G20 Recap: Happy Canada Day!

As it is Canada Day tomorrow I would like to take a moment to thank those of you who protested the G20 in Toronto last weekend, and to thank those of you who stood up for the demonstrators. It has not been easy, but it is important.

There are many people inside this city and outside of it who believe that the police were completely justified, that the protesters "got what they deserved." Those people need to spend Canada day doing some reading and some thinking about what exactly it is they value.

Some of them are just misinformed. They caught a few minutes of news of burning police cars and believe that the crackdown was justified. For those of you who don't know let me briefly describe what actually happened - including the burning police car.

On Friday it was announced that the police had new, temporary powers to search and arrest anyone who got within 5 meters of the fence. This later turned out to be a lie, but we did not find that out until tuesday. Nevertheless by Saturday the police were using these powers - and they were using them much farther away than 5 meters from the fence. As late as monday I saw the police randomly searching people as far away as College and Bathurst.

On Saturday the protests began in earnest. Although most of Saturday's protests were peaceful - a group of masked protesters did engage in acts of vandalism downtown. Police cars were burned, windows were smashed and some looting took place. The number of people doing the damage was estimated at the time to be between 50-75 people by eye witness. At no point did any the police interfere with the vandalism. Most of them were behind the G20 security gate and, as far as I know, none of the vandals were apprehended in the act. According to the Toronto Sun police were actually ordered not to interfere with the black block. Despite the lack of police interference there were no deaths or serious injuries but there was considerable property damage. The estimated number of vandals has been revised upward to "hundreds" by Police Chief William Blair but he was not there, nor were many of his officers and no eye witness' placed the estimate anywhere near that number. Chief Blair, at any rate, has some problems with telling the truth as evidenced by the special police powers that were never granted and by events on Tuesday. Even if Chief Blair is correct in his estimate that means that fewer than 1 in 20 protesters committed any crime. If the eye witness accounts are correct it is less than 1 in 100.

By Saturday night, with the vandalism long over, orders came from somewhere and the police cracked down. It is yet unclear if they caught any of the vandals who damaged the downtown in the afternoon. What is clear is that by Monday morning they had arrested more than 900 people (a Canadian record - twice as many as the FLQ crisis and 4 times as many as the 1999 Seattle Riots) including many non-violent protesters, journalists and many innocent bystanders. This included corralling hundreds of people on Queen street and forcing them to stand in the rain, without explanation and regardless of why they were on Queen street. Numerous allegations have come forward of threats, intimidation, police brutality and treating prisoners in ways that likely violate the Geneva Convention.

On Tuesday in an attempt to justify his actions Chief Blair trotted out a variety of weapons he claimed were seized at the G20. Blair claimed that these weapons were absolute proof that some protesters had come to Toronto intent on violence and so the actions of police over the weekend were justified. It has since been learned that most, if not all, of these items were collected from other raids and were not at all related to the G20.

That is what actually happened in Toronto. If any of the vandals were caught, I do not believe that anyone has a problem with their being charged with vandalism. However, concerned citizens across Canada are calling for an independent inquiry into the events of last weekend and the actions of the police. Additionally, because he has been caught twice lying to the public and the press this week many are calling for Chief Blair to resign. We simply cannot have a Chief of Police who deliberately tries to deceive the people of Toronto and the media about important police matters.

It is always easy to simply side with authority and go about your life. To stand up to authority takes courage. If it were not for people taking to the streets we would still be living in a feudal state, the Church would have nearly absolute power, people of African decent would still be enslaved in the US, the First Nations likely would have been exterminated, women would still be second class citizens - essentially the property of their husbands or fathers, people in Quebec would have been forced to speak English, there would be no labour laws, no minimum wage, no workplace safety, no overtime or standard work week, there would be no justice system, no fair trials, no regulation of prison conditions, no health care system, no help for the poor and no public education - just for a start.

This is not about the G20 or whether it is a good or a bad thing. It is about people's right to peacefully stand up for what they believe in without police intimidation or assault.

So, to those of you who took to the streets, and those of you who supported and still support their right to do so, thank you and Happy Canada Day.

To those of you who simply shrug and say "the hippies got what they deserved" and "thank goodness the police were there." - What on Earth do you think you are celebrating. The holiday wasn't meant to be about taking the day off work and having a BBQ. You obviously have no appreciation for the sacrifices of previous generations, sacrifices which allow you to sit in the back yard with your friends, a burger and a beer. Read a book.

(sorry about the quality of the video below - the tools I have for editing are very, very limited - still, I think you'll get the idea. Thanks to those who shot the original video that I played with, sorry about the damage I did to it.)

Happy Canada Day from Justin Beach on Vimeo.