Witnesses say G20 cops admitted targeting Quebecers

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/03/tor-g20-police-quebece...

Quote:

Police in Toronto acknowledged they were targeting Quebecers for traffic stops during last weekend's G20 summit, a Montreal law student who was pulled over says.

Jesse Gutman, a law student at McGill University taking a summer course in Toronto, said the officers who flagged down his car swore as they grumbled about people from Quebec. [...]

Their visit was uneventful, but on the way home, the four were pulled over by police at Yonge and Carlton streets — about a block from Toronto police headquarters.

"I asked them, 'Is there a problem, sir?'" Gutman said. "They said, 'What are you doing in Toronto today?' So I said, 'I've been here taking a course. What's going on?'" [...]

That's when one of the constables complained about Quebecers "coming to Toronto and ruining our city," according to Gutman. Abboud has since recounted the experience to the Montreal Gazette newspaper, saying she is "sure" about the officer's words because she took notes.

"She says, 'Excuse me, sir, can you please watch your profanity?'" Gutman recalled. "They get really angry and demand everyone's ID in the car. I'm a Quebecer, the other woman in the car is also a Quebecer, the other two are living in Quebec." [...]

[Separate incident:] A woman who gave her name as Camille told a Montreal news conference on Monday that police targeted her and two others because they were speaking French and had a Quebec licence plate on their car. She was pulled over last Sunday on her way to a rally at the east-end detention centre and was arrested when officers found a book about anarchism in her vehicle.

In another case, about 50 Quebecers were taken into custody in a mass arrest Sunday morning at a University of Toronto student building where they were being billeted. Police allege they had "street-type weaponry."