Note: I was going to post this last night, but between the difficulty I had leaving the downtown core, and my interest in watching the news coverage, I fell asleep on the couch. Here, a bit late, is my account of yesterday’s protest in Toronto.
I exited the Queen’s Park subway station at 12:50, ten minutes before the start of the protest, and immediately came across a mob of about 100 police officers, standing in no particular formation just outside the subway station entrance, east of University and north of College. They were wearing yellow jackets and standing with bicycles. It was a bit unnerving walking past them, all watching me, but I moved north in the direction of the parliament buildings. The crowd got thicker as I moved north, passing a drumming circle, as I moved towards the head of the rally. I ended up standing beside some hedges, to the right of the path, where I could hear the speakers but not see them. The speakers were good, the MC not so much; the main topics of speech were better ways the money could have been spent (student debt, maternal health) and anger over how the working class is taxed to bail out the banks.
After half an hour (at 1:30 PM) the march began. Protesters slowly began filing out of the park – it took about fifteen minutes before I was really able to move forward. We moved southbound down University, where I fell in behind some red-flag-waving socialists chanting communist slogans, and beside some anti-globalization protesters, walking south in the northbound lanes. At each intersection (at least on the east side, I couldn’t see the west) a handful of police (who had changed from yellow coats into black) stood, making sure the protest kept on course. The protesters were chanting; some examples: “Show me what democracy looks like / This is what democracy looks like!” and “G8! G20! Get out of my city!”
We continued like this along University, southbound, without much police presence except for the few at each intersection. The protest route as shown in the first post was intended to turn west on Queen Street, however, I had heard previously that a group, Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance, had threatened a breach of police lines at this point. Tensions were a bit higher in the crowd as we moved further south and approached this intersection. As I got to Queen, I saw a line of police officers across the south exit to the intersection. University is a very wide street here, but the police had their bicycles on stands, pushed wheel to wheel. Additionally, 25 yards behind this line was a line of riot-gear-clad police (helmet, plexiglas shield, batons, gas masks) standing shoulder-to-shoulder across the entire road, two ranks deep. The protest turned west along Queen without incident.
The next intersection over, Simcoe Street (which I reached at about 2:30, an hour into the protest march), was a similar story. A group of yellow-clad police standing in a loose line (about a meter between officers), no bicycles here, with riot police a couple dozen yards up the road. A crowd of protesters had passed through this first line and gathered in front of the riot police, causing the organizers of the march to unfurl a large banner with a green arrow pointing west, and a woman stood with a megaphone shouting ‘Nothing to see here! Protest continues that way!’ This, of course, meant a bunch of people who didn’t know that something was going on was now aware of it, and a lot of people filtered through the line and swelled the crowd at the inner line. About 75-100 people were crowded there, but most were walking in, watching for a bit, and leaving. I didn’t pass the outer line, but from what I could see, some protesters were shouting slogans at the riot police, who were standing, unreacting.
It was here that I saw the best example of police work all day. At the west edge of this line was a young Indian-looking officer on the Toronto police department who was talking with protesters, answering their questions, and letting them move back to see what the trouble was, if they wanted. He did a lot of work to build goodwill with the protesters who otherwise may have escalated the confrontation down Simcoe. Unfortunately, aside from the fact that he was the Indian officer at the west end of the Simcoe Street first line at 2:30, I have no idea who he is or how to make sure his superiors hear of his good work.
After it became clear that nothing was going to happen at Simcoe, I continued along with the march west along Queen. I was now near the back of the march as I’d spent some time watching. The police presence became more severe as I moved along Queen; by the time I reached John Street, the riot police was right at the intersection, shoulder to shoulder – they had dispensed with the yellow-clad officers entirely. Crowd members were shouting at the police, and the news crews had made their way onto the street. (It should be noted that City TV’s building is right at the corner of Queen and John.) I kept moving west until I reached Spadina.
At Spadina, the planned protest route turned north where it was intended to march back to Queen’s Park and disperse. However, by the time I got there, most of the protesters had turned south instead, in the direction of the lake and the security fence. From the corner, I could see the line of police about a block south, with a growing crowd in front of them. There were people perched on handrails, on streetcar shelters, and in trees, watching the movements of the police and informing the crowd below. Legal advisors milled throughout the crowd, wearing orange hats. When a girl was dragged through the police line and thrown to the ground, the protesters cried, “Shame! Shame!” I didn’t see what the girl did. The chants changed a bit at this time to “Show me what hypocrisy looks like / THAT is what hypocrisy looks like!” while pointing at the police.
