The day before yesterday we had fun making jokes about what the protest would be like, getting beat up by cops etc. We laughed as we thought of slogans for signs and decorated t-shirts. I have never gone to so much trouble dressing up for Canada day before, but then again, i have also never felt more patriotic. Its not until you lose you’re freedom and sovereignty that you truly understand what it means to have it i guess.
So we hopped in a cab and as it approached Queen’s park we saw almost no pedestrians, only cops—and they were EVERYWHERE. They surrounded the entire perimeter of Queens Park and all surrounding intersections. The adrenalin began to rush & we realized we were about to enter a truly fucked up situation. We got soooo shaky that we actually asked the cabbie to keep driving. Our cabbie said “why should you be scared, they are the ones that did wrong. I drove cab all through the G20 and i saw so many bad things, so many police abuse their power.” He gave us his full support.
We stopped at a bar just outside “the zone” to catch our bearings and take the edge off with a drink before heading in—even though we don’t usually drink-we’re mostly cannabis users. It was THAT scary-drove us to drink. We sat on the patio several blocks away and every few seconds we saw a cop drive by. They were in vans, cars & on bikes—total pigs on parade kind of Kafka shit. VERY intimidating.
We approached the park from behind at about 5:20pm and saw no one–only cops. They glared at us as we approached. We whispered to each other “what if no one showed up” and then we thought “if we are the only ones we are FUCKED”
Half way to the front of the building along the side, my march buddy Wolfy turned around with a glowing grin and said “oh yeah—people came” My heart began to swell as i sped up to reach my people at the front doors of the building. I heard drums, singing, chanting. I saw victims hugging & consoling each other—beat up, bruised up, scared, scarred but not defeated., and definitely not demotivated. These victims were speaking out, sharing their stories about rape threats & sexual assaults, indiscriminate beatings.
A silk screener was on hand making flags for people to wear saying things like ASK ME WHY I PROTESTED G20, ASK ME WHAT THEY DID TO ME WHEN I WAS ARRESTED & DETAINED.
People wore T-Shirts that read ASK ME WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CHILDREN AT TORONTONAMO. I stopped and spoke with one man. White-yuppy, likely once a conservative voter. He was shaken up. His 27 year old son & 22 year old daughter were detained & BRUTALIZED. He seemed stunned, dismayed and as i recount my talk with him, my eyes well up, and finally, finally i can allow myself to cry—as while i was there i had to be alert & too in the moment to process the profoundness of what i experienced hearing these stories from the mouths of the victims. Seeing their bruises and bashed up faces.
So many stories of young women, even reporters being threatened with gang rape. Gays were targeted and they too were threatened with rape. Gays were particularly victimized as not only were they assaulted & detained like the rest, they were further ridiculed & gay-bashed. Talk about nasty flash-back….and just before PRIDE! I hope the homosexual police community do something, actually, the whole police community, as right now, to me, all police officers are guilty by association unless they honestly & publicly admit to what they saw & did.
Anyway, the place was PACKED with people. There were THOUSANDS OF US. We were big, loud, and PISSED OFF. The demographic of the crowd was varied, interesting & really really inspiring. I was particularly surprised by the amount of elderly people that attended—i mean walker old. They poured out so much love & compassion to the detainee victims. They were truly angry and it was awesome to see old ladies telling cops they should be ashamed of themselves. There was a part of us that wondered if maybe they came to act as human shields. Surely the cops wouldn’t stampede the elderly? These days I’m not so sure…anyway, it did feel comforting to see the elderly come out to stick up for us. I was REALLY grateful to see so many.
The young yuppy 30-40 something crowd made an AWESOME appearance—they are the cream of the crop in terms of voters as they will be making a lot of the money—their presence alone should make MP’s squirm as they were screaming louder than we were and were the largest group. I could see they really liked the empowerment of participation-they were hooked- this will become a new trend that is sure to piss off parliament! You could see it. They realized us “pothead conspiracy theorists” have been soap box preaching this stuff for years, and they laughed us off, and now VOILA! We live in a kafka novel! The price of freedom truly is eternal vigilance, and now they know. The mistake of denial & apathy will never happen again.
The most BEAUTIFUL & INSPIRING thing about the yuppy demographic is that THEY BROUGHT THEIR KIDS!!!! Again, i well up. From toddlers to teens the crowd had LOTS of children. I overheard parents explaining to kids about why they were there. My heart wanted to explode with joyous hope that maybe this will be a catalyst for a mass enlightening. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll be alright. The children did that for me. One baby wore a t-shirt that said I MAY BE SMALL BUT I KNOW STUFF.
The hash mob made their usual respectful appearance. I always feel safe marching with the Hash Mob. They held the Cannabian flag up high reminding the politicians that many voters in this crowd are Cannabis users & the issue of prohibition won’t be forgotten either. That’s in our list of complaints. Cannabis users have been stereotyped and targeted for years as a cop’s favourite punching bag. People in my cannaculture have lost their jobs, homes, children, have been murdered by police, tased, tortured, beaten, family pets shot in front of children….you name it, we’ve suffered it!
When it was just blacks & pot-heads being beaten up no one cared except blacks & potheads. Now the rampant abuse has spilled out to the general population, now people see that we weren’t making this shit up.
Medics shared stories about being beaten by police for helping victims of assault. They had their medical supplies confiscated. Volunteer medics were arrested & detained. Medics said the only people that needed medical assistance were police brutality victims. Even people with SEVERE head injuries were denied medical treatment.
I could go on forever with the horror stories. At one point when we approached Police Headquarters & a group of cops confronted us, blocking our path to the building-we yelled SHAME. We screamed about rape threats & brutality while looking these pigs right in the eye and they stared back at us laughing in ridicule. This is the shit the news won’t show you.
Just before our protest ended, we heard news from the speaker that one member from our crowd had been pulled out of the crowd & detained. We were asked to stay close together & to travel in groups. We were warned that past protesters were targeted and harassed by police after the events when on their own. We were warned that we were all now targets & that we should leave in groups as those traveling alone were at risk of being snatched by police.
Despite our police force behaving like 3rd world terrorists, here is where my beef actually lies: THE MEDIA. The public now knows our politicians are treasonous and our police chief a criminal, and our Mayor a pussy. What they don’t yet grasp is that most local media these days are AGENTS OF THE STATE, CENSORED, AND DISHONEST. What you see on CP24 is PURE BULLSHIT. They are lying to you—blatantly. They are sincerely UNDER-REPORTING in a desperate attempt to keep the public NAIVE about recent events in an effort to diffuse or distract people from what clearly is going on in this country. They fear a mass expression of resistance, which is going to happen anyway, so the media better get on board and start telling the truth, or we’ll do it for them. We are doing it already anyway, and THAT is why they want to shut down the internet. They are scared, and well they should be. YOU CANNOT STOP THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE BECAUSE THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE WON’T STOP.
Please understand, there truly is strength in numbers. Start being accountable for your own education. Think outside the box of the news. Start listening to your fellow citizens. Start joining hands & energy. THOSE OF YOU WHO REMAIN SILENT ARE GIVING YOUR CONSENT TO TYRANNY.
July 10 at queens park is our next rally. Let’s make it too big for the news to ignore.
Daniela Aum
ps-these pics above were taken by myself, but Photographer Maria Gagliardi was there to witness the protest & here are some preliminary photos raw & unedited for you to preview of the event:
