Off to Toronto

Before leaving for the Toronto G20 my grandfather had wanted to pass along some advice to me. i wanted to participate in the G20 resistance to do media coverage of the environmental justice and climate justice mobilization which has been gaining a wider attention from public and helping to advance the movement forward by engaging new people into the core principals of what is needed to address this crisis.  After asking my mother if I one of his many grandchildren had planned on attending the G20 Summit in Toronto, her response was “Yes he is attending.” His ever so quick and direct response was “Tell him to just stay the f*ck home.” While I knew all to well that both my mother and grandfather probably could not cite more than 5 of the countries who were in the G20 nor would they have an understanding of what policies or international implications of furthering the exploitation of natural resources, deepening the divide of the elite and those who live in global poverty and the exacerbated climate change impacts which would take place from the continual lack of action from the 20 countries gathered even though it was so closely linked to their greenhouse gas emissions to why this crisis was happening but one thing was for sure the fear mongering which broadcast media was doing was certainly having an impact on the general population of Canadians. I tried to easily explain the fact that this elite group had no right to gather to pretend to discuss these issues during a few days in June and that these so called world leaders would gather for nothing more than an over priced photo opt at the cost of taxpayers dollars from people around the world while the core issues would remain unaddressed.

With slightly more insight on the G20 to family members as to why I was attending I was off thanks to a ride to Moncton from a former fellow Canadian Youth Delegate alumni and a VIA Rail train voucher from the Sierra Youth Coalition to Toronto. After the 18 hour ride which allowed me to prepare some video intros for the content which I had was eagerly waiting to document with the new equipment (Which I had finally decided to take the step into the deep end of debt for) it was right to the Toronto Community Mobilization Network convergence space upon landing at Union Station in Toronto. Since I had arrived so early in Toronto the space was still getting set up but you could feel that there really was a sense of grassroots empowerment which had already filled the space even though it was more than a week before the actual G20 Summit began.

Pre Summit Preparation

The videography work started the next day with the opening of the 2010 People’s Summit which kicked off with “Stories and Solutions from North and South” where those who attended heard from organizers and activists from around the world who are working in their communities to find sustainable, transformative alternatives to the G8/G20 agenda. It was to my surprise the amount of interest from others who were also documenting the event, but as usual there seemed to a huge lack of “mainstream” or “corporate” media even though there were some very high profile presenters. The following day started early with workshops taking place at Ryerson Univeristy I attending mostly environmental and climate related workshops and panels including “What is Climate Justice” moderated by Graham Saul of the Climate Action Network Canada, Andrea Harden from the Council of Canadians, Kimia Ghomeshi representing the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and Daniel t’seleie with the Climate Action Network.  The second session I recorded was “Tar Sand Expansion Through Local Struggles” presented by Harjap Grewal and Cam Fenton used some live action to play out the distribution of Tar Sand bitumen through the current and proposed pipe lines which will increase the world into more climate chaos while expanding the most destructive industrial project in the world. My evening at The Peoples Summit closed with attending the “On The Road To A Green Economy” session which was presented by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and The Polaris Institute and had a spoken word poet to finish the session off on a really high note. Throughout the whole day of workshops and sessions I do not think that there were many mainstream reporters covering the amazing mobilization which was taking place but there certainly was independent journalists all over the place providing coverage of the amazing work which was happening before the G20 Summit had even begun. The broadcast and print media outlets were already showing what they were interested in the police showing off all their new toys which came under the 1.3 billions cost of security. (All videos from the 2010 Peoples Summit will be available on the Power Shift G8 G20 YouTube Channel)

Fast forward to the middle of the week of the G20 Summit and the streets of Toronto were alive and filled with people from many different political views, concerned about various issues with a small growing interest from mainstream media on little bits of coverage from all the themed days, there were a handful of media outlets at the Environmental Justice and Climate Justice “Toxic Tour of Toronto” on June 23rd but yet again the bulk of documenting these marches fell onto the shoulders of independent journalists who provided an insight into the reasons why people were using their democratic right to peacefully protest against the G20 Summit and their policies.

The following day while waiting for the Indigenous Peoples march to start from Queens Park an FOX News correspondent jumped in my face with his camera man recording and asked me if I wanted to do an interview. Seeing that I am not a an Indigenous person I declined to give an interview even thought I could have spoke to the fact that Canada has not signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples but  thought that it would be more fitting to have someone representing Indigenous People to speak due to the issues. The correspondent then responded with “But your an anarchists.” Which my shocked response was “What?” His response was “Since I had a bandana (green and on my head to protect from a sunburn) that I was an anarchist.” This was slightly odd to hear seeing that I was wearing Nike sneakers and a pair of  Billabong shorts (the sure signs of a true anarchist), but it was obvious that the media bias of anyone who would come out to any anti-G20 events must be an anarchist. This attitude of media bias would soon take center stage in the next few days as the police who were fully suited in riot gear during all of the peaceful marches were no where in sight on Saturday June 26th when the small group had splintered off at the end of a march and started to use “Black Block” tactics to showcase the true violence which corporations and governments use to oppress the general population, indigenous community and those living on the margins of society.

