Professor João Velloso addressed this topic in an article entitled “La gouvernance plurinormative des manifestants : reconfigurations pénales, exceptionnalité et dégradation des droits pendant le G20 à Toronto” (The plurinormative governance of protesters: penal reconfigurations, exceptionalism and the degradation of rights during the Toronto G20 Summit), and that publication has now been awarded the Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA) Article Prize (French Language) for 2024.
Professor Velloso’s article analyzes the creation, adaptation, and use of specific legal provisions employed to control protesters during the G20. The general lack of government transparency regarding the laws applicable to protesters created a maelstrom of confusion and uneasiness in 2010. A class action lawsuit eventually saw $16.5-million awarded in 2020 to those arrested, along with an acknowledgement by police that the arrests were unlawful and a commitment that protests would be policed differently in the future. In the context of more recent efforts to manage protesters and public spaces, including, for example, the Freedom Convoy protesters, the subject of the legal mechanisms used to exert social control is as relevant as ever. Professor Velloso’s article examines the punitive shortcuts that concentrated excessive power in the hands of the police and explores what legal safeguards exist to prevent this kind of dangerous activity from occurring again in the future.
Click here to read the full article via the Canadian Journal of Law and Society.
The CLSA French Article Prize is awarded biennially to the best French language article published in the Canadian Journal of Law and Society in the previous two years. The CLSA jury unanimously chose Professor Velloso’s article as this year’s winner, recognizing its relevance to current discussions about the punitive use of administrative law for democracy and fundamental rights. They also noted the potential of this article to lead to future research on the topic and praised, specifically, the text’s lively and energetic style.
Congratulations to Professor Velloso!