A Guide to the G20 Protests for the Not-Yet-Radical

[JohnyCanuck]

A little more than a month ago, between the 21st and 27th of June, a week of protests against the Group of 20 Summit occurred in Toronto resulting in the arrests of more than 1000 people. I’m writing this piece for the friends and family in my extended network for whom the events were a bit of a shock. I’m writing especially for people who found the whole thing disturbing, who are uncertain about what they think, who are surprised and scared by what they’ve heard that police did, and put off by scenes of burning cars and broken windows.

My perspective is the view of someone who’s participated in this kind of protest before, who’s even helped organize some of them. I’m someone who has friends and acquaintances who were arrested and hurt over that weekend and in its aftermath. I’m someone who’s been in several political "riots”, been beat-on occasionally, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed a fair bit more, but also never arrested. And I’m someone who thinks a lot about the role of protest in movements to change society. I have some sense of what motivates the people I know to get out on the street, some sense of how the police, courts and government tend to react to that, and some sense of the history that last weekend’s events are a part of.

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Whether or not the police allowed the vandalism to take is important, but not overwhelmingly so. It’s important, because the destruction is the pretext for the subsequent police actions. But I very much want to convince you that those subsequent actions speak for themselves as well; they are a part of a broader pattern, and don’t entirely depend on whether or not the vandalism and destruction take place. That’s to say, they are not really a response.

Allow me to offer a few examples. What I’m trying to do is tie a few threads together with stories that I’ve read or heard (many of them first-hand accounts), and show you why I’m convinced that the way that this demonstration was policed had little to do with stopping violence, and a great deal to do with repressing and intimidating people.

http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/guide-g20-protests-not-yet-radical/4398

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Woman shot (with rubber bullets) by G20 police speaks out

I was at the jail solidarity rally on Sunday June 27th, outside of the detention centre in support of my friends who had been surrounded and arrested in Queen's Park, the designated protest zone, the day before. Sunday's protest followed the route decided upon by the police, and was proceeding peacefully. A line of riot police formed between us and the detention centre. Without warning, two unmarked minivans screeched to a stop behind the police line. A number of plainclothes men stormed through the line and into the crowd, violently pushing two people into the ground. The people were dragged along the pavement and aggressively thrown into the vans and the vans took off. To all who were there, this appeared to be a strategically orchestrated kidnapping. The small woman who was snatched later became my cellmate. She told me of being choked and sat on by two large men to the verge of unconsciousness. A third man pulled her hair and all three verbally abused her, referring to her as "cunt," "bitch," "whore" and "street trash" on the way to the detention centre. All three refused to identify themselves.

At this point we decided to de-escalate the situation by sitting down. We chanted "we are peaceful, how about you" and clapped our hands. During this time, officers donning helmets, body armour, gas masks, and weapons resembling tear gas guns filled in the line in front of us. Several minutes later, once again without warning, the police line started moving quickly toward us. We stood up and moved backwards, complying with the yells of the officers to get back. Soon thereafter, the riot line parted to let an officer through who was wielding a large, intimidating weapon.

As an asthmatic, I had bought a painter's respirator from a hardware store to cover my face in case chemical weapons were used during the weekend. I had no idea what the weapon behind us was, so as a precaution, I reached into my bag, took out the mask and put it over my face. Not wanting to have my back to the weapon, I turned to face it while retreating. It was then that I was shot in the sternum. As I went to turn, I was shot again in the elbow, and I immediately hit the ground, falling into the fetal position. I remember simply hoping that someone was on their way to help me, and I knew I couldn't get up by myself.

A person ran back for me and attempted to help me to my feet, but on my way up, the riot line caught up to us and several police shoved me face first into the pavement. They yelled at me to stop resisting and kneeled on top of me. I was terrified, and lost control of my bladder. All I remember was begging them to be gentle because I was hurt. They then dragged me to my feet and walked me to a nearby cruiser, the officer on my left insisting on gripping my arm over the bullet wound.

snip

After being interrogated, I was led to be strip searched. When I repeated several times that I wanted to speak to a lawyer before being strip searched, I was surrounded by approximately eight officers. A male officer referred to me in third person and said, 'I know she'll behave because if she doesn't, she knows we'll be coming in', referring to himself and several other male officers. I was strip searched by four female officers. My search was minor in comparison to that of one woman, who was strip searched by several male officers and had a finger put inside her.