G20 Summit Weekend

The media cycle was nothing but police cruisers on fire and minor property damage set in such a tone as to try to help justify the spending of 1.3 billion dollars when the police themselves were no where near where the property damage was taking place to prevent this from happening. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair later made the statement saying “That the peaceful demonstrator should have been the ones who stopped the property damage from taking place.” Seriously I had not noticed that the movement was so well funded (1.3 billion dollars went to police from taxpayers not back to taxpayers) to do someone else’s job. Which combined with the lack of mainstream media’s showing of what had actual happened when 25,000 people marched peacefully which ended up with a police response of illegally detaining, beating and general terrorizing those who had nothing to do with the property damage out of Queens Park which was the safe zone. I arrived at Queens Park just as police officers in full riot gear started to push those who peacefully displayed their concerns back onto the streets after started to make illegal arrests for no reason at all.

Within forty seconds of arriving I was fired upon by rubber bullets for doing videography work and knew that this situation was not what the mainstream media would be showcasing, the total chaos of a police state trying to silence the voices of those who showed dissent against the G20 Summit. The following video shows in a short version of what I had arrived to at Queens Park.

Riot Police Shoot At Media While Showing Badge At Queens Park Safe Protest Area.

While I felt the urgent need to remove myself from the situation to protect myself and my equipment there were other independent journalists who received much worse treatment at the hands of police who were acting carte blanche even against civil liberties and the basic Canadian Human Rights. The following video shows exactly how violent the police were action towards media and the grab tactics which were used to take anyone who was in Queens Park into illegal detention against their will.

Toronto Police Attack Peaceful Protesters and Journalists at G20 in Queens Park

The follow day the police cracked down on peaceful protesters, community organizers and independent media. The actions were very violent, and excessive and seemed to be a response to the property damage which took place the day before. I myself had a very terrible experience which I will most likely never be able to forget. While biking to do some video work outside of the Detention Center I stopped to record police doing illegal searches on young people at Bloor and St. Thomas which was very far away from the G20 Summit fence area and also was no where near a G20 rally or event. Due to me recording police doing illegal actions against young people who had been profiled as being anti-G20 protesters I was violently thrown down to the ground after showing my media badge and had my equipment ripped out of my hand to not be seen even as I write this almost two weeks later after the incident happened. I was extremely injured and was taken to the hospital and handcuffed to the hospital bed for four hours while not being charged with anything and not allowed access to legal council. After being transported to the detention center where I was left in the back of the police cruiser for a few hours I was then processed and released without any charges. My personal items, the Sony NXCAM and backpack were no where to be found and I was told to file a complaint with the police.

Upon exiting the detention center fence there were some familiar faces who had been released from their illegal detention as well as a Environmental Correspondent for MTV Canada who documented all of the injuries which I had received from doing independent videography work. A CBC media also recorded my experience and my input on the lack of action that Canada had taken on Climate Change for a documentary which will be aired later this fall. A reporter from The Star was interested in my story and offered to drive me back to the hospital due to my concerns of the lack of medial attention which I had received. After receiving enough information on my incident and due to traffic which was moving so slowly I was dropped off directly behind the G20 Summit area. This was rather concerning to me due to the amount of police who were in the area and after the traumatic experience I had went through I was feeling really let down with the lack of  concern of my personal injuries and how I was treated by the police only a few hours earlier.

Overall without the Alternative Media Center, the tireless work of independent journalists and the huge role that citizen journalism had during the G20 Summit weekend the public outcry for a public inquiry to the oppressive actions of the police would not have made so much attention with the general public. While many mainstream media were tempted to be complicit with their “official” G20 Summit media passes while standing around the over priced fake lake, being treated to free booze paid for by Canadian taxpayers and entertained with the World Cup soccer while outside of the fence the police violence used to silence the dissent of peaceful protesters exposed the silent violence which the G20 policies have on the population of the world.

It also exposed the tactics which Canadian police services use when training other countries to be oppressive to community organizers, media and people who are standing up for justice. The lack of action from the G20 at this expensive gathering to discuss economics and their usual “We agree to agree later to take action on all of the issues which need urgent action right.” is no surprise seeing that the elite have no right to make decision for the people of the world.