The Toronto Star reports this afternoon that, “Police have added a water cannon to their arsenal as they step up security ahead of this week’s G20 summit in Toronto. Provincial police Const. Michelle Murphy of the Integrated Security Unit says the water projection system will be used to control large crowds if there are riots.”
No details were given in the report, but these vehicles can carry 8,000 litres (2,000 gallons) of water and can shoot the water at 15 litres a second (250 gallons a minute). That’s strong enough to knock a person down, break a bone, perhaps even cause serious internal injuries.
The G8 and G20 have failed to recognized water as a human right and to adequately address the needs of the billions of people around the world that lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation. It is no small irony that the police would arm themselves with a water cannon for a summit with countries that have failed to address the desperate call for water justice.
The Toronto Star report is at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/826245-police-add-water-cannon-to-g20-arsenal?bn=1.
Water cannons have been used by police since the 1930s in Germany. Here fire hoses are used against civil rights activists in the 1960s.
http://tommydavis.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/birmingham_campaign_water_hoses.jpg
Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians www.canadians.org
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