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Kelly Pflug-Back Arrested

July 24, 2010 permalink

Kelly Pflug-Back has been arrested as one of the instigators of violence during the G20 summit in Toronto. Her finacé Julian Ichim was arrested on the morning of Saturday, June 26 during the summit. Fixcas posted an item on this couple on June 22.

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Prime suspect in G20 damage turns herself in

Kelly Pflug-Back
Kelly Pflug-Back, 21, turned herself in to Peterborough police on Wednesday, July 21, 2010. She is wanted in connection with street violence during the G20 summit.
TORONTO POLICE SERVICE

A 21-year-old Guelph woman whose photograph was added by Toronto police to the new G20 most-wanted list is in police custody after turning herself in Wednesday afternoon.

Kelly Pflug-Back, a self-described grassroots anti-poverty activist, was one of several new suspects identified by police in connection with their investigation into “thousands of dollars in damage” during demonstrations on downtown streets while world leaders met behind fences and barricades at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Sgt. Nancy Loucks of Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service told the Star that Pflug-Back turned herself in just before 3 p.m. Wednesday.

She was to be transported to a holding cell in Toronto on Wednesday night and is expected to make a court appearance at Old City Hall Thursday morning.

Pflug-Back’s photographs were among 21 released Wednesday by police, six of them duplicates from early lists of G20 most wanted from July 7 and 14. Charges against the others range from mischief to theft, said Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux.

Pflug-Back was identified at a news conference Wednesday morning as a suspect who faces six counts of mischief over $5,000, said Giroux.

Giroux alleged that Pflug-Back is an organizer and someone who gave orders to other demonstrators. Police allege the photographs show the suspect “in and out of her black clothing.”

She is accused in attacks on a police car occupied by Staff Sgt. Graham Queen and stores on Yonge St., including a McDonald’s and Urban Outfitters, and a CIBC branch on College St., he said.

Pflug-Back had been previously charged in an assault on an Olympics torch bearer in Guelph in January and had filed suit against Guelph police in September 2009.

Pflug-Back’s fiancée and co-accused in the torch-relay incident, 30-year-old Julian Ichim, told the Star in a phone interview that he felt Toronto police had unfairly demonized her by releasing her photo to the media in the wanted list.

“She was on bail, they knew where she was. Obviously she wasn’t trying to hide anything,” he said, adding the police had come to his Waterloo home to find her.

“She was gone for a couple of hours, there was no need to create all this hysteria.”

On Pflug-Back’s Facebook page, she writes about being held in a detention centre and being charged with conspiracy during the G20.

“ha I'm charged with conspiracy. That's a first,” she wrote on July 1.

“oh yeah, I was only released on really strict conditions,” she wrote in another post the same day.

The Toronto police would not immediately return calls on whether Pflug-Back was previously charged during the G20 and was released on bail prior to her inclusion in the most wanted list.

Ichim says he and Pflug-Back had been engaged for three months after dating a year and had expected to wed on Sept. 18, his birthday. Both are part of the Guelph organization Sense of Security, which provides food, shelter and aid for people in need, and advocates for people needing legal aid.

Ichim says he was arrested the morning of June 26 at a Tim Hortons near the Allan Gardens and charged with counselling to commit an indictable offence. He was released on bail posted by his parents on June 28.

In an interview with a blog on June 21, Pflug-Back talks about her protests against the Children’s Aid Society. Pflug-Back moved to Guelph a few years ago after growing up in Norwood, in Peterborough County, where she started writing poetry that has since been published.

Toronto police say 10 people from the G20 most wanted lists have been arrested already, including a young offender, Giroux said.

“Eighty per cent of the photographs come from calls or tips from the public. To this point, the interest is nothing less than remarkable with regards to their assistance,” he said.

As well, negotiations continue with the lawyers of some suspects to surrender their clients, he said.

Police have received 17,000 still photographs and more than 550 videos from the public. In all, Giroux said, investigators have identified 80 persons of interest.

Source: Toronto Star

Addendum: There is a Facebook group Rally To Free Kelly Pflug Back.

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