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G20
Toronto 2010: the Sweat Shop Police Invasion
Friday June 25th, 2010
report and photos by Gary Morton at
http://citizensontheweb.ca
Fear,
paranoia and sheer police terror are what the Harper Government has
pulled out of its hat for the Toronto G20. By late this afternoon
Toronto
looked like a ghost town inhabited by mostly protesters and thousands of police.
My
photos of the police army
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g20cops.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g202010invasion.jpg
For me the
day began with a terrible hangover and a completely illegal search by police
officers as I entered
Allan
Gardens. Apparently the government has come up with a sneak attack on our
rights by reviving a 1939 law known as the Public Works Protection Act which
allows police to search without a warrant and demand identification.
Okay, so that’s supposed
to be at the fence, where our marvelous and so called progressive G20 leaders
have set our rights back to 1939. But I wasn’t anywhere near the fence; police
are simply lying and telling people all over downtown that they have the right
to search them, which they do not. They had no right to search me at all. Also,
my opinion of the fence is that it is just a piece of junk anyway, but
apparently it has more rights than us. And on the illegal search: well, I had a
large lemonade bottle filled with beer to kill my hangover. If my hands were
shaking it was because of the hangover and the fear that they might decide that
the bottle was a gas bomb and rush me off into custody. “That’s a bottle of
lemonade,” I said, and luckily they believed me.
The march itself (links
to some of my photos are below) was quite a strange and chaotic thing, with
protesters covering every issue from gender justice to poverty and the
environment … there were the no one is illegal people and the Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty. And this protest had more of a local anarchist feel …
protesters tackled local issues like the need for special diet assistance for
the poor and access to public transit. I especially enjoyed the chant calling
for free transit. At every level of government in
Canada
all politicians are gutless things and not one of them even calls for reduced
transit fares … which clearly points out that on many issues media and all
levels of government are in a corporate pro business conspiracy. If you believe
in killing the TAR SANDS projects for example, you have to look to protesters to
get the story of why that should be. Government simply doesn’t address it.
One guy had
three signs, one of which asked what Jesus would do with 1.1 billion dollars.
And actually the last I heard was security costs were 1.3 billion. And you know
what; I believe that if Jesus had of walked out of
Allan
Gardens in the protest march today, he would’ve said, “Jesus Christ! What are
all those riot cops for?”
You’ve heard
of oppression, maybe you are oppressed … today and I suppose for the rest of the
weekend in Toronto, the most pointless exercise in oppression ever engineered
will be taking place while world leaders bask in false glory and plan to crush
the middle class down to join the poor by enacting austerity measures that can’t
work.
A friend of
mine is telling a story about a diplomat that was in a
Toronto
liquor store today, he bought more than two thousand dollars worth of wine, had
it wrapped, and announced that as a diplomat he wouldn’t have to pay tax. I
suppose he’s back in the zone now, partying with the elite while ordinary
Canadians living there are imprisoned in their own condos, and in danger of
being charged if they go out near the fence.
They closed
the gates at 6 pm.
A couple thousand riot cops clanged them shut like heavy metal doors; the same
doors to prisons of poverty our illustrious world leaders have planned for
ordinary people world wide.
In the
cooling summer night a lot of well-to-do cops are enjoying the breeze in the
downtown TO ghost town. The plastic on their shields and face plates and their
bikes and tasers and pepper guns were likely made in
China.
And when the G20 really finishes its job, their jobs will be privatized … and
perhaps they’ll be out of work as security comes in from whoever can provide it
at the lowest sweat shop cost.
Did you protest today?
Tomorrow is another day. Or go down to
Allan
Gardens now and join the party.
Other protest
photos
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g202010banner.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g202010march4.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g202010 genderjustice.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g202010arkii.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g20 2010invasion.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g202010protest2.jpg
http://photosc.msspro.com/citizen/g20Toronto2010march.jpg
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