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7 · Wednesday, July 28, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Officers heard a fellow cop was swarmed Continued from page 1 ticipating officer was required to complete a training package, which was intended to refresh an officer's understanding of such topics as use of force provisions, crowd management, what constitutes a riot and how to respond to such an event. Cousens said the training reminded police of the point where someone has moved from being a protester to being a criminal. "Every citizen in Canada has the right, for a lawful purpose, to meet and to speak out to their cause, including protests, but everything has to be done in a lawful, co-ordinated manner," said Cousens. "Once you start crossing the line, like you saw on that Saturday where you had groups of individuals carrying out criminal acts we, as police and agencies, have to get involved." Each morning, at around 5 a.m., the majority of the Halton police who would be involved in G20 security that day would board a bus, often at the Halton Police Headquarters, which would get them to Toronto by 6 a.m. Cousens said the shifts were a minimum of 12 hours and were made all the more enjoyable by an extra 30 lbs of gear each officer had to carry. This included a riot helmet and a gas mask. Despite being equipped for a possible riot, Cousens said, this was not what Halton police officers found, with the vast majority of the G20 week being uneventful for them. "The Hollywood glamour stuff...wasn't happening," he said. "For us it was the mundane duties, important duties, but pretty mundane for that period of time." The week was not completely uneventful. At one point someone placed a cooler near the security fence and ran off. This concerned several officers because, with the world leaders preparing to meet "Every citizen in Canada has the right, for a lawful purpose, to meet and to speak out to their cause, including protests, but everything has to be done in a lawful, co-ordinated manner." n Staff Sgt. Don Cousens, Halton Regional Police only a few blocks away, a terrorist attack was not all that unimaginable. Bomb disposal personnel were called to the scene, but in the end the cooler turned out to be filled with flyers a local merchant had been preparing to hand out. On other occasions people opposed to the G20 summit would approach the fence to curse or yell at the Halton officers, however, Cousens said, this was to be expected. "Police officers are used to that, we're used to utterances for a variety of reasons. We just blow that off," said Cousens. "You want to express yourself, go ahead. DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER If you continue on with it and become disruptive, that's another matter where we'll READY FOR DUTY: Halton Regional Police officers were among those assisting with the job probably take action." Saturday, June 26 saw numerous anti- of security as the G20 summit descended on the City of Toronto earlier this summer. G20 protests take place and while most participants remained peaceful, some attacked police and did considerable property damage to store fronts in Toronto. During this day, Halton police continued to provide fence security for the IZ as Toronto police and other police services dealt with the protesters. Cousens said maintaining this vigil proved difficult at times given what he was hearing about the escalating situation. "There was one time we heard on the radio that one of the Toronto police officers See There page 8