Welcome to North Korea, I mean Toronto
 

Got a pad and pen? You're a threat.
June 25, 2010
Jeremy Grimaldi
The Hamilton Spectator
TORONTO (Jun 25, 2010) If the authorities at the G20 summit are trying to intimidate people, then mission accomplished.
Much of the Toronto's downtown core now appears to be what one tourist called a "police state."
More than 12,000 officers have occupied a 15-block radius in order to guard 20 world leaders and their delegations from perceived security threats.
And during an impromptu visit yesterday, I found out it takes little more than a pad and pen to become one of those threats. In fact, it took security guards only 10 seconds to start hassling me as I furiously wrote notes of the eerie scene before me.
I climbed the stairs at St Andrew's station on the corner of King and University and before me lay one of the city's most famous streets -- University Avenue -- utterly desolate.
Surrounding me were four of the nation's biggest bank buildings, completely vacant of their 30,000 employees.
After being moved on, I walked west to find about 50 riot officers loitering in front of the long 3.6-metre security fence.
Only moments after striking up a conversation with employees out on their smoke breaks, I was immediately approached by more security guards asking to see exactly what I was writing.
When I refused, riot police approached and requested my ID, before quickly jotting down my details and running them "through the computer."
One of them, an officer named Chu, who was attempting to remain pleasant unlike his glaring partner, told me he was worried that I was engaging in a reconnaissance mission.
He said: "We are here to make sure there's nothing out of the ordinary. Everyone is under surveillance right now."
With varying degrees of aggressiveness, police checked my ID again six more times before my four-hour journey through the security zone was complete.
When I entered a deserted Union Station, the only man I could find was Chaz Hutch, who had made the trip via the Go Train.
He told me although he had had a positive experience meeting police, he was still "freaked out" because the only people in the city appeared to be thousands of cops.
He said: "I have no problem with protesters or police, but this is right out of a science fiction movie -- it's like a police state."
One Japanese delegate said the city had overdone it with "entirely too much security."
Others revelled in the mystique of it all.
One onlooker said: "Well I certainly feel safe. It is very interesting to see. They (the police) are very well organized."
Business people, however, were not pleased.
Ujjwal Dar, from the Toronto Convention Centre, the security epicentre where G20 meetings will take place, said his trade was down by 50 per cent.
"Why would the delegates shop here when the government is giving them everything free inside the convention centre?" he asks.
Meanwhile, a map seller said rather than sell his usual two boxes of maps, he had barely made it through half a box, because of the lack of tourists.
Moving on, I did locate one protester, who was being harangued by seven policemen. After they were finished, I approached him and began to inquire about the police's G20 tactics.
As we spoke, a police officer took notes of our meeting.
The man, who refused to give me his name, said protesters are facing unprecedented intimidation by police.
I think it is safe to say that if yesterday is any indication, the summit should be an interesting event.

because I am a natural skeptic, and thereby subversive, I'm forced to wonder:

• what does one have to do to attact the attention of SEVEN policemen, who are (as noted) already busy?
• how much weight does one give to the judgements of an unwilling and unqualified source? he refused to give his name, but I'm expected to assume that he's an expert on the precedence of police intimidation.
• intelligent and determined people, who want to get things done, know how to avoid the eyes of the police, while the loud and boisterous simply want personal attention (even without giving their name). what does this say about both of the characters in this "story"?

want change? fight smart.


also, comparing the police pressence in Toronto to North Korea not only lends too much overstatement to the Toronto "police state", but devalues just how fucking bad it really is in the DPRK; it's the same as calling Bush "Hitler", and only shows a general lack of understanding of history, the world, common sense and good taste.

How very uncanadian of them.

Imagine a fascist Canada. "So, like, don't be sayin' bad stuff aboot the government, eh. Yah hoser, take off, eh."

SYHamilton is clearly one of those sensationalist fantasists who are wont to nuke things out of proportion. A paranoid conspiracy-monger.

Yet more PC posturing from a loggerheaded lout whose shrill voiced histronics bring even greater shame to his already tarnished reputation.

I take it all back - these idiots smashing windows and setting cop cars on fire are just legitimizing the police presence.
These so-called Anarchists are looking more like thugs.

that was kind of my point. with the people who effect real change, you don't even see coming.

