The trial for a Toronto police constable who was charged with assaulting a demonstrator during the G20 Summit in Toronto has been postponed.
Toronto police Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani — charged with one count of assault with a weapon against G20 activist Adam Nobody — requested through his law firm that the case be postponed until February 28, 2011. Constable Andalib-Goortani, who works for 31 Division, is currently assigned to administrative duties.
Adam Nobody launched a formal complaint regarding how he was treated by police during the G20 — after the initial violent takedown at Queen’s Park he alleges he was subjected to a vicious beating by undercover officers.
Aside from Constable Andalib-Goortani, two more officers are currently being investigated by the Ontario SIU for their involvement in Nobody’s alleged beating: Detective Constable Todd Storey and Detective Constable Luke Watson.
The collection of evidence of police misconduct during the G2O Summit — notably during the mass kettling and arrest of activists at Queen’s Park, an area that had been designated as the official protest zone which led many demonstrators to gather there thinking they were safe from the police — has been difficult because of the chaos on the streets but also because 91 Toronto police officers were caught not wearing their mandatory uniform ID badges.
In other G20 news, Alex Hundert is scheduled to appear in court on January 31, 2010. The trial concerns Hundert’s breach of bail conditions for speaking at two different university panels about the G2O Summit. He is also charged with conspiracy for his alleged involvement in community organizing and alleged facilitation of the G20 Summit protests in late June, 2010.
Hundert’s arrest for speaking at a university panel — which a JP found was participating in public demonstrations — inflamed civil liberty groups and activists who already felt their civil liberties had been violated by police during the G20 Summit and who see the targeting of Hundert as an attack on the right to free speech. It falls into a larger pattern of what activists in Canada believe is the criminalization of dissent.
Hundert was originally arrested at gun point on June 26, 2010, in an early morning police raid. Arrested a total of three times, Hundert has been incarcerated since October 23, 2010.
Even this concrete cage can’t dampen his resolve: Another jailhouse interview with Alex Hundert
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