an accounting for the decisions that were made, as well as facing the consequences of those decisions and providing compensation for the damage caused. It’s a moral, ethical and legal approach to accountability.
For institutions, accountability is part of a framework of risk-management and liability/damage control. It’s a “containment” approach. Someone may pay in the form of job loss, or possible prosecution, but in those cases, the institution is preserved at the expense of an individual. Apologies, where they are offered, are more often a legal obligation than a moral one. Rarely is there an admission of wrongdoing by the institution.
What was the general atmosphere during the protests and why was the class action lawsuit filed?
Protests were expected throughout the planning of the summit. There was a heightened sense of insecurity among politicians related to the financial and environmental crises, increasing poverty and human rights violations, as well as women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and the still-looming shadow of 9/11 attacks in the US. The result was that the G20 became one of the largest RCMP-led policing operations in Canada’s history, with officers from all over the country being brought in to support the members of the Toronto Police Service, all heavily armed and arguably minimally trained for the situation.
The TPSB was clear that peaceful, lawful dissent was valued and police should allow and facilitate protest to proceed in the designated space at Queen’s Park. A detention facility was set up in order to process anyone who was apprehended and release them, however things did not go according to plan. At Queen’s Park, police reacted with excessive force and, on one of the evenings, at the intersection of Queen Street and Spadina Avenue, they used a containment method called “kettling” to arrest marchers as well as many innocent passersby, with the intention of transporting them to the detention centre.
PHOTO: Jonas Naimark via Flickr
In conjunction with reviews proposed by the Board and the provincial Office of Independent Police Review Director, among others, to assess the planning, coordination and oversight of G20 policing, those who were wrongfully detained began class action lawsuits.
On the surface, the success of the lawsuits appears to be a “win”, but what were the consequences for the Toronto Police Service?
In the immediate wake of the Summit, an independent judge was appointed by the Board to investigate and review the events that took place. Upon receipt of the report from Justice John Morden, Alok, on behalf of the Board, issued a public apology for the excesses and unlawful actions by the police. However, the same Board later fought the lawsuit for 10 years.
The plaintiffs may have experienced some level of satisfaction by way of financial compensation and a statement of apology from the interim Chief of Police, James Ramer, but one can argue that these do not adequately address the unlawful activities enacted by the officers or the resulting violation of rights, the effects of emotional and psychological harm and the humiliation experienced by the victims. There was no admission of wrongdoing, nor any mention of an actionable plan to prevent similar future incidents or the structural changes that might be required to address core issues.
Christine and Alok question whether the result of the class action lawsuit and statement was in line with what the general public would consider real accountability – no one took moral and ethical responsibility for the outcomes. Instead, the risk was managed and the damage was controlled which, as a surface level appeasement, leads to “collective amnesia” around the event and the underlying issue.
What would be the cost of admitting to the wrongdoing?
Alok explains that by resisting accountability, there is an avoidance of being held responsible by the public, even though the lawsuit was successful. The problem with Toronto Police Service not being held fully accountable is that it sets a precedent for other cities and law enforcement agencies – where there are no real consequences, there is no responsibility to do better. This includes institutions like the RCMP who also have a history of accusations regarding mishandling protest.
What is the role of lived memory in creating long-term accountability?
The class action lawsuit was important but not sufficient in addressing the immediate accountability of the events during the G20 summit. Christine and Alok discuss the importance of memorialization and the role of productions such as Henry G20 in supporting collective memory. They also remind us that monuments provide critical reminders of the wrongs done and the continued efforts required to keep the memory alive in the public realm and to push for change.
Our Police and Our Public Space: Who is being served?
In the wake of 2020, citizens are beginning to understand more broadly the concept of "over policing", wherein the police are not always adequately prepared to respond to the calls that they receive and, in fact, can [often] become perpetrators of violence through their actions or through their very presence among marginalized people. Where would we want it to go and what would our aspirations be for publics and police?
Alok speaks to the double role police are asked to play - responding to crimes such as break-ins or homicides and the policing of people protesting in public space, both of which are funded by the taxpayer. However, when the police show up in force at a public protest, they are not there to represent the interests of those protesting; they are there to uphold the powerful institution of the state. This highlights the incompatibility of the two roles that community-based local police officers are expected to play, which has resulted in the calls to defund the police – an important conversation that needs to be had with sustained pressure.
The public requests for reform are made in good faith, but the bodies who are being asked to make those changes are the ones who benefit the most from the current system. Calls to change the system need to be received with self-reflection, real commitment to change and the ability to think critically about the system they operate within. We need new community safety strategies that reflect the needs of our time, which the present policing strategy is not designed to do. The hope is that conversations like this will help contribute to the changes that we all need to see.
PHOTO: Tanja Tiziana
Henry G20 will be presented by The Bentway in Summer 2021.
ABOUT CHRISTINE BRUBAKER
Christine Brubaker is a director, actor, dramaturg and educator. She is the winner of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for performance, the 2014 Gina Wilkinson Prize and 2016 Ken McDougall Award for Direction. She directed the world premieres of The Horse and His Boy, Wilde Tales (Shaw Festival), Smoke (Downstage Theatre), Elle (Theatre Passe Muraille), and the Canadian workshop premiere of Suzanna Fournier’s antigone lives*. She is a co-creator and performer in 7th Cousins: An Automythography which continues to tour nationally and internationally and was published this past year by book *hug press. Christine is the creator of Henry G20, a large-scale outdoor performance and contemporary adaptation of Henry V. She is on faculty at UCalgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts where she teaches directing and acting.
ABOUT ALOK MUKHERJEE
Alok Mukherjee was, most recently, a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University, Toronto. He is the author, with Tim Harper, of Excessive Force: Toronto’s Fight to Reform City Policing (Douglas & McIntyre, 2018). Mukherjee was Chair of the Toronto Police Services Board from 2005 to 2015. He served as Acting Chief Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 1992 to 1994 and Member of the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services (now called Ontario Civilian Police Commission) from 1994 to 1997. He is a regular contributor to the Canadian media on issues of policing, justice, human rights, equity and inclusion.
