An overview of Toronto and the #G20 for anyone who wonders why we're still talking about it.

The following is a little more long winded than I intended it to be, but bear with me, some background is necessary to make the appropriate points.

This week I watched the debate at Toronto City Council over the resolution to commend the police on their work at the G20. I noticed immediately that the people from the suburbs (from Scarborough and Etobicoke) who 'watched events on television' were far angrier and more adamant in their views than the people from Toronto proper. I also noticed that most of the councilors who represent areas where the protests and mass arrests actually happened along with any councilors who were present in person for any of it abstained from the vote. Toronto (the city not the amalgamated ... thing) has it's own unique culture and the suburbs are not really a part of that culture and, from what I can tell aren't aware of it or don't understand it. This includes commuters who work in but don't live in Toronto.

Once upon a time I lived in and around Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles only the very wealthy really trusted the police. (I was there for the Rodney King riots.) People didn't talk to strangers outside of their peer group. No one walked in the downtown core and very few walked in their own neighborhoods. People generally didn't know their neighbors unless they'd been in a neighborhood a long long time. It was a place where everyone drove home from work and then, if going out for the evening, drove to a place where they would find friends and people from their peer group. There was little or no contact between groups, or neighbors and city hall was seen as an entity that existed outside the public - city government and police were something that happened to you, not something you were a part of or interacted with.

Toronto is entirely different. Commuters don't seem to understand any of it because they race into town, do what they have to and then get back out as quickly as possible. The time it takes them to get in and out of the city, often in heavy traffic, combined with their work day seems to make them always in a hurry and easily agitated. Tourists, obviously, don't understand either. They are only here temporarily and generally do things that other tourists do without a great deal of interaction with the locals. I can only assume that Toronto's reputation for being cold and rude comes from interactions between tourists or between tourists and commuters. The Toronto I know is warm and friendly and kind.

It could be because Toronto is made up of a large number of villages that grew together but there is still something of small town culture left in the streets of Toronto. People are involved, people know each other, people talk to strangers and look out for one another. If something goes wrong in this city it is not unusual for a movement to grow up to fix it. It is not unusual for banks to have fundraising accounts set up for families that have experienced a tragedy. When fire gutted buildings on Queen Street in 2008 there were fund raisers for the apartment occupants and a city wide debate about what should be done with the space where the historic buildings burned. When Holly Jones disappeared in 2003, impromptu neighborhood watches were set up. Children still played on the street just as they always had. People, at least those I talked to, were determined that the tragedy would not steal anything from the children of the city. Parents and other neighbors simply spent more time outdoors keeping an eye on things until the killer was caught. Perhaps the best example of the character of Toronto is the 2003 eastern blackout - when the entire city and much of the east coast was left without power. My neighbors met in the park and brought candles, wine and musical instruments. Children played and we watched the stars (normally not terribly visible in Toronto.) There were no violent crimes during the blackout, no break and enters, the only arrests were two people who were reportedly drunk and roller blading down a usually busy street in the dark. They were taken into protective custody overnight.

I'm not saying that Toronto is perfect and no one would believe me if I did. However it is the most multi-cultural city in the world, 52% of Toronto was born outside Canada. We have Jews and Palestinians, Serbs and Croats, Tutsis and Hutus, Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, Turks and Armenians living side by side yet we remain one of the safest cities in Canada - which by international standards is a fairly safe country. We have a strong public transit system, a multitude of parks and a strong library system. If the city calls for volunteers, it gets them. If the city calls a meeting or a neighborhood has a town hall, people show up and until very recently if the police asked for the public's assistance, they got it.

What this all boils down to is people. It is the people of Toronto who make it as good as it is. People are involved in the city. People appreciate the good things about it and work to maintain them. People understand the problems and work to make them better, and when I say the people I mean all of the people not simply 'activists'. It is not unusual to see the city's noteworthy authors, actors, filmmakers, musicians, and others strolling down Queen Street or turning up at public meetings. What goes along with all of this is a great respect for free speech, free thought and peaceful assembly. It is the lifeblood of the city, it is what keeps it vibrant and exciting. It is what keeps it from becoming just another anonymous metropolis where tourists come to see the sights. When Tamil Protesters shut down the Don Valley Parkway, it was commuters, dehumanized by modern life to the point where their being late for dinner outweighed a humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, who complained. Locals understood what was happening in their country and sympathized with them.

Once upon a time Mel Lastman was the Mayor here. Lastman seemed to see the city as nothing but a money making opportunity. He was unconcerned about what affect his decisions had on the actual inhabitants of Toronto. In 2003 Toronto elected David Miller and the residents of Toronto proper were thrilled. He was from here and, we thought, he understood what most people didn't that it is the people who live in Toronto who make it work, who make it a tourist destination and who make it a 'world class city.'

Hearts were broken on June 28 when David Miller gave a press conference to stand up for the police at the G20 and had not a word for the hundreds of innocent people who were beaten and arrested. It said loudly and clearly that he has either forgotten or never really knew what made Toronto what it is - not windows or police cars but people. Torontonians were shocked and saddened by Saturday's downtown vandalism. It is something that simply doesn't happen in our city and many, including protesters were very angry about it. Sunday however drove it from people's minds it was not windows or cars that were being attacked and damaged it was people, and they were being attacked by police - representatives of our government and our city.

Usually, the best way to be misinformed about something is to watch a national newscast on television. National broadcasters have, for the most part, given up on informing the public and have simply started competing for viewers. That means that the most exciting and sexy images and details are emphasized. For the G20 that was people wearing masks burning police cars and smashing windows. As I said above this happened and was deeply troubling to people in Toronto. It is worth bearing in mind though that much greater damage was done in Montreal a few years ago because the Montreal Canadiens won a hockey game and that riot spawned a grand total of 16 arrests. What people outside of Toronto generally did not see was what came after.

