Police rush as protesters scatter after a second police car was set on fire during G20 Summit protests on June 26, 2010.
The G20 security strategy has been spectacularly successful at cocooning the world’s leading politicians and staggeringly ineffective at protecting the property and peace of mind of Torontonians. And the one, inevitably, led to the other.
By bringing in thousands of heavily armed strangers and throwing up barricades everywhere to regular traffic, frightening off good and decent citizens, Canadian authorities created a ghost town in the heart of our city.
Perfect for the political leaders. Protesters were kept blocks away from where the deliberations were going on.
Feel free to weigh in with any comments. What did you think of the G20 conference? The police behaviour? The protesters behaviour? The raid on UofT? etc. Tom
6 comments:
With that many police around it was inevitable they would abuse their powers. The Eastern Ave. detention centre was sub-human. And their treatment of bystanders last night in the rain was criminal.
I didn't like the way the police herded the protesters out of Queen's Park when Queen's Park was supposed to be a free speech zone.
I refer you to this Toronto Star article, in which Adam Vaughn concludes that it was a “cascade of failures”. I couldn't agree more.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/829584--g20-it-wasn-t-worth-it
As for the accolades that some media are heaping upon Harper for reaching an accord regarding debt repayment, pure piffle.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/opinion/kudos-in-order-as-pm-shepherds-g20-to-surprising-consensus/article1620986/
Time will tell how successful the debt repayment accord is, as the specifics as to how that will happen are loose, at best.
I'm with Merkel...tax the rich!...that would be, the banks.
Many Canadians, especially the media, act shocked at what has just happened in Toronto. I would like to ask these folks if they have been asleep for the last 10 years. By past summit standards, Toronto got off lightly. In Quebec City, in 2001, where this commentor was, over 20,000 gathered to protest. Rubber bullets flew through residential neighbourhoods. All night battles took place between the Black Bloc and the cops. A good part of the city was covered in tear gas. Many protesters were severely injured by rubber bullets; also, tear gas canisters were fired directly at protesters on numerous occasions, in violation of the protocols governing their use. People shot hockey pucks at the cops fer crying out loud!
Seriously: in Genoa, Italy, later that year, a protester was killed and hundreds of activists and cops were injured. State officials, including prison guards, police and medics, were charged with abusing detainees. Detainees reported being spat at, verbally and physically humiliated, and threatened with rape. The deputy police chief in Genoa, admitted to being involved in the planting Molotov cocktails and faking the stabbing of a police officer to frame activists. In 2005, twenty-nine police officers were indicted for grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest during a night-time raid, and on and on.
And of course there was the Battle of Seattle back in 1999.
So T.O. got off rather lightly. Unfortunately Stevie has already claimed victory, using the property damages as proof that this billion dollar debacle was worth it. And the law and order types buy right into it. All very predictable. The only saving grace is that because of the time of year, we don't have to listen to Don Cherry rant on about the lefty pinko rioters!
PS: thanks to wikipedia for a little copying and pasting. Those shocked by recent events should really do a little research; it's only a few key strokes away!
A different strategy may have minimized property damage.
They could have kept all the riot police behind the security fence and allowed the protesters access to the fence. Protesters might have been satisfied to just rattle the fence. The protest would have been localized.
securitytheatrewatcher would like to follow up by saying that while the city of Toronto as a whole "may" have got off relatively lightly compared to other summits, those exercising dissent did not. Stories and evidence now abound of police brutality and arbitrary arrests, not to mention the technique of "kettling" protesters, a controversial police tactic that amounts to collective punishment. The greatest casualty in this whole mess is your liberty, folks. Thanks to the brave folks who took a stand simply by being there and exercising freedom of speech.
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