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Canada police commander found guilty over G20 arrests
AFP
August 26, 2015, 3:05 am
Ottawa (AFP) - A senior Toronto police officer was found guilty of misconduct Tuesday for ordering mass arrests at the G20 summit in 2010.
A disciplinary hearing ruled Superintendent Mark Fenton's "decision to order mass arrests demonstrated a lack of understanding of the right to protest."
The commander, who is the only senior official to be charged in the incident, will be sentenced in December.
He faces a possible reprimand or dismissal for discreditable conduct and exercising unlawful authority under Ontario's Police Service Act.
In 2013, a police constable was sentenced to 45 days in jail for using excessive force against summit protestors.
On the stand, Fenton defended his actions, saying he was trying to halt growing lawlessness.
Some 20,000 policemen from across Canada were deployed in June 2010 to secure summit sites in Toronto and Huntsville, north of the metropolis, where leaders of the world's top economies were meeting.
When storefronts began being smashed and a police car was set ablaze, police fanned out across the city on orders to "take back the streets."
Some 1,100 people were rounded up in the crackdown and held in deplorable conditions at a makeshift detention centre in the city.
