Toronto Police Threaten G20 Journalists With Rape

The Toronto Police are already facing heavy criticism for how they handled the G20 riots and for their alleged abuse of citizens. Now several journalists have come forward with horrific allegations of sexual abuse.

Amy Miller of the Dominion and the Alternative Media Centre was arrested as she stopped to see a group of people being searched and detained. At a press conference, Miller claims she was throttled at the neck and stripped of her press pass as she was being arrested. She was then taken to a prison cell, where she spend nearly 13 hours with 25 other women.

During her detention, “I was told I was going to be raped. I was told I was going to be gangbanged. I was told I was never going to want to act as a journalist again by making sure that I would be repeatedly raped while I was in jail.”

In addition, she witnessed many young women being completely strip searched by male officers, with one underaged girl confessing that an officer inserted his finger in her.

She notes it was evident that police were profiling young women, typically under the age of 25, who were more likely not to know their rights.

Maryam Adriangi of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network has also accused the police of threatening her with rape, as well as making racist and sexist comments. The Winnipeg Sun reports, “She claimed she was picked up by police in Parkdale and placed in a prisoners’ wagon and driven around for five hours and released without charges.”

Miller, Adriangi and other journalists are calling for a thorough investigation. Meanwhile a spokesperson for the Toronto Police says they will use surveillance footage to refute the claims.

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Annmari L.

11:00AM PST on Jan 16, 2011

Police are the same all over the world: Power hungry, macho and adrenalin induced with a special hatred towards strong and independent women. I say: force all police, now serving and in the academies, to walk in the opposite gender's shoes for a month each year and then, maybe, learn something from it.

send a green star

Evelyn G.

8:19AM PDT on Sep 10, 2010

Doesn't surprise me one bit. I've met some great cops in my day but i've met some very shady ones too-just sick to threat a women with rape...

Lynn C.

7:04AM PDT on Jul 10, 2010

This sort of thing is what happens when the training of "troops" (whether it be military or civilian) means teaching hatred for people as groups. And then I read comments with as much hate displayed as the people they are commenting about. This doesn't work to make things better and generates more hatred. It doesn't matter whether it's the police forces or the person on the street...as soon as they "package and label" a group of people, by gender, religion, ethnic background, color of skin, political belief, those people lose their identity and can easily become a threat and "the enemy", and the results are horrible no matter which side of the line you're on.

bob m.

12:45PM PDT on Jul 5, 2010

Guess I've been around a lotta years of both sides of the "police conduct issue". Jason.
dislike the smell of most of what happened at G8.
Police wise that is.
Been involved myself as far back as 67 in yorkville as a kid in the streets from broken home and watched as my friends were fired into police vans by their long hair. Male and female).
But then the other side; have watched my friends die in Rochdale from murderous biker assisted free thinking anarchist
jerkoffs who whould put death in you head or mouth on a lark.
So from where I'm coming from; I just want to add a little weight to the side of policing to counter some of the air head drift I hear some times......pray tell.
I hate corpo zombi cop- ing but I also despise the messages of irresponsible immature creeps who "think they Know it all.

Jason H.

9:10AM PDT on Jul 5, 2010

Bob M. said: "I Know that Police reality is imperfect and seems arbitrary way too often;BUT.
Let's consider living in an enviroment dominated by Pimps, dealers, extortionists, bikers gang warfare, decaying buildings with no legal resource, rapists, etc."

No, Bob, it is NOT the end. Nothing in this article suggests eliminating the police; and if the police would refrain from these kinds of abuses, they would have more manpower and money available to deal with the criminals you listed. So what, pray tell, is your point?

Helena B.

4:26AM PDT on Jul 5, 2010

Who are you Richard Shepherd? Are you a real person? You keep cropping up including on the article about NY police downgrading rape. I actually wonder if you are just trying to stir things up or scarily you believe what you're saying. Are you a Care 2 member because I can't believe you'd even bother to join a site such as this.

resignd C.

12:41PM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

I know what Carl W. said sounds really bizarre, but it is not off from what I heard about Vancouver pig farmers having fed women to pigs which was publicized, and when I lived in Seattle a private investigator told me he was looking for a daughter of a crime member in New York. He learned the girl was a mule and was going to talk, and had been murdered and fed to pigs. I was shocked with disbelief until I read the article about Vancouver. The investigator said the sheriff knew the drug runners who had killed this girl and was part of it. It is a very dark world out there folks. You have no idea. I have had glimpses now and then and felt like I was losing my mind, but most everything I been told has been true. In Seattle a lot of women were missing, bodies found later and reported to have been prostitutes, which their mothers denied. A woman who wanted a legal massage parlor had police come and demand their "protection money" for her "business". She said she did not have prostitution but learned her girls were doing so and the police said she must continue. She had quite a long story but the gist was that large cities need prostitutes for conventioneers and politicians, and if the girls refused they made an example of them and they were murdered. Never believed the man they said was the Green River murderer killed all the girls in Seattle and Spokane. He may have killed a few, but there is more to the story. Police are complicit.

Lucy W.

10:45AM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

This treatment of journalists and women by the Toronto police is unacceptable. A full investigation needs to be made, and punishment and firings of these policemen need to be forthcoming. I hope Toronto officials will pursue a full investigation into this matter.

8:37AM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

Well; I guess I should leave this little question.
I Know that Police reality is imperfect and seems arbitrary way too often;BUT.
Let's consider living in an enviroment dominated by Pimps, dealers, extortionists, bikers gang warfare, decaying buildings with no legal resource, rapists, etc.
What's next? buy a BIG gun? ...............THE END.

Kendra R.

1:30AM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

WHOO HOO! I love what james howie said! Ill be sending him a green star! thank you james! I think it's VERY effective when men can be brave and mature enough to stand up for us women, it really makes a huge difference!