Charges to Be Dropped Against Core G20 Activists

Plea bargain will see six plead guilty while 11 go free.

A year and a half after they were first arrested, 11 of the 17 G20 activists charged with conspiring to orchestrate the riots will have their charges withdrawn, CBC reports. The group of 17 has long been considered by police the core planners of last June's protest-turned-riot in the streets of Toronto, but CBC reports that six of the 17 will plead guilty to charges while the remaining 11 will be set free. The 17 were to be tried in one trial starting next year, but the plea bargain – if it does indeed go through – would see an end to that. The dropped charges come as The Globe and Mail publishes a detailed – and kind of harrowing – look at how RCMP, OPP, and other officers infiltrated protest groups ahead of the summit, befriended the protesters, then encouraged them to stage demonstrations, for example, during the Olympic torch run and elsewhere around southern Ontario. For example:

The male officer also joined student activist group Anti-War at Laurier [University]. Member Dan Kellar remembers the man also drove people around to dumpster dive and socialized.

“Always buying pitchers of beer for everyone, making sure to drive people home,” Mr. Kellar said. “He was befriending us by just being really helpful and then buying lots of alcohol.”

On Jan. 2, 2010, the male undercover was arrested during an unsuccessful attempt to block the Olympic torch relay at a bridge near Espanola, Ont., according to two protesters who were there. They said the officer transported people and barricade-building materials in his van.

“We could never have done the action without him,” said lawyer Davin Charney, who provided legal support that day.

Protesters were unloading it when police swarmed them. Everyone was released without charge half an hour later at the side of the highway.

But remember, kids, the police are your friends.