On Friday June 25, 2010, the Justice for Our Communities demonstration showcased the depth and breadth of local grassroots movements here in Toronto, as hundreds of people gathered at Allen Gardens for the start of the march and thousands took to the streets.
We don’t know yet the total cost of the G8 (started Friday) and G20 (starts today) Summits, but we do know that they will go down as the most expensive on record. Yup, your tax dollars at work. It was estimated in the Toronto Star that Summit face-time costs are $50 million dollars an hour.
Local groups on the march rallied against the hypocrisy of the Summit costs.
— The government of Canada is willing to spend $1.3 billion dollars on policing for the Summit and almost $2 million dollars to build a fake lake inside its media centre that tax payers will never be able to enjoy.
— The government is willing to spend almost $2 billion dollars on the official Summit media centre with the fake lake and yet cannot afford to provide First Nations communities with access to clean water.
Anyone lucky to arrive before the posted 2:30 pm start time was able to enter the park with relative ease. But after 2:30 p.m., police formed lines with bike cops and cops holstering tasers (bright yellow, gun-looking objects slung on belts) and prevented any radical looking activist from entering the park without first consenting to a police search while letting union activists through.
According to the law [NOTE: not in context to these new police powers since we are still learning how the police plan to apply them — so many secrets!] the police are not allowed to search your person or belongings without your prior consent; and just because the person standing beside you gives consent, that person does not speak for the will of the whole group.
Those who refused to consent to the search were detained and later released once they complied, but things like swimming goggles were confiscated.
The march left Allen Gardens — 5,000 strong — at roughly 4:00 p.m. after hearing from speakers like John Clarke (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) who spoke eloquently about the history of resistance tied to Allen Gardens for poor people living in the East End. It was led by a contingent of women and trans-folk who boldly took Carlton Street and headed East. More and more people joined the march as it moved through Toronto.
The march was vibrant and you could hear the chanting echoing off the high walls of the office and apartment buildings on Carlton Street, so the crowd sounded like a million people bearing true the chanted slogan “G8, G20 / They few, We many!”
The police became more aggressive towards the demonstration as it approached the intersection of College Street and Yonge Street, where one protester was snatched from the crowd and dragged into the lobby of the College Park apartment building. Police lines broke as chaos ensued and police commanding officers desperately shouted to their own to “hold the line.”
The crowd stopped its march in solidarity with the arrestee and began chanting: “Let him go!” and “Racist police!”
The police responded by sucker punching one activist in the face (Badge # 4258) and raising their bikes as pike weapons against the crowd. A standoff ensued but as the police began attacking activists to hold their lock down position outside the Tim Horton’s entrance of College Park, organizers felt it safest to continue the march.
There was an increase in the visible police presense on the streets at this point as marchers walked West on College Street towards University Avenue. Riot cops formed police lines in all the alleys and stood in front and behind the march. Officers on bikes donned their riot helmets and continue to line the march. Marchers tried to avoid all the horse poop as they walked.
The march proceeded along College Street and turned South on University Avenue. Police let the march go as far south as Elm Street before blocking the South off with police on foot, bikes, horses and riot cops with chemical weapons. The Sound Cannon was spotted. No sight of the Water Cannon. The march ended up getting trapped on thin Elm Street (just West of University Avenue) as police penned protesters in. After negotiations with the police, the march was allowed to leave the confines of Elm Street, back on University Avenue to head back to Allen Gardens.
Ten people were reported arrested, along with a man who was deaf and could not understand the verbal orders of the police. 15-23 activists were arrested during the night in midnight raids.
For anyone hitting the streets today, please note that police were given new powers of arrest and detention by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. The Ontario Parliament never publically debated these new powers in the Legislature nor announced them to the public.
Stay Safe! Stay Brave!
Here are your important legal numbers:
Arrests/detention/jail calls = 416-273-6761
Family and friends = 416-273-6781
TTY = 416-531-0060
Email: [email protected]
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@krystalline_k and @rabbleca
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