The Canadian Press reports that, “The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network has video of what it says is a Canadian security agent warning native activists that blockades during the G20 summit could trigger a reaction from foreign security forces in Canada to protect their leaders.”
“The network says the unidentified woman from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service met with two members of Red Power United, an aboriginal rights group planning blockades across Canada starting June 24. That’s around the time an array of world leaders, including United States President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, are to be in Ontario for the G20 and G8 summits.”
“APTN says the meeting was at a bus stop in Toronto last Thursday. The network says it provided the activists with a microphone and the encounter appears to have been videotaped from a distance. The woman warns the activists that any blockade on Highway 400 that leads from Toronto north to Barrie would be a ‘bad idea.’ ‘I will tell you that straight up because there’s going to be people travelling there from all over the world and different countries do not have the same perspective on activists as our county does,’ the woman says. ‘There’s other forces that are from other countries that will not put up with a blockade in front of their president.'”
“The woman on the tape also appeared to be seeking information on the anarchist group that claimed responsibility for the May 18 firebombing of a Royal Bank branch in Ottawa. But the activists told her their group denounces such violence. ‘We have nothing to do with this and we don’t condone these actions and we don’t want to have anything to do with this,’ he said.”
Sun Media reported in June that, “Security at the G20 is in the hands of the RCMP, OPP, Toronto Police Services, Peel Regional Police and the Canadian Forces.” The Toronto Star reported in early-May that, “Fighter jets and helicopters will be flying at low altitudes over Toronto and Huntsville as the North American Aerospace Defense Command trains for the upcoming summits. The exercises will involve Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet fighter jets, CH-124 Sea Kings and CH-146 Griffon helicopters.”
The Globe and Mail had reported in early-April that, “Multiple police forces are preparing for an onslaught of high-profile guests and attendant protesters. A U.S. Secret Service spokesman said they have special protocol for American ‘protectees’, including President Barack Obama, but couldn’t elaborate on what it is.” That said, when Obama visited Ottawa in February 2009, a security helicopter with a clearly visible sharpshooter followed his motorcade from the airport to Parliament Hill and then back to Air Force One.
For more than ten years concerns have been raised about both the role of foreign police in Canada and cooperation with foreign security agencies.
At the APEC summit in Vancouver in 1997, the Indonesian government told the Canadian government that it didn’t want then-President Suharto exposed to protests. And RCMP Sergeant Andre Guertin said security officers from eight of the nineteen countries at the APEC summit were allowed to carry guns.
In 2006, the Judge Dennis O’Connor report on the actions of Canadian officials in the detention and deportation of Maher Arar found that the RCMP had breached its own policies regarding information sharing with foreign agents.
The Council of Canadians has also raised concerns in the past about Homeland Security-RCMP policing operations (such as the Shiprider project on the Great Lakes) that allows armed US Homeland Security officers to operate on Canadian soil.
The role of foreign police in Canada during the G20 summit must be clarified by the Harper government.
More on today’s news from APTN at http://www.facebook.com/APTNNationalNews/posts/128825180478839.
