Anti-Violence Against Women activists joined women claiming abuse by the Toronto Police at a July 22, 2010 press conference held by the Toronto Community Mobilization Network. The press conference sought to link the violence experienced by women at the G20 Summit to the larger social issue of police violence and violence against women.
According to the accounts of women arrested during the G20 Summit, they were subjected to verbal and physical violence because they were women. Statements released include:
“They (the Police) asked me and other women I was with if we wanted to have sex with them,” said Alison Peters, a young woman who was detained at the Eastern Avenue Holding Centre during the G20 Summit. “We were told to take our clothes off if we wanted to be taken seriously…they made a joke about having a sexual threesome with me and a female officer.” For the full statement by: Alison Peters.pdf
“When they stood me up against the wall to search me, an officer leaned in beside my face and told me that I was going to prison, where I would be raped repeatedly,” reported Skylar Radojkovic. “[Later, in] a separate room, I was strip-searched and called various unprintable names by these officers. When they brought me back, saying that they had found nothing, the detective yelled at me that I was wasting his time. He shoved me face first into a corner of the room and pushed me repeatedly into the wall.” For the full statement by: Skylar Radojkovic.pdf
Video statement by Lacy Macauley and Amy Miller were also released.
The press conference joined the voices of women who accuse the Toronto Police — who were part of the larger G20 Integrated Security Unit (ISU) — of violence against women, with community activists familiar with the issue. Both voices at the conference were critical of the police and made the case that rights had been violated
“Threats of sexual assault, sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence are against the law. And the police are not above the law,” says Beverly Bain, an expert on policing and sexual assault.
Jane Doe — the pseudonym for the woman who successfully sued the Toronto Police for negligence and gender discrimination in their investigation of her rape — spoke of her distrust of the police’s ability to self-investigate.
“The Toronto Police are not equipped to investigate themselves or to work democratically with independent community initiatives.” “I spent eleven years seeking justice but the Final Report on the Review of the Investigation of Sexual Assaults by the Toronto Police Service is a disappointing failure that exposes the chronic refusal of the Toronto Police to take these issues seriously,” Doe said. For the full statement by: Jane Doe.pdf
The Toronto Police Services Board has appointed lawyer Doug Hunt to investigate police accountability during the summit. Toronto police have asked people with allegations against them during that weekend to file a formal complaint.
Two different probes have been launched by police to investigate G20 Summit related complaints and groups such as Amnesty International and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association are calling for a wide-spread G20 inquiry on the matter.
“The Toronto Police is more interested in going on an expensive witch-hunt for protestors rather then hold their own accountable for violence” says Farrah Miranda of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network. “The People’s Investigation is going to work with Ontario Women’s Justice Network and others to look into instances of police sexual assaults and demand that the entire political and police command structure be brought to justice.”
“The gender violence the police employed during the G20 is not a surprise, it is part of an old and familiar pattern,” said Grissel Orellana of the Toronto Rape Crisis Center. “For decades we have raised concerns about police assaulting women and trans folk, and failing to properly respond to and investigate sexual assaults in the community, but police and politicians have done their best to stifle our cries. If there are not immediate consequences for this chronic police violence, we can be sure that the assaults that happened during the G20 will be repeated.”
More to come…
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