Part One : Paul Jay interviews constitutional/criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby, who is defending satirist Charlie Veitch, the second person charged at G20 under the Public Works Protection Act. Because that act was amended in secret just for the G20, there was no way for the public to know how to obey it.
Part Two : So do we have the right to protest, to peaceful assembly, at events like G20?
Yes. Unfortunately, we have no effective way of enforcing that right.
Hence, as Ruby says : "Beware the coming police state."
British filmmaker/satirist Charlie Veitch is here informed by police he is being arrested under the now thoroughly discredited "Public Works Protection Act" for failing to produce ID while being near a public work :
On Tuesday Police Chief Blair admitted that police didn't have any authority under that act to arrest someone for not showing identification within five metres of the fence, but meanwhile Veitch spends 40 horrible hours in the G20 pens specially constructed to detain dangerous comedians and other freedom loving people like himself for exactly that.
Veitch then releases to Youtube a conversation he filmed with a very literal-minded Paragon Security guy explaining why he can't produce ID back on June 24th :
Charlie: "We're from British Military Intelligence, I'm here with the metropolitan police...so it's all fully authorized at the highest levels...cause you know sometimes, have you heard what an Agent Provocateur is....
Security: "I have no ideas."
Charlie: "What it is, sometimes when there are big demonstrations - I can tell you this because you're security - they use fake protesters to cause trouble, and we're here to be those fake protesters. So it's fully authorized."
Security: "OK, I understand that, do you have a certification?"
Charlie: "No, we're not press, 'cause we're undercover, and if we carried ID around, we might get searched by protesters."
On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, police arrested a man for impersonating a peace officer. It is alleged that: − on Thursday, June 24, 2010, the accused was filming the G20 Summit security fence area at Front Street/York Street, − he was approached by a security officer and was requested to provide ID, − he indicated that he was not carrying identification because he was working undercover as a peace officer, − later a warrant was issued for his arrest by officers from the Toronto Police Service, − the accused was about to board a plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport when he was arrested by officers from Peel Regional Police.
Charlie Veitch, 29, of England, has been charged with:
1) Impersonate a Peace Officer
We are treating this very very seriously," a Toronto police spokesninny told CTV repeatedly in an apparent effort to be taken seriously and win a role in Veitch's next satire.
Un-fucking-believable. They made up the second charge to cover their asses over wrongly arresting him the first time. If this is an example of the level of revenge intelligence gathering by the Toronto police, why not just let mall cops do it?
Down at the mall in the above vid, Charlie delivers some of his trademark advice to shoppers via a bullhorn : "You are not unique and beautiful snowflakes," he says. "Shop faster." . h/t Back of the Book .