Afterwards, the officers escorted me back to my cell, sporadically moving me to different ones throughout the course of my incarceration. I knew that four hours after my hospital visit, the acetaminophen would wear off and I'd be in severe pain again. So I started asking officers if I'd be treated. I also needed to take my asthma medication. An hour and a half after I started asking to see the physician, I was finally brought to one. Throughout my stay, I would tell the officers my pain medication was about to wear off about 20 minutes in advance. They would wait until I was hunched over, shaking, clutching my arm to my front and crying before bringing me to the physician. I remember hearing a woman asking to see the doctor, and the officers told her to stand up. She told them that she couldn't, that she was too injured to do so. They told her if she couldn't stand up, she couldn't see the doctor, and left her in her cell.

We were occasionally given buns of white bread with a slice of processed cheese in the middle to eat and small styrofoam cups of water to drink . The bathrooms were outhouses without doors that faced the officers. The solitary cells didn't have bathrooms. The floors and benches were concrete, and puddles were common. The officers refused us blankets and warm clothing. I was refused a fresh pair of pants, and spent all 30 hours in the pants I had urinated in. There were fluorescent lights on 24/7. I huddled up in a corner of the cage, and dozed off for a couple minutes around midnight. But I was too hungry, cold and injured to sleep that night, like many other prisoners. I continued throughout the night to try and see the doctor every four hours.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/alex/2010/07/woman-shot-g20-police-speaks-out

[JohnyCanuck]

2. RNN report (video): Government doesn't want to test Public Works Protection Act in co

The one G20 protester arrested and held in custody under the Public Works Protection Act appears at court on the appointed day and time and lo and behold there is no court documentation on his case and he is not even on the docket of cases to be tried that day. The cops are now saying it was a procedural mixup that caused the paperwork to get held up, but they are not going to recharge the defendant at this time. So, in other words, they are dropping the case and the defendant is home free - other than having had his rights to lawful assembly and peaceful protest being arbitrarily denied and having to spend 8hrs in a hell hole detention centre.

The ex-defendant is now a plaintiff as he is instituting a law suit for false arrest. His lawyer (noted Canadian civil rights lawyer Howard Morton) believes there is no way the Public Works Protection Act or its arbitrary application in a secret cabinet meeting to the G20 meeting environs could hold up in court under Canada's Charter of Rights, and that is why the paperwork for this case conveniently got "lost" in the first place.


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5488

A blogger at http://rabble.ca also discussed the case.

Well, when Dave Vasey -- the only individual charged under the rule that never existed -- appeared in court on Wednesday July 28, 2010, as his summons dictated, he found the charge had mysteriously disappeared. His name was nowhere to be found on the docket. The court also had no information about his case. There was no written or computer file. Nothing.

Vasey's lawyer, Howard Morton, said at the same he had no idea why Vasey's charge seemed to have suddenly disapeared.

"There are only two possibilities. The first is there never was a charge," he said. "The only other possibility I can think of is that the government simply didn't want any further embarrassment over this regulation that was passed in secret and simply decided not to pursue it. If that's the case, then they were just hoping the issue would go away," Morton said.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/statica/2010/08/g8g20-communiqu%C3%A9-g20-charges-appear-and-disappear

[JohnyCanuck]

3. G8/G20 Communique: Report from the courts: Monday August 23, 2010

Three courtrooms at the fortified 2201 Finch Avenue court house were dedicated exclusively to handling the 303 G20 arrestees who arrived early for their set date hearings on Monday August 23 2010; where heavily armed Emergency Task Force officers patrolled the hallways.

The G20 arrestees were divided up into groups loosely based on the location of their arrest and processed through the system; sometimes only spending a few minutes in front of the judge before hearing that their charges had been dropped.

All 17 community organizers accused of being "ringleaders" to the G20 Summit protests -- thus given a variety of conspiracy based charges - had their hearings put over to September 27, 2010.

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The sheer number of charges dropped -- coupled with the number of activists and bystanders who were arrested/detained during the G20 Summit weekend only to be released hours later without charge -- has bolstered calls for an inquiry.

Of the 1,090 people picked up during the G20 Summit, only 303 were charged and told to appear in court on August 23, 2010. Of the 303 charged (by rough estimate; the Attorney General said official stats were forthcoming, 100 people (nearly a third) had their charges dropped or diverted if they agreed to contribute to a charity, do community service or sign a peace bond.

http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/statica/2010/08/g8g20-communiqu%C3%A9-report-courts-monday-august-23-2010