G20: Friday

So being a reasonably progressive historian, I could hardly fail to document the G20 summit here in Toronto. The appalling waste of the whole thing ought to be past evident, so I'm not going rant about that. It also ought to be clear that to the extent any violence does occur, the ultimate responsibility lies at the feet of the Harper government. It's past stupid to hold this thing in Toronto, when more remote and easily secured locations are available.

As if all that weren't bad enough, Toronto woke up this morning to a new law, giving police broad powers of arrest, search and seizure in the Security Area (see below). Police now have the right to ask you for ID if you are entering, or within 5 metres of the zone. They also have the right to search you without a warrant in this area. You can refuse, but then you must leave the zone immediately. If you don't, you can be arrested, until June 28. No one had any word of this Bill before about 9 AM this morning. it was passed in-council by McGuinty Cabinet on June 2. Despite this, the Police Chief, Bill Blair assures us that there wasn't anything secret about it. It appeared, as all new laws do, in e-Law. So if you knew exactly where to look, you would have found this new law, passed without debate that broadly expands police powers.

Seriously, this is really something. First of all, I can't believe these powers aren't unconstitutional. As noted in the Toronto Star:

“It reminds me a little bit of the War Measures Act,” said lawyer Nathalie Des Rosiers of the new regulation. Des Rosiers is a lawyer with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which has been working to monitor arrests during the summit. “This is highly unusual to have this declaration done by
order-in-council without many people knowing about it.”

Yes, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is going to challenge the law. But by the time they get an injunction, I bet the weekend is over.

Despite that, I'm not particularly enthusiastic about these protests. I'm well aware that this is an opportunity to publicize a number of causes that need serious attention; its free camera time, and that's pretty valuable. It's also good that isolated progressives know others feel the same way. But I'm not convinced that this kind of action is condusive to actual meaningful change. It's sexy alright, but this strikes me as similar to the photo-op the G8/G20 leaders have orchestrated. Worse, if there is ANY violence, it's going to give an opportunity for the Conservatives to say "told you we needed to spend $930 million on security." And after marching today in the OCAP protest, it appears to me that it isn't going to take much for the police to lay in, hard.

But I digress. I walked through the downtown security area, from about 1-3pm this afternoon. Downtown wasn't deserted, but pedestrian traffic was pretty sparse. I should note that I did not bring a backpack (less reason to stop and search me) and usually carried my camera in the open. Oh, and I should note at the outset a rather amusing change in behaviour from Torontonians. Normally, in the downtown area, people are always jaywalking-- at lights and in between them. However, I did not see one person (including myself) do other than pay scrupulous attention to crossing signals within blocks of the security zone.

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First stop: WWF global warming protest on Front.

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West of Bay, police presence is visible, but sporadic. Lots more security guards, but everything is very relaxed.

Once you get to the security zone, there are masses of officers everywhere. I made a approximate count of visible officers per block:

Front & Bay Gate: 12
Front: Bay - York: 35
Front: York - Simcoe: 25 (I could only see the South Side)
Front: Simcoe-John: 35+

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And so on. Of course, these are just the obvious, out in the open ones. Tourists on Front St. were being allowed in and out without incident. In fact, I should note here that I took pictures the whole way, including right in front of the convention centre. No one stopped me or challenged me on Front at all.

However, when I looked East down Wellington & John (see below) my nerve failed me. I figured for sure I'd get challenged for taking pictures, whether it was legal or not, and I wasn't sure the whole "I'm a historian" would do as a reason for sauntering about the place.

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So I chickened out, and walked outside to fence, to Wellington and University and sat for 20 min or so, looking south on University. Here, as you can see, there are about ten officers guarding the gates. These ones are actually checking the bags and I.D. of everyone walking/biking south on University. I didn't take pics, but there were also officers stationed at every entrance to the PATH system running under Wellington-Bay-Yonge.

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The officers at this gate and on the PATH were quite aware of me watching them BTW. I made sure I was more than 5 metres from the fence so they would have no grounds to arrest me, though certainly I would have shown them ID etc. if they'd asked. But it also meant I wasn't going to walk down University through this gate either.

