Despite several days of demonstrations by hundreds of protesters during the G7 summit, the head of security for the event said nobody was arrested and no tickets were issued.
“Those choosing to express themselves largely conducted themselves in the lawful, peaceful, and safe manner,” said RCMP Chief Supt. David Hall of the Integrated Safety and Security Group, during a media briefing in Calgary on Wednesday.
The massive security force was a joint operation led by the RCMP, with assistance from the Calgary police, Alberta Sheriffs, Alberta Forestry and Parks and the Canadian Armed Forces.
Protests during the G7 summit were restricted to 3 officially designated protests zones in Calgary and one in Banff.
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The biggest security threat came when NORAD (North American Air Defence Command) was forced to scramble CF-18 fighter jets to intercept a small civilian aircraft that entered the no-fly zone around the site of the summit in Kananaskis Country, about an hour west of Calgary.
After “multiple steps” to get the pilots attention, before resorting to “final warning measures,” the fighter jet pilots were able to get the pilot to land in Brooks, Alta., about two hours east of Kananaskis, where the pilot was met by the RCMP.
Temporary air space restrictions were put in place during the summit within 30 nautical miles centred on Kananaskis village, and within a 20 nautical mile radius from Calgary International Airport.
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So far, no explanation has been provided to the public about why the plane entered the restricted airspace.
“At this time, the RCMP has not laid charges, and some of our partner agencies are looking at applicable regulatory offences, but at this time it’s not my understanding that any charges have been laid at this point,” said Hall.
“If criminal charges were to were to be laid — and at this point it’s premature to say whether that’s the case or not — that would be done by the RCMP. However, there are other regulatory offences, which may be more appropriate to the circumstance at the conclusion of an investigation, and those would be managed by other agencies such as Transportation Canada,” added Hall.
Supt. Brian Sundberg with Alberta Forestry and Parks said security forces also responded to approximately 200 wildlife-related incidents in the area around the summit.
“About half of those were to both grizzly bear and black bear reports,” said Sundberg. “I’m very happy to say that all of those are minor in nature and as a result we were able to take minimal action to move the the risk away for both the wildlife and the bears and there were no relocations or no significant efforts needed.”
G7 security forces said they responded to more than 200 wildlife complaints during the event, with about half of them involving concerns about grizzly or black bears.
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Sundberg said security crews were able to use bear spray, bear bangers, chalk balls and other deterrents — and in some cases dogs — to scare off the animals. They were also prepared to use traps if necessary.
“I’m very happy to say that all of those are minor in nature and as a result we were able to take minimal action to move the the risk away for both the wildlife and the bears and there were no relocations or no significant efforts needed,” added Sundberg.
The final cost of security for the summit has yet to be announced.
“It’s important to remember we’re not finished,” said Hall. “We have a lot of work to do to demobilize our security posture — all of our respective organizations need to kind of wind down their operations and at some we will tally all those costs and those will be made publicly available.”
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