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/po...ashed/cc48a867

pretty intense here in the battle of Toronto

Those so-called Anarchists are nothing but retarded, middle class, painfully pretentious poseurs. They probably buy stuff from the shops they vandalised.

your point being?

They're fucking twats.

your point being?

damn, canada. shit just got REAL.

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Owner/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]

Those so-called Anarchists are nothing but retarded, middle class, painfully pretentious poseurs.

Actually they are mostly from Quebec it seems. People from Toronto don't do shit like that

and BTW, there is no middle class left in Canada

not that the 'anarchists' are not completely stupid, attacking anything and everyone, including the media is just pointless. the cops however are just fucking idiots in uniform. they arrested a deaf man for not following orders and gave him a kicking.

bulls on parade = toronto cops

I have never been bullied by cops in Toronto or treated like shit. I know its not the same in NYC or LA.

But this weekend is off the charts

SYHamilton - Reminds me of when I was in Cuba a month ago, and a Cuban friend of mine were jotting down notes for the volunteer organization we were involved in. I happened to reside a few blocks away from Fidel's place, and a police car stopped in front of us and started asking questions, saying things like 'Is that your diary?' and other insults, but all in Spanish so I didn't understand a thing until my Cuban buddy translated it for me. If I walked down the street with a camera, practically every local would tell me to put it away.

So I guess it would be really odd to have that degree of harassment in Canada...


That's not true at all, there's certainly a middle class left.

they're paid provacateurs by the State, it is well documented the provacateurs in MTL were wearing police issued boots - after spending a BILLION dollars (how do you Canadians let them get away with such theivery?) they had to prove spending a BILLION dollars was warranted.

by introducing the HST.

Telsa,

MTL is a whole different kettle of fish. Two cities are quite different.

Yup, Harpers way of distributing money to his flock. That is white, conservative, cop type people.

I'm glad I'm within the first kettle of fish. But yeah, Quebec acts as it's own entity in many ways.

It is and should continue to be. I am big into cultural uniqueness..

you Canadians cannot let this go..

Now that Canada is officially the most oppressive and backward dictatorship in the west, will authorities be allowed to cover-up the Abu-Ghraib style incarceration methods Toronto police engaged in during the G20 summit this past weekend, where women were arrested and subsequently raped by male cops?
In the video below, journalist Amy Miller describes how women arrested by Toronto police were threatened with rape, that numerous women were strip-searched by male officers and that one severely traumatized woman was sexually molested by police who stuck their fingers up her vagina.
“I was told I was going to be gang banged. I was told that I was never going to want to act as a journalist again by making sure I was going to be repeatedly raped while I was in jail,” she said.

Yeah, sad that there was TEN - yes TEN times more security investment than the Pittsburgh G20 using our tax money and the police brutality. Montreal has a large number of anti police-brutality activists, but this surpasses the previous acts of brutality that have happened in MTL. The police are making it hard on themselves...


The MTL vibe is nice, but some take the french culture way too far. Quite a few people I know got as we call "anglo-bashed" for having english mother tongues by people claiming to protect the french culture from us anglophones. There's separatist parades where they chant "Fuck les anglais en Quebec" telling us to get back where we came from. Oh wait - doesn't this land belong to the native americans? Some people are all fascist about it.

Who made the decision for police to stand down despite the fact the city was under attack?
And why?
Was it a police decision or political?
These should be the cornerstone questions of an external review surrounding the chaos of the G20.
After all, police officers were trained to stop the Black Bloc anarchists, were appropriately equipped and massively manned.
As downtown Toronto witnessed burning police cars and a small group of thugs on a rampage, a police source tells me the only thing that stopped the officers from doing that was an order telling them not to. They tell me they could have rounded up all, or most of them, in no time.
I have had several frontline police officers tell me they were told not to get involved. But even before that decision was made, says one insider, there was mass confusion and indecision.
"The orders went from engage to, no, don't engage to engage to, no, don't engage,' " said an officer. "It was an absolute shambles. Everyone was talking over each other on the radio. Nobody seemed to know what to do. It was just a mess."
The officer said that eventually there was "a clear order from the command centre saying 'Do not engage' " and, at that point, smelling weakness and no repercussions, the downtown was effectively turned over to the vandals while police, up to 19,000 strong, were ordered to stay out of it.
Four police cars were destroyed and dozens of other properties were damaged.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/colum...-14564416.html

somewhat unrelated, but I always have an uncomfortable feeling seeing police on the streets

yo real talk I was patted down 4 times by cops in the past week and told I fit the description of a suspect

by Irish Dan
(for henrymakow.com)
Tommy Taylor's account "Arrested and Abused at the G-20" is frightening. Will it make any great difference to public perceptions? I doubt it ! However, it is great that there is a coherent, cogent account of what happened.
I was involved with Sinn Fein here all the way from a street protest party excluded from power right through to seeing our party share Regional Government in the Northern part of Ireland and having a significant presence in the Southern Irish Parliament. I was also on the Party National Executive for most of a decade and have seen and made politics from the inside-out and top-down as well as street level up. Because of this, perhaps these comments may carry a little more weight.
1) While this mass citizen arrest took place during the summit meeting protests, it is obvious that far more is involved here than the mere optics of justifying costs. Anyone familiar with accounts of the round-up of citizens in Chile after the overthrow of the Allende Government there, and the imposition of a military dictatorship, can identify the parallels in the detention procedures.
2) The police cars abandoned for burning etc, the presence of large numbers of specially equipped forces apparently tasked for specific purposes, the transport, the prepared cages etc. indicates more than a reaction to a protest situation. Rather it points to a 'dry run' training exercise using the cover of the summit protest.
3) With regard to the cages and facilities provided, any low ranking Red Cross Administrator setting up a temporary facilities for holding a few hundred to a few thousand people would give immediate concern to water, food, sanitation and shelter and medical first aid in that order. It is not rocket science. The UN, every First World Government , the Red Cross and most large international Charitable Welfare Agencies have ready plans for these facilities. Most in fact use the similar standardized plans that had their genesis in post WW2 refugee camps.
4) The cages, the layout, the provision of cameras etc all indicate careful planning and preparation. Water was available as were disposable cups; it just was not issued in the amounts required. Basic food was available; it was deliberately withheld. The holding pens were secure, yet people were unnecessarily held in plastic or steel handcuffs even though these added little to the security factor.
5) Rationing toilet paper is another indication of what was afoot here as were the deliberate withholding of women's specific sanitation needs. I remember decades ago, reading a translation from a CIA inspired manual used by the Shah of Iran's forces where all these things came under the title ' Denigrating The Captives Self Esteem' ! Nothing new in this treatment of young women, the same tactic was also used to attempt to demoralize and break women political prisoners in Armagh Jail during the early eighties.
6) This whole scenario as documented by Tommy seems geared to be a large-scale exercise using the availability of 'protesting human resources' for a mass arrest to access the psychological reaction of confined masses to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment and denial of basic Civil Rights.
As such the Authorities will be accessing a) ease of arrest, b) docility during transport, c) acceptability of confinement, d) reaction to various deprivations , etc.
7) If this was a large scale, Government sanctioned experiment, then Taylor's posting and others in Facebook etc will be a continuing part of the same exercise. In my experience, most will not protest or put themselves in harms way again. A few will cross the line and accept that violence against the authorities is necessary and the seasoned protesters will continue to protest with as much or as little impact as the protest giving rise to this has had.
8) No one individual or small group of individuals can effectively counter the deployment of State resources on the scale described. However, if a special grouping were formed with all that were arbitrarily arrested combining to bring a Legal Class Action against the Canadian State, for deliberate and wilful abuse of their freedoms, then this would immediately stymie this State activity and bring the Human Rights bulldozer to a standstill ! It could also be used to smoke out and expose the hidden hands and agencies involved in these things.
9) I have spend decades of my life fighting for Left Wing causes and I still do. However I have long reached the view that there is a far bigger picture and more vital battle now to be fought for Basic Human Rights and to checkmate the State Juggernauts, while people still have some freedom to act.
As an individual I did a hunger and thirst strike in jail against arbitrary arrest. I was in poor health at the time. After days of this I was placed on Hourly Hospital Watch and then released. I was never again re-arrested under this same act. Individuals are not powerless and neither are empowered class action groups as the Unites States experience has shown.
10) We, in the Western World, where human rights and progressive politics are concerned, are now where citizens were in early thirties Germany were. The time to act is finite and a Legal Class Action in Canada is as good a place as any other to start the checkmate to the State!

here is a sweet video someone made with G20 stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiRjwpCrCMc

They're the kind of insufferable, smug, arrogant, self-righteous poseurs that deserve a good kicking. Well done the riot police.