Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair
Toronto police Chief Bill Blair struck back at an investigation by Ontario's police watchdog that found officers "probably" used excessive force on two occasions during the G20 summit weekend.
In one of those instances - the arrest of 27-year-old Adam Nobody near Queen's Park - the Special Investigations Unit relied on a Youtube video of the arrest to make its determination.
Chief Blair on Monday took issue with the use of the video in the investigation, saying that a police examination of it had shown it had been edited and did not provide enough context to show why police used force.
"Audio and video have been removed," he said in a statement. "We have no way of knowing what has been removed. It is very likely that what has been removed sheds light on why the man was arrested, and why force was used."
The video in question shows a group of officers tackling Mr. Nobody to the ground. SIU director Ian Scott noted in his report that one of them appears to make a punching motion towards the man, who suffered a fracture under his right eye. Investigators were unable to identify any of the officers in the video and no charges were laid in the case.
The SIU did not lay charges in any of the six G20-related cases it investigated, citing a lack of evidence and difficulty identifying the officers involved.
Chief Blair also criticized the SIU for making observations on the cases beyond simply deciding whether to lay charges against the officers.
Adrian Morrow