“Kettling” tactic denounced by Toronto police backed by European court

The European court of human rights ruled Thursday that a contentious crowd control tactic called “kettling” is the most effective method for containing protesters.

The controversial technique, in which riot police box in protesters from all angles, leaving no room for escape, was denounced by Toronto police following the June 2010 G20 summit.

Police here have said they will never again use the tactic after infamously “kettling” about 300 protesters and bystanders, near Queen St. and Spadina Ave., in early-evening pouring rain on June 27, 2010.

The act, captured in a dramatic live television broadcast, led to hundreds of arrests. Most detainees were released without charge later that day.

Police Chief Bill Blair condemned “kettling” in his 2011 review of G20 policing.

“Premature displays of real or implied force can lead to negative crowd reactions that may escalate a situation,” Blair wrote.

But the ruling in Strasbourg, France, after more than ten years of legal disputes stemming from a 2001 anti-globalization demonstration at London’s Oxford Circus, deemed “kettling” to be the “least intrusive and most effective” way to cordon protesters.

“The court is unable to identify a moment when the measure changed from what was, at most, a restriction on freedom of movement, to a deprivation of liberty,” the court of human rights ruling declared, according to the Guardian newspaper.

The judges, who voted in favour 14 to 3, said “kettling” does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

The campaign to abolish “kettling” had been led by protester Lois Austin, now 42, who claimed she was unable to reach her infant daughter after she was contained by police during the 2001 Oxford Circus protest.

The decision follows an April, 2011, British High Court ruling, which found the 2009 “kettling” of London G20 protesters to be illegal. More than 4,000 people were wrangled into a kettle for three hours on April 1, 2009.

Thursday’s ruling, however, comes with a caveat.

“It must be underlined that measures of crowd control should not be used by the national authorities directly or indirectly to stifle or discourage protest, given the fundamental importance of freedom of expression and assembly in all democratic societies,” it said.

In a public opinion poll commission by the Star last summer, 50 per cent of respondents said G20 “kettling” was unjustified, with 43 per cent in favour.

Responding to Toronto police’s decision to ban “kettling,” Nathalie Des Rosiers, general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the tactic infringes on people’s freedom from random detention, according to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“It rounds up, detains and prevents from moving large groups of people for which the police have no evidence that they have done anything wrong,” Des Rosiers told the Star last summer.

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Josh Tapper