My Experience In Toronto During The G20

Toronto's G20 Summit was a disgrace to the city and to the Conservative government, by now you've probably seen the footage of The Black Bloc and other protesters smashing windows and lighting cop cars on fire. You need to realize these acts of vandalism were not violent towards any civilians, the only ones in the crossfire were corporate chains, the police and anyone dumb enough to stand in their way or photograph them. There were many peaceful protests that police antagonized protesters and it never came to violence yet police still rounded people up and detained them until Monday.

Here is my story.

I arrived in Toronto via the Go-Train, The second I stepped off the train myself and two others were stopped asked for ID and thoroughly searched, officers went as far as to open bags of chips and granola bars as well as all of our water bottles. When the officers found my gas mask they separated me from the others and started to search me even more thoroughly insisting that I smelled like marijuana, (which I did) but to their dismay they couldn't find anything on me, but that didn't matter anyway, for all I cared they could charge me for possession so long as I didn't have to sit in that detention centre all weekend. They held me a while longer, asked me a lot of questions about who I was affiliated with, why I was there, where I was staying, what my tattoo meant, they repeatedly asked if I was part of the Black Bloc or Toronto Mobilize. Eventually they let me go because there was 3 Black Bloc members they had detained getting off the train who attempted to flee so they did not have the man power to process me and take me to the detention centre, so they took my gas mask ear plugs and goggle then sent me on my way. Next I entered Union station, I have been to Union station over 100 times, and I have never seen it so deserted, the only people you saw were transit workers or police. I asked a TTC worker how to get out since Front street is closed and thats always where I exit from unless I`m taking the TTC. I turned the corner and 4 cops stopped me asked for ID and searched me again, then I went the wrong way and got stopped and searched again, the second and third searches were a lot less intimidating (partially because they already took my gas mask) the second search was just a quick look through my bags with a flashlight, no pat down or embarrassing shoe removal, but still it wasted another 10-15 minutes as the officer waited for my license to be checked. In all it took me until about an hour to leave Union Station.

Next I made the journey to Queen Street East where I was staying, I dropped off my overnight bag and headed to Queens Park with cameras in each hand. I waited for the street car for about 10 minutes until a girl by the name of Mirna asked me if I knew why the street car was sitting in the road not moving, I had no idea, but it only took a minute for a passerby to explain that the street cars and all buses heading south were shut down. luckily Mirna knew how to get to the nearest Subway pretty quick, unfortunately when we got on the subway we found out that I would only be able to get as far as St George as the Subway south of Bloor was shut down and later that night the whole TTC was closed. So then I hoofed it to Queens Park which took about 20-30 minutes. Finally I saw the Hash Mob and my fellow protesters. We hung out smoked some joints with the hash mob, I introduced myself to Jacob Hunter and had a quick chat about our Free Marc protest in Chatham and how bongs are illegal in Chatham. The Hash mob left and the protesters began to march, towards College but police quickly brought the crowd to a stand still, this is when members of the Black Bloc pushed in hard pushing the police back and taking the intersection, immediately police dispersed mace filled paint-ball rounds at the feet of the Black Bloc, this is when they huddled together and hid themselves with black umbrellas and other black garments in the centre of the huddle people quickly changed clothes leaving a pile of black clothing as they all disappeared into the crowd. I filmed this as I didn`t know what was happening and thought they might be preparing some sort of weapon, a Black Bloc member pointed at me and ran wielding a fist as if to punch me in the face, i quickly moved my camera away and yelled ``I`m on your side`` then he yelled ``film the cops`` the rest of my time there was spent documenting and helping to provide medical assistance to people who had been injured, luckily there was a crew of about 5 people who had maalox and water which is the best way to soothe the burn from mace. It got crazy when a little old lady was tapping on the shields of police officers and they backed away in a V to reveal a charge by the RCMP, all of a sudden people were being rushed by horses and at least two people were injured. one being scooped up by police and carried off, just like many others who were kidnapped by police. One man was screaming because they dragged his girlfriend off to a paddy wagon ``You fucking pigs give me back my fucking girlfriend!`he screamed. 

Watching the insanity was too much for me I was becoming enraged and started yelling at the police, they stand there fill their camel pak from the water we pay for then they throw the bottles on the ground that we pay to keep clean. Things were starting to get intense and Police were beginning to surround us so we decided we should probably get out of there, which was a good idea, just as I left my friend texted me to let me know they were arresting people in Queens Park, I did not see any reason for arrests, so many people were needlessly arrested, two of the people who I was staying with were arrested Saturday night some time after midnight and they will be in lockup till Monday morning, I hope to have an interview with them so you can get a good idea what it was like for them spending two nights in a detention centre simply for going to see what all the fuss was about.

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