The Outsourcing of Policing and the Criminalization of Dissent

The Role of Non-State Policing and Security Actors in the Purification of Space during the 2010 G20 Summit Protests in Toronto

Abstract

Since the controversial policing of the 2010 G20 summit protests in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the state has been criticized for its role in criminalizing dissent. While the role of the public police during these protests is certainly worth examining, this paper suggests that attention should be directed towards non-state policing and security actors to allow for a fuller analysis of how dissent is criminalized.This paper will therefore explore how and why state governance of dissent during mega-events has morphed within a neoliberal, post-9/11 era. In turn, this will allow for a greater understanding of why the state “outsourced” its policing function to non- state entities in preparation for the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto. By making this connection, this would then help to uncover how non-state policing and security actors are active agents in the criminalization of dissent. Moreover, this paper will examine how this shift in the governance of dissent is welcomed by the neoliberal state, as the “outsourcing” of policing helps the state reproduce its sovereignty through the puri cation of space by non-state actors.This paper will suggest that it is fallacious to assume that non-state actors contribute to the erosion of state sovereignty.