Of the 367 claims submitted by Toronto business owners, 169 have been accepted, though not necessarily for the amount owners were seeking.

The government budgeted $10 million to help Toronto businesses recover losses from the summit weekend but has so far awarded less than one-fifth that amount.

The claims totalled more than $11 million, but less than $2 million has been handed out. Another 161 claims were wholly rejected; 37 more are still awaiting decision.

“Basically, they’ve blown me off,” said celebrity chef Mark McEwan, owner of Bymark restaurant in the TD Centre on Wellington St. W.

McEwan said he boarded up his restaurant for 10 days — a full week before the summit — and lost $170,000 in revenue. But he only filed a claim for $26,500, the cost of disassembling and storing the 140-seat patio, along with fortifying the restaurant, which he says he was “forced” to do by security officials. The government rejected his claim.

“They told me I didn’t have to close. What do you mean I didn’t have to close? They basically closed the whole neighbourhood down.”

Spotted by @coreymintz: http://2th.is/kzlWgF

Alex Hundert, an accused ringleader of G20 violence, was released on bail late Wednesday after agreeing to stiff conditions.

JESSE MCLEAN/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Alex Hundert’s words will not appear in this story.

Unlike other Canadians, he’s not allowed to speak to the press.

At least that’s how a court interpreted the new bail conditions placed on Hundert, an accused ringleader of violence during the G20 summit in June.

“It’s staggering in its breadth,” said John Norris, Hundert’s lawyer. “I’ve never heard of anything as broad as that.”

Police detained over 1000 people in connection with the June 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, including peaceful protestors, journalists, legal observers, tourists, and bystanders. The vast majority of those detained were released with no charges, and without any wrong-doing ever specified or explained to a Court. This class action lawsuit is brought to preserve and affirm the fundamental civil rights of those individuals who were held by police without good cause.

Sherry Good will act as the representative plaintiff for the individuals covered by this class action lawsuit. Ms. Good was part of a group of peaceful demonstrators and others who were surrounded and detained for hours by hundreds of police officers at Queen and Spadina on Sunday June 27, 2010 in the rain. They were given no warning and no opportunity to disperse. They were not allowed to leave and no reason was given as to why they were being detained. Her experience is described in the Notice of Action, which has been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Read the Notice of Action

Via @lisanjutras

Two prominent Toronto law firms are heading up a class-action lawsuit in connection with the G20 summit.

Murray Klippenstein, who is heading up the case along with lawyer Eric Gillespie, wouldn’t say who is being named as defendants in the suit. But a statement released Thursday afternoon said there are more than 800 individuals covered, all of whom “were allegedly wrongfully arrested during the G20 summit at various locations, and never charged with any wrongdoing.”

The representative plaintiff, they said, is a woman who was part of the crowd of protesters, reporters and passersby kettled by police for hours in the rain at the corner of Queen Street and Spadina Avenue on the Sunday evening of the summit weekend.

She will be announcing the class-action suit at Queen’s Park Friday morning

Rubber bullets were fired at the crowd outside the Eastern Ave. set up during the G20 Summit, a Toronto Police spokesman said Tuesday one day after releasing erroneous information.

Mark Pugash corrected a statement he made Monday to the Toronto Sun saying no rubber bullets were fired outside the temporary prisoner processing centre, saying he had received the wrong information.

Thanks as ever to Judy Rebick for pointing this out: http://twitter.com/judyrebick/statuses/19758995195

Updated: Tue Jul. 20 2010 10:53:47 AM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — A Toronto man who is facing explosives and weapons charges as part of a G20 security investigation, has been denied bail.

Byron Sonne was arrested June 22 and is accused of possessing dangerous weapons and explosives for an unlawful purpose, among other charges.

[...]

Friends and family have rallied around the Internet security expert, with one friend saying the charges against Sonne are a huge misunderstanding.

Details of evidence presented in court are under a publication ban.

Accusing him of resisting arrest, they pulled his walking sticks away from him, tied his hands behind his back and ripped off his prosthetic leg. Then they told him to get up and hop, and when he said he couldn’t, they dragged him across the pavement, tearing skin off his elbows , with his hands still tied behind his back. His glasses were knocked off as they continued to accuse him of resisting arrest and of being a “spitter,” something he said he did not do. They took him to a warehouse and locked him in a steel-mesh cage where his nightmare continued for another 27 hours.

“John’s story is one of the most shocking of the whole (G20 summit) weekend,” said the Ontario New Democratic Party’s justice critic and Niagara area representative Peter Kormos, who has called for a public inquiry into the conduct of security forces during the summit. “He is not a young man and he is an amputee. …. John is not a troublemaker. He is a peacemaker and like most of the people who were arrested, he was never charged with anything , which raises questions about why they were arrested in the first place.”

Notwithstanding the general public’s apparent indifference to alleged Charter violations that occurred during the G20 Summit, many important questions remain unanswered, and simply cannot be thoroughly addressed through the internal investigation/deputation process promised by the Toronto Police Services Board. Here’s my top ten list:

1. What role, if any, did OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino (and former Toronto police chief) play in the decision-making about police operations on the Sunday of the summit?

2. Did City of Toronto public health/building officials inspect the alterations to the film studio/detention centre prior to the summit weekend, what were their recommendations, and did they ensure these were followed?

3. Did the Prime Minister’s Office issue any kind of directive to the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) during the course of the weekend in response to reports about violence in the downtown, and what was the content of the order?

Read the full list at Spacing.

Toronto's police chief is admitting there never was a five-metre rule that had people fearing arrest if they strayed too close to the G20 security perimeter.

Civil libertarians were fuming after hearing Friday that the Ontario cabinet gave police the power to stop and search anyone coming within five metres of the G20 fences in Toronto for a one week period.

However, the Ministry of Community Safety says all the cabinet did was update the law that governs entry to such things as court houses to include specific areas inside the G20 fences — not outside.

A ministry spokeswoman says the change was about property, not police powers, and did not include any mention of a zone five metres outside the G20 security perimeter.

When asked Tuesday if there actually was a five-metre rule given the ministry's clarification, Chief Bill Blair smiled and said, “No, but I was trying to keep the criminals out.”