As the skies opened, dumping enough rain to flood the Don Valley Parkway, masses of people were arrested: peaceful protesters, curious onlookers, passersby carrying grocery bags. Many were packed into paddy wagons, dropped off outside city limits or taken to the G20 temporary jail. Dozens were held in the downpour with their hands zip-tied behind their backs. Police set up what they referred to as a designated speech zone at Queen’s Park and invited citizens protesting the summit to assemble and demonstrate there. However, by the late afternoon of June 26, police encircled and charged the area, and physically assaulted peacefully assembled citizens who had accepted the police’s earlier invitation. Hundreds of police officers violated policy and removed their name tags so as to prevent citizens from identifying them and filing official complaints. Eventually, nearly 100 Toronto police officers were identified on security footage without name tags and faced discipline, which amounted to the loss of a day’s pay. The point about this is that this is not business as usual. This is what was going on during the G-20. So what happened at the G-20? The PTB decided that they wanted austerity for Canada, the US and Western Europe but an expanded social safety net for China and India. Two years after the recession began, they come to this decision and tell the police to just cut loose on all protestors, and that they dont have to try too hard to figure out whos protesting vs., say, shopping.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 19:23:32 +0000
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