The police line here started at the northwest corner of Richmond and Spadina, a block south of Queen. It moved perpendicular to the direction of traffic flow straight across the street to the east sidewalk, at which point it angled northward to block off the southernmost alley by the two trees visible together on the map. A protester was in the northern tree; the southern tree was two or three feet from the police line. Every few minutes, the police would move up wearing gas masks, the protester would shout a warning, and people would run north. They’d return after it became clear that no gas was forthcoming, but a few people left the area each time this occured. No doubt this was the intention: clear a few at a time until the crowd became managable. I also saw that some police officers had handheld video cameras and were filming the protest.
The drumming circle from earlier had set up in the southbound lane, and people were dancing. Some guys from Pride (also in town this weekend) were dancing sexually and stripping in front of the police line. (No indecent exposure, though.) Sadly, I didn’t catch even a single cop cracking a smile. These police were nonresponsive, stonefaced. A few protesters were trying to engage the police, explaining the protest: “You’re in debt too, we all are. We’re all paying for their mistakes. We’re all being screwed by the people you’re protecting.” No replies, but I can always hope it gives them something to think about. I was in this crowd from about 3:00 to 4:00; at 3:50 we heard rumours in the crowd that the news was reporting a police car on fire. We expected this to be the excuse the police were waiting for to disperse the crowd, but they just continued their gas mask charade.
Unfortunately at this time (4:10) my wife texted me; her ride to work was AWOL and she needed me to get home, so I started heading back to the subway. I went east on Queen towards Osgoode Station, where I hoped to catch a train out of the area. However, at Queen and Peter I came across a new police line, riot cops straight across Queen. However, they weren’t covering the parking lot (north of Queen, west of Soho), and I could see a second police line, facing the other way, with five yards between the two. The police were attempting some sort of orderly withdrawal from lines they had set up on Queen, and were pulling back down Peter. I walked around them and passed a Starbucks; it had one basketball-sized hole in one window, the first evidence of destruction I actually saw. I continued east. Queen was not very crowded in this area at this time; a few dozen people per city block including a couple of police moving alone through the area. I got to Osgoode Station and found it had been barricaded with steel doors, so I was forced to turn north along University. The police barricade on University south of Queen was quite substantial at this point, but there were few protesters in the area.
University was quite calm at this time (4:20), and I was walking up the southbound lanes when I saw a major fence/barricade structure, waist high fence pieces in triangle shapes stretched across the southbound lane. I crossed over to the east sidewalk and continued north; this major barricade structure was set up in front of a United States government building of some sort. I think they took the signs down to camouflage it; I had to ask a passerby filming the barricade to find out what it was. There were two dozen riot police behind the barricade, and more police on the rooftop. I continued north, passing St. Patrick Station which was also barricaded, and I realized I wasn’t getting out of the downtown area any time soon.
As I walked north and crossed Elm Street, at 4:32 a major police convoy rushed north along University, honking their horns. The extra police at this event had to rent Dodge Caravans to move themselves around (understandably as their own vehicles remained in their own cities) so they had no sirens or lights and had to rely on horns alone. Protesters who were walking in the street were nearly run over in the rush, and flashed peace signs at the police as they sped by. The police continued – at least two dozen vans full of riot police pulled up in single file in the right hand northbound lane of University, with the foremost one at the intersection at College. As I moved up towards College I heard the police radios say, “200 yards incoming.” I crossed College at this time, standing beside the same subway entrance at which I began the day. In front of me, parked in the westbound lane of College, was a single police-rental Caravan; the rest of the police were in their single-file vans along University. Coming up College from the east was a group of protesters, dressed all in black, in a square – the so-called “black bloc” tactic. There were some regular protesters milling around on the sidewalks, but they cleared out quickly as the black-clad “anarchists” advanced. They were disciplined, marching in a square formation up College. I saw one of the foremost take out a brick and smash it to pieces on the pavement; several anarchists picked up the pieces. They descended on the lone police van on College and beat it to pieces, smashing all the windows, destroying the body work. The windshield was completely imploded but the safety film held it in place. One of the protesters smashed the ad in the bus shelter right beside the subway entrance; another screamed at him, “Don’t smash TTC property!” The ad was for perfume, I believe – probably seen as an attack on a capitalist symbol. The anarchists ran west along College and disappeared; the peaceful protesters at this point were north of College between that street and the base of Queen’s Park where John A. MacDonald’s statue stands. No doubt some of the “black bloc” shed their clothes and hid within that crowd. Throughout this entire debacle, the police remained in their vans along University; they did not even open the doors.