First of all the riot itself involved, according to eye witness' at the time somewhere between 50-100 people. This was later inflated to more than 300 by police spokespeople who, it is worth noting, deliberately mislead the press and the public about special police powers, weapons seized at the G20 and about protesters trying to disrupt the repatriation ceremony of a Canadian soldier (never happened.) So, we'll say based on eye witness' at the time there were about 100 masked vandals and the riot lasted for about an hour and a half. After that time there was no violence or vandalism instigated by protesters for the remainder of the weekend. It is also worth noting that police made no attempt at all to interfere with the riot while it was happening despite being better trained the the masked vandals, better armed, better shielded and outnumbering them 200 to 1.

National newscasts and networks, for the remainder of the weekend, focused on the burning police cars and people with their faces covered smashing windows. Those of us watching local news in Toronto and following events online through services like Twitter saw something else happen. On Saturday night while we were still waiting to see if the vandalism was over reports started to come in of a change. While the violence seemed to be over police started cracking down. TV Ontario's Steve Paikin started reporting, police surrounding and attacking non violent protests, including police violence against peaceful protesters, bystanders and journalists alike. Because this has already gone on for some time and I still have things left to say I won't go into a blow by blow incident by incident account. The reports are all there if you choose to investigate. What I will say is that these reports continued to come in all day Sunday. Police surrounding peaceful protesters and, without ordering them to disperse or leaving them a path away from the location, charging the crowds, beating protesters and anyone who got in their way, refusing to differentiate between protesters, bystanders and journalists. Reports also began to surface of conditions inside the Eastern Avenue Detention Facility: of dog kennels, overcrowded with people, short on food and water. Of people being denied their basic rights, medical attention and of prisoners being threatened, mocked and abused by guards. The weekend culminated with police surrounding Queen and Spadina, one of Toronto's busiest intersections, and holding everyone there - regardless of why they were there. Many were arrested, including journalists and many (most of them not protesters) were forced to stand in a downpour of rain for four hours without anyone telling them why or how to end the situation.

While this was going on Conservative MP Tony Clement Tweeted, "Wow, what a successful #G8 + #G20! Lots of substance on economic, security & devt issues. I'm proud of Muskoka, Toronto & Canada.". The next morning David Miller made his now infamous speech praising the police, and stating that he was looking forward to the "tall ships" arrival in Toronto and that was about all. When asked about anything that happened Sunday he defended the police and suggested that anyone with a specific complaint should report it.

Since then more and more reports have surfaced of police abuse and intimidation including an amputee who had his artificial leg ripped off by police and was dragged face down over pavement for not moving fast enough, a deaf man arrested for not following verbal instructions from police, the daughter of a Hamilton Police officer who was working at the G20 beaten and arrested while protesting peacefully. Images have surfaced of police charging a crowd sitting on the ground singing Oh Canada and police firing rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd of people more than ten feet from the police line with their hands in the air chanting "peaceful protest". People are reporting nightmares and ongoing medical problems from police actions. The list goes on and on and on.

The people of Toronto, Toronto proper if not the suburbs, are demanding accountability and justice and everyone in Canada should join us. The people of Toronto need accountability because it is the only way we can get our city back as it was. Anyone who has ever sung "we stand on guard for thee" needs accountability because our right to free speech, free assembly and even the right to walk down Queen Street on a Sunday evening without fear (of the police no less) have been dealt a serious blow.

Despite spending more on security for the G20 than was spent on security for the Vancouver Olympics police failed to stop the vandalism that occurred on Saturday and then, as if to make up for it, to make themselves look more effective, attacked legal peaceful protests, innocent bystanders and journalists. This kind of thing cannot stand in Canada. Those responsible must be held responsible for their actions and we must make it absolutely clear to politicians and police alike that no matter what international event they are planning this can never happen again.

There is no doubt that any protester who broke the law at the G20 should be punished according to their actual offense. Breaking a window though is vandalism, not terrorism and we have to keep that in mind. That is only where things start though.

First we need a detailed explanation of what happened and why. We need an independent judicial inquiry, free from political interference, to examine every bit of video, every photo, every document and every bit of testimony related to the G20. We need that inquiry to issue a detailed report on what happened, when, why and on whose orders starting with the announcement that the G20 would be held in Canada and ending days after the G20 was over.

The politicians at every level of government who tried to cover up and/or gloss over what happened as well as those responsible for the planning must be removed from office either by resignation or by being thrown out of office in the next election. Individuals running against them, individuals who still believe in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms can and should use images of police brutality and testimony from the abused and detained against those who planned and orchestrated the G20 and those who supported the police actions.

Those who made the command decisions for the G20 security force should resign or be fired and should potentially even be charged with criminal offenses. It is not only the command level though. "I was just following orders" only goes so far in a free democratic society. Individual line officers who threatened, mistreated or abused non-violent individuals must be held accountable for their actions. Every accusation of police brutality, false arrest and every account of abuse at the Eastern Ave. detention facility must be fully investigated and any officer responsible for misconduct must be disciplined according to the severity of their offense.

We also need to put in place rules and laws at the local, provincial and federal level to insure that the events of the G20 are never repeated.

Finally, if you watched the news on television and came away with the idea that there was violence on Saturday and that the mass arrests that followed were a direct result of the vandalism (not violence) you should make a vow to work harder to get real news - to read newspapers, online or in print, read magazines and explore other sources and you should permanently remove the channel that gave you the wrong idea from your television dial.

The people of Toronto want our city, including our City Hall, back. The people of Canada want, or at least I hope they want, their Charter of Rights and Freedoms fully restored and better protected than it was the last weekend in June.