Activists Expose Police Violence Against Women During G20

Press Release
ACTIVISTS EXPOSE POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN DURING THE G20

Anti-Violence Against Women activists join women abused by Toronto Police to condemn ongoing police assault against women and hold accountable the Federal, Provincial and City government leaders that conspired to plan and give orders for the widespread police violence and repression that was experienced by thousands on the streets.

11am, 22 July 2010, Press Conference at Toronto Rape Crisis Centre (17
Phoebe Street)

SPEAKERS AND STATMENTS WILL INCLUDE: Alison Miller; Lacy; Jane Doe; Beverly Bain (Professor of Women's Studies and Sociology); Grissel Orellana (Counselor, Toronto Rape Crisis Centre) and Farrah Miranda (Toronto Community Mobilization Network)   Full statements will be distributed at press conference

“They (the Police) asked me and other women I was with if we wanted to have sex with them,” said Alison Peters, a young woman who was detained  at the Eastern Avenue Holding Centre during the G20 Summit. “We were told to take our clothes off if we wanted to be taken seriously…they made a joke about having a sexual threesome with me and a female officer."

“When they stood me up against the wall to search me, an officer leaned in beside my face and told me that I was going to prison, where I would be raped repeatedly,” reported Skylar Radojkovic.  “[Later  in] a separate  room, I was strip-searched and called various unprintable names by these officers. When they brought me back, saying that they had found nothing, the detective yelled at me that I was wasting his time. He shoved me face first into a corner of the room and pushed me repeatedly into the wall.”

“Threats of sexual assault, sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence are against the law. And the police are not above the law,” says Beverly Bain, an expert on policing and sexual assault. 

“The Toronto Police are not equipped to investigate themselves or to work democratically with independent community initiatives” asserts Jane Doe, the woman who successfully sued the Toronto Police for negligence and gender discrimination in their investigation of her rape. “I spent eleven years seeking justice but the Final Report on the Review of the Investigation of Sexual Assaults by the Toronto Police Service is a disappointing failure that exposes the chronic refusal of the Toronto Police to take these issues seriously.”

”The Toronto Police is more interested in going on an expensive witch-hunt for protestors rather then hold their own accountable for violence” says Farrah Miranda of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network. “The People’s Investigation is going to work with Ontario Women’s Justice Network and others to look into instances of police sexual assaults  and demand that the entire political and police command structure be brought to justice.”

"The gender violence the police employed during the G20 is not a surprise, it is part of an old and familiar pattern," said Grissel Orellana of the Toronto Rape Crisis Center.  "For decades we have raised concerns about police assaulting women and trans folk, and failing to properly respond to and investigate sexual assaults in the community, but police and politicians have done their best to stifle our cries.  If there are not immediate consequences for this chronic police violence, we can be sure that the assaults that happened during the G20 will be repeated."

The final report on Review of the Investigation of Sexual Assaults: Toronto Police Services is to be presented at the Toronto Police Services Board on July 22nd at 1:00 p.m. along with the details of the independent review on police tactics during the G20.

The Toronto Community Mobilization Network is calling for all people arrested during the G20 protests to be released immediately, all charges against people connected to G20 be dropped and that the decision makers that conspired to send the police after Torontonians be brought to justice.

Video statement by Lacy Macauley and Amy Miller
You can see a picture of Lacy Maculey's arrest here

- 30-

For more information, contact media liaisons:
647.454.2443
tcmn.media@gmail.com
Twitter: @g20mobilize
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/