At 4:30 p.m. Saturday, June 26, while hundreds were left uninterrupted to wreak havoc throughout the city of Toronto, Chelsea 20, (white shirt), and her friend Bridie (tiedye) were attested during a peaceful protest on King just west of Yonge.
Chelsea (of Cleveland, Ohio) is a Political Science and Latin American studies student at the University of Toronto. She was protesting decisions made by the G20 and the poverty in the world. She sat down with hope that if everyone sat down together, the riot police would have to fall back. It turned out that this was not the case.
“I am sure the [police] are great people to their friends and family but when a person gets power over another group of people they change. The G20 cops were not trained riot police and I realize that some of them are from places like Barrie and Owen Sound so to police this many people at such a crazy event must have been very overwhelming. I don’t think that justifies anything, but I can see how that made what happened possible,” said Chelsea.
The girls were shocked by how hard they felt they needed to take them down. In Chelsea’s case she was smashed to the ground twice. She suffered multiple bruises and a bump on her head. She was sitting with her arms in the air when she was apprehended. Up until she arrived at the detention center she truly thought her civil rights were still in effect, that quickly changed after being detained.
Neither Chelsea or Bridie were ever given a precise answer to what they was arrested for; it changed, ironically, from disturbing the peace, to mischief and blocking traffic (on a closed street). Chelsea was finally released 30 hours later with no charges.
As an activist Chelsea’s perspective has changed as well, even strengthened. This experience has made her want to become even more involved than she has ever been before. What happened in Toronto and to the “Toronto 900” clearly shows that the system is broken and it is time for a radical change from the status quo. The police kept saying to her, “I bet you’ll never protest again!” and it is funny because it is just the opposite. She recalls people who were arrested getting ice cream — they weren’t protesters before but they are definitely activists now. The experience of the G20 has only reinforced what she already knew, “the system is broken, and if we don’t struggle to fix it, no one will.”
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