After the anarchists had disappeared, a line of police materialized in the plaza on the southwest corner of the University / College intersection. The police in the vans got out and began forming a line along University, looking north. The protesters began retreating north towards me as we heard popping sounds that the crowd thought were rubber bullets; the media later said they were pepper pellets. (I’m not entirely sure what pepper pellets are.) The firing began at 4:42, fully ten minutes after the anarchist attack. I could smell something acrid in the air, but the crowds weren’t really dispersing. At this point I was on the median, halfway between College and the circle, and a bit away from the front. The Queen’s Park station was also locked down, so the only way out was to continue walking north. My wife’s ride finally showed up, so I wasn’t in as big of a rush any more anyway. The police held their line across University at College, standing six deep at one point (5:04 PM). They formed a line along the concrete path running northeast from the intersection as well.
A lot of news vans were parked on Queen’s Park circle; I saw City TV, Global, CTV, CNN, NBC, CP24, among others. The mounted police with their horses in riot gear were also lined up across University just behind the line of police on foot. They also began advancing through the northwest entrance to the park at 5:09, pushing protesters back south towards their other line and trapping them between the two. However, those advancing from the northwest quickly joined with the south line, reinforcing it. They also barricaded all entrances to the legislative building in Queen’s Park. At this point I also heard a few blips of noise that I believed were from a “sound cannon” – there was nothing within a hundred meters of me that could make a noise that was that loud through my ear plugs – but I didn’t hear any announcements over it. A judge ruled before the protest that the sound cannons could cause permanent hearing damage if used to disperse a crowd and were therefore only authorized to be used to relay information. I kept hearing the occasional shot fired – but I couldn’t tell if it was a bean bag, a plastic/rubber bullet, or something else. The police continued their excruciatingly slow march up University to the circle; by 5:20 they were at the base of the circle, having surrounded a group of protesters on the median of University. I happened to speak with one of those protesters later – they sat on the median as it was public property and engaged in a peaceable protest, ensuring they weren’t in a road so they couldn’t be cited for “obstructing traffic,” but they were still grabbed, beaten with clubs, kicked, and dragged/thrown north of the police line. One man had a boot print on the back of his shirt; he also said he’d been kicked in the head. The police then retreated back down to College again at 5:24.
They began a game of ordered advance / ordered retreat, never coming on to the Queen’s Park circle of grass, but every time they’d retreat, the protesters would slowly trickle back forward, only to be pushed back again. There were a few projectiles thrown at the police in these advances, with water bottles, and sticks flying through the air. I didn’t see anything thrown with much inertia, and I’m sure the police made certain to scour the area for rocks beforehand as the streets were very clean; none of the projectiles really did much damage to the police.
Standing under MacDonald’s statue, I sent a text message to my wife as I watched the advance and retreat, “I’m on Sir John’s statue. Could only be more appropriate were it Mackenzie.” I’m not sure where William Lyon Mackenzie’s statue is on the Legislature grounds, but I couldn’t help but think of him when watching the police force march on behalf of the wealthy.
At 6:00, the police opened up a fire hydrant behind their line (and probably connected a water cannon, but they brought horses to screen their actions and I couldn’t see) and I heard a police officer shouting, “Disperse or be arrested!” The police began another charge, there were explosions, gas clouds in the police line, and the rapid popping sound of gunfire; I believe somebody threw a smoke bomb. The media van I was beside got a report of another police car on fire at this time, but this charge stopped and retreated again – just another provocative tactic by the police. This continued every few minutes, each time the police taking a couple of steps forward to start a stampede, and then pulling back. Occasionally it would just be a couple of police officers in the line moving forward, but each time the protesters would turn and run, tripping over each other. At 6:38 the police escalated further by sending their horses through the line, charging at the protesters. They were trying to cause a stampede, with complete disregard for the safety of the almost entirely-peaceful protesters still standing in the park. Later on the news I heard reports of a woman nearly getting trampled by a horse after she fell. I also saw them bring in an empty bus for prisoner transport, parking it on the western side of the circle. At this point I knew a crackdown was coming and I decided now would be a good time to leave; I walked north the west side of the circle to Hoskin Avenue, walked along it to St. George, and walked up to Bloor and the St. George subway station, which was the furthest south station still open. The TTC officer was letting people ride for free; I suppose they were willing to let anyone leave the area if they wanted.
I finally got out of the area at 7:00 PM; and not a moment too soon. Pictures and video of the police push through Queen’s Park is all over the TV and no doubt all over the internet for you to find, and it wasn’t pretty. I got out uninjured and unarrested, but I also wasn’t violent, or a vandal, which no doubt helped. Pictures of the aforementioned Starbucks (later smashed further and looted) along with burning police cars and other broken windows can no doubt also be found on the internet. Sadly, these people are drawn to any protest – especially one so large – and it should have been predicted months or years ago when this location was first chosen.
(TL;DR: Very very few violent protesters; police leaving police cars in the path of those violent protesters, allowing their destruction, without interference, to justify their own violent response; police provoking dangerous stampedes amongst protestors.)