Instead, I walked a block east on the North of Wellington, until I got back to York. Then I crossed to the South side, again taking pictures. I wasn't in the officers face or anything, but they were aware of me. I was actually splitting my time between photos of officers and the barren streets/fence, but just about every time I take a picture of any officers, you can see they at least one is watching. I'm not loitering here BTW; I walk, see something, stop take picture, move on.

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Here's the scene facing East at Wellington/Bay, north of the RBC-- again, I'm not fooling any of the police here.

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When I turned West to get another half-dozen officers in a quick shot, the officer at the far left, with his hand on his hat approached me.

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He asked what my business was, and I replied that I was a historian who worked at York, who intended to write and lecture about the G20 to my classes this year. He asked what I was doing with the camera, I replied "taking pictures of the security area" so I can show what I'm talking about. He demanded to see the pictures, I complied. He said, "you're taking pictures of police officers. Why?" I gave him the same answer, and offered to show him all the pictures. He said, "No. You aren't supposed to take pictures here." I answered that I understood from the media that pictures were acceptable." He said, "no, they aren't." I shrugged and said, "Okay, I'll take them from outside the fence." He said, "yes, you'd better," and that was that. I'd walked around the area anyway, so no reason to stay, and I definitely didn't want my camera confiscated.

I took a few more from outside the fence (again, not fooling anyone):

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and then headed up to Allan Gardens to the OCAP protest.

There was no police presence until I reached the park, and it was immediately obvious. There were LOTS of officers here, but massed around the Park, esp. in the South, West and East. They were not fooling around either. I wasn't stopped (no backpack=good idea!), but these guys were paying attention. They got frequent reports on the protestors (easily heard as you walked by) and they weren't laughing and joking around with each other, but watching people as they moved around.

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West

South

The protestors were in the North and East end. The energy here seemed pretty positive to me. The police stayed about 100 feet away, and weren't in the "protestors" area. There were a number of things going on-- political speeches (which I didn't listen to), drum circle, colourful characters of various types, and lots of people just sitting around eating lunch. It was certainly peaceful-- even the "angry" protestors (a relative term) were just yelling a lot. Certainly I saw no weapons of any sort, nor any incitement to violence. Another wise move I noted was that there was NO smell of pot anywhere. Clearly the word had gone out-- don't give the police ANY excuse to disrupt the protest.

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All this left the copious media types conspicuously bored. Having been on that side of the story, I got how they felt, but I wasn't particularly sympathetic this time out. *grin* For their part, the protestors were perfectly happy to pose for anyone with a camera, costumes and all. Clearly they were aware enough to use media to their advantage; there was nothing spontaneous from any of them all day really (They might have been twittering the protest route, but that crowd was not moving fast enough to surprise anyone). Yes, there were anarchists present (so said their banner and chant), but they moved along in perfect order the entire time.

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Anyways, about 4pm, the crowd got organized and we moved along Carlton in good order. It was very well-organized in fact. At the outset, at Carlton and Sherbourne was the only place I didn't see any police, only media, and, of course, lots of spectators. I'd say the crowd was about 3,000, give or take-- respectable, but not huge. It was also entirely obvious to me that no one was going to be rioting. There were plenty of kids, even babies there. No one brings their kids to a violent protest, I don't care what your politics are. That's part of why the police presence (and attitude, see below) was way over the top for me.

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Anyways, before we got too far, the police presence became obvious.

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And then VERY obvious.

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By the time we passed Carlton and Mutual, the police were right with us, blocking both sides of the street. They let individuals in and out though, I stepped through them at a 5 foot break in the line, and then back into the march after we passed Church and Carlton.

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The crowd stayed in good order throughout.

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After we passed Mutual, the protest parade was frequently stopped, so it took us easily 30 min to get from Mutual to Yonge. I saw/heard a few protestors try to engage the police lining the route, but not aggresively-- a lot of waving and "Hi officers!" I have to say though, the police response was pretty intimidating. They all had their poker faces on. The friendlist thing I saw was a nod back at some girls waving.

