Toronto 500- History in the Making

Toronto- June 28, 2010: 500 detainees? Police brutality? 

 

I saw the videos last night on youtube and facebook, did you? Better yet, were you there? The footage left me totally dumbfounded and incensed.  This police like state, with its new G20 law, was reason enough to march from Bay and College in front of the Police headquarters to Queen’s Park in peaceful protest of how rights were infringed upon this past weekend, how peaceful activists were unjustly arrested, detained and held.

The rally kicked off with Toronto’s very own poster girl for the anti-globalization movement, Naomi Klein, who was “pissed off” with her city (left). An hour later, thousands of us  marched along Dundas to University, accompanied by a talented samba band and chanting “Our streets, our city”, and made our way to City Hall. Police followed the march hastily on their bikes, on the sidewalk, might I add, breaking by-laws in front of our eyes! Some role models! The protesters on the other hand, were peaceful, dancing, chatting and taking lots of photos and video footage. By 9 pm we ended up at Queen’s Park to pause, before people made their way to the detention centre for the remainder of the evening (I didn't make it. I was tired!!)

The last minute turn out for this rally was phenomenal. This afternoon I got two emails from pretty big list-serves (No One is Illegal) and one facebook message. And when I got there, the crowd somewhat surprised me. A lot of young, 20 to 30-year-old-hip-somethings who hadn’t necessarily been demonstrating this past weekend at G20 events. There were some folk out today whom I would normally consider apathetic when it comes to politics…(ie: since when did rallies become so trendy…or is that just Toronto as my friend who was visiting from DC last weekend pointed out? Her observation being that "people in Toronto look really well put together"). Is something shifting? Maybe this was a good wake up call. Maybe it has raised people’s consciousness around the concepts of, even just democracy, or what it means to be entitled to civil liberties. Or maybe it’s easier to take action on and speak out against injustices that are, at the heart of it, very local.  Or maybe today happened because people realize that Apathy really is boring! Social commentary aside (I can't help it really), the support for the detained today was monumental. The rally was intimate, and the solidarity in this one event created, for those 4 hours, a sense of community that Toronto -big city and all- lacks. Today's event really was an inspiring act of collective consciousness.

My only question is, how do we ensure that this level of heightened awareness continues to permeate our everyday lives? Being able to participate in today's rally was a privilege, when brutality, harassment and systemic violence is a lived daily experience for people who are racialized, Indigenous, transgendered, living in poverty, underhoused, affected by mental health issues, and so on and so forth. When vulnerable women whose lives are linked with the justice system face this sort of harrassment and abuse within jails and from law enforcement officers every day. It’s too easy to keep walking by people on the street, to not think twice because it’s happening in 'Jane & Finch' because you live downtown, to refer people to the right social services and think you’ve done your part. 

For more thoughts on what happened at the G20 being a microcosm of larger scale, systemic injustice that's been playing out on Canadian soil for years, click here. 

If you happened to watch the mainstream media that focused on the black block, and were immediately turned off by the idea of demonstrating and protesting, read this for some perspective.

I took lots of video on my i phone...but can't get it uploaded it yet...(you are letting me down 3G network). Still photos, however, are awesome and courteous of photographer friend D.L. (great work!!) 

S.