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Put your average white Torontonian in a black man’s shoes for a year and ask him what he thinks of carding, and I suspect you’d find some heavily revised opinions. But as it stands, if you’re not black and don’t go to protests, which most Canadians aren’t and don’t, chances are the G20 and carding are not going to be top-of-mind issues. Bill Blair is not a cartoon villain except for a small number of very passionate activists. The disappointment over his carding stance is particularly acute precisely because he is otherwise seen to have dramatically improved relations between Toronto police and the black community. Lots of perfectly progressive voices, from former mayor David Miller to lawyer Julian Falconer, well known for representing victims of police, had nice things to say about Blair upon his departure.

In the aftermath, Blair admitted with a smirk that he pretended a temporary security law existed allowing police to search anyone who came within five metres of the downtown security perimeter.

It’s also true that there is only so much Blair could have done to prevent the G20 from going pear-shaped: He didn’t invite the world’s leaders, and thereby the Black Bloc, to downtown Toronto; the officers on duty were not all his; and the ludicrously lax deterrents that exist for police misbehaviour were neither instituted nor defended by him.

In the aftermath, he admitted with a smirk that he pretended a temporary security law existed allowing police to search anyone who came within five metres of the downtown security perimeter. That’s indefensible. But who instituted the dodgy law? One Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., from whom the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, among others, demanded and did not receive an apology. He’s a Liberal, don’t you know.