After we got past Yonge, the march was basically stopped for 30 min. I went to the front (again, not difficult) to see what the story was. It looked like the police were trying to clear the road for the most part, though they weren't in any hurry about it, and you have to wonder why they let cars get anywhere near the place to begin with. But perhaps the protest organizers are equally to blame, since they refused to tell anyone the route.

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West of Yonge, the police presence was VERY heavy, and most of them were decked out in full riot gear. These guys were on alert and, as I said, not messing around. I honestly couldn't see any reason for it. The march stopped when the police stopped them, and started when the police said they could go. Despite some sensational pics in the Globe, I saw no violence or taunting. Heck, even the slogans weren't directed at the police until....

At around 5 pm, I was just a little in front of the marchers, at College and Bay. A whole line of police (maybe 12-15) in full riot gear and all linked together on the shoulder stampeded down the sidewalk. That's the only way I can describe it. These guys were like a battering ram, and you got out of the way, or were violently shoved to one side. The media, of course, stampeded after them. I looked at the police at the front-- they didn't seem to concerned, so I went over more slowly. At that point, another line stampeded by me on the sidewalk-- fortunately I was on the road-- and circled a couple of points around Winners, just West of Yonge. Anyways, apparently this was because of the protestors encircling the police.

Funny thing was, I was pretty sure no matter how deliberate the riot police were being in getting from A to B, widespread violence wasn't going to break out. Look at all the media and ordinary people snapping photos just outside the circle of officers. If police start busting heads, someone was going to get it on camera. Someone yelled out, "everyone is watching" and we all were.

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Anyways, I could see a brief flurry over the camera, and the crowd started to chant "Let him go! Let him go!" but no one made a move. The clowns in this picture, who seemed to be a sort of flying squad looking for cameras, got to the edges of it and you can see people taking pictures, but clearly no one is concerned about mass arrests etc. Apparently, one person was arrested; the Globe has a picture or two.

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So I went forward again, and there were even more police. These ones were seriously decked out. Tear gas guns (see below) and very obviously armed. There were easily over 100 officers at this intersection. Again, I couldn't see a reason for this. The marchers were doing what they were told, and had been frying in the sun for over half an hour without moving.

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At about 5:15, they finally let the protestors move again. I crossed to the west of Carlton, and at this point, the police started ordering all the watching pedestrians back, "because we don't want you to get hurt when the protestors start throwing things." Right. Anyways, not a very good shot of the gun, but the officer facing the camera in the upper right has it.

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As I walked south on Bay, looking for a way around the intersection, I ran into an army.

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This is actually one of the few times the police weren't looking at me, they were more concerned with the baby carriage.

Finally, we came to College and Elizabeth; as you can see, everyone is still calm and in good order.

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At that point I left for home; the crowd had really thinned at that point-- maybe 1,500 left. As I walked towards the subway on College, I overheard a number of officers, at different points warn pedestrians that "you don't want to go that way. There's a violent protest coming down the street." It was quite ridiculous really. Apparently, I missed the police refuse to let the protest proceed south on University after Elm street, but they turned peacefully and went back to Allan Gardens.

So, not very dramatic I suppose. It was very apparent the police were there to intimidate us however. Given how they acted, it was clear that they would not hesitate to use violence on US. Like I've said, these guys were tense, lots of yelling etc. I find it hard to believe, at this point, any of the protest organizers are unaware of this. I've heard there are still plans to try and pull part of the fence down-- I hope not. (P.S. Attention government spybots! This info comes to me via the comment page of the G&M, I know nothing) For one, as these pictures show, that thing is solid. It's not going to come down without some organization and equipment, and a mass of police are going to be there about three seconds after the attempt begins, prepared to violently "defend" their perimeter. People are going to get hurt-- not the police, but the protestors. In fact, I don't think the police will need even a direct action as an excuse-- the protest isn't supposed to reach the security fence, but if any of the more vehement protestors decide to break off from the main group....

Hopefully I am being too cynical here, but I only think the protest will avoid being a total fiasco if no one gets hurt, and that's still a long shot. Any police action will be laid at the protestors feet in any event, and in that case, people will be hurt and Harper gets to say "I told you so." But we'll see what tomorrow brings.