Toronto: The Organized Protest March for the Justice of our World's Communities

[anneintoronto]

As I'm sure most of you know, the G8 and G20 Summits are being held here in Ontario, with the G20 being held in downtown Toronto yesterday, June 26, and today, June 27, 2010

I'm really upset that so many people, watching their televisions or listening to their radios, think that the broken windows and torched police cars was what the Organized Protest March for the Justice of our World's Communities, in Toronto was all about.
 
I was in Queen's Park, right from the beginning, and then the whole way along the route, and, actually there was no aggression, nothing thrown (not even litter!), no fires set by the many thousands of concerned folk, who met at Queen's Park for the peaceful march down to Queen Street East at Spadina.  There was more polite moving ahead and milling around, hugging, slogan chanting (all polite, but to the point), drumming -- not so loud it hurt you ears! but exciting -- and polite, but to the point, signs. And the sit-in at Queen & Spadina, because we were just plumb tired of basically standing in one place (and it brought back some old memories of the 60's and 70's!)  The police were clad in totally protective outfits, prepared for tumult, but they never needed them, where the official march went.  The police were controlling, but polite.  The crowd was clear in its desires, but polite.
 
The hoodlums, who broke glass doors & windows, were not members of the official march.  They were the ruffians, who always turn up at any protest or major sport title win and wreck havoc. Even in the late evening, although Yonge Street was filled with people, it was only a few that couldn't leave off their anger and had only one intent -- break, burn, destroy!!  Please understand that the police car torching and glass breaking, were not the work of thousands of good citizens, who were there to make such demands as:

~ climate and environmental justice
~ self-determination for indigenous peoples
~ income equity and community control over resources
~ migrant justice and an end to war and occupation
~ gender justice, gay and disAbility rights.
 
I think it would be fair to say that these disruptive roughnecks probably can't even spell G20!
 
It is unfair and misleading for the media to put such a twist on the day we had to voice our democratic rights and hopes for The World -- All Our Communities.  I know that fires and broken glass are more "exciting", but to minimize what good and caring people out there were trying to promote, is, at the most, insulting and, frankly, just plain bad reporting by the media!
 
All we wanted was to voice a need for justice for all our global communities to these influential Leaders, from around the World.  It should be and needs to be what all our concerns are!
 
I'm sorry if this sounds pious, but it just isn't fair that these few bullies ruin months and years of hard work and planning by many concerned citizens, who just want to make a difference in this tumultuous and stricken world...

Anne C. (Toronto, ON Canada)

PS  From now on, they should hold all the Summits on a large ship and park the vessel in the middle of the nearest lake!  It is typical of these elitist members , to choose to close down a very large and busy business core and creating the need for towering walls and a billion dollars spend on security, when that amount of money could be put to better use in realizing some of the World Community's goals!

[Dumpsterkitty]

I always take what I read & hear in the media with a grain of salt, particularly broadcast news.  They take everything & chop it into the tiniest bites of sensationalism they can.  And there are always people who will use a good cause to their own advantage. 

It's funny, though-until I saw the post this morning about a blocked fledge watch due to a riot I hadn't heard anything-I try to only listen to public radio news on the weekends.  I like your idea of a ship for future summits...lots of cruise ships that are MORE than adequate size-probably cheaper to rent the whole thing too! But I'd rather see them in the middle of the ocean-our lakes are polluted enough! 

[anneintoronto]

So... now that the 2010 G8 & G20 summits have been held and the players have gone home, what will happen?

1) the world’s leading politicians will continue to do what they want – it’s of no concern to them if we agree with them or not.

2) having a peaceful protest march is as futile now, as it was in the 60s – no one listened then and they won’t now.

3) the lack of justice for the communities of our world, will continue to be unjustly lacking.

4) Toronto, and cities holding similar meetings in the future, may learn that empting out your city’s downtown core, even with massive controls in place, only invites the agile, angry dregs of humanity to jump in and pillage! 
 
Anne C. (Toronto, ON Canada) *sigh*

[MAK]

Every year in DC for the World Bank - but the same loonies showed up in Toronto, as they move from "protest" to "protest" and THAT is enough from me.

Good self control girl!

[Patti from Kentucky]

...having a peaceful protest march is as futile now, as it was in the 60s – no one listened then and they won’t now.
 
Anne C. (Toronto, ON Canada) *sigh*

Anne, did you march (or sit-in) during the 60's or 70's?  Kudos for your passion then and now, in spite of your feeling of futility!

Patti

[anneintoronto]

Oh yes, Patti -- more in the 70s when I had Kevin to be excited and indignant with – we were very opinionated university students and loved to get into the fray – actually got hauled off a few times, but never actually charged.  It was exciting then – not so scary, although maybe we were just more innocent!  In the 60s I went to sit-ins and a few marches, mainly concerning the war and draft dodgers being picked up and shifted home to jail – perhaps I won’t get much sympathy here – but my friends and I were pacifists and hated the war in Vietnam, and had some very good friends, about whom we worried.  It was certainly an interesting time!
In the 70s, there was no shortage of things to protest and get involved in – still the war and idealistic peace, early environmental issues, women’s issues... It was a time of idealism and self-awareness...  It seems like a long time ago now!  It’s funny – I just remembered that the last protest Kevin and I went to together, was to protest the cancelling, by the BBC, of the "Doctor Who" series!  And, there were a lot of us there – probably 200 – which wasn’t bad for a single genre issue.
This march on Saturday was a hard one for me.  Kevin and I had been keeping track for months through the Toronto Community Mobilization Network and several pet groups  – disabled rights, women’s rights, gay rights – and Kevin and I had decided that we would go to the central gathering, but, because he couldn’t walk for too long, that was going to have to be enough.  On Saturday, instead of having Kevin with me, I wore his jean jacket and some of his buttons...and when there was an announcement that the march was starting and that women would lead the way, I just couldn’t not go...  And, well, the rest is history...  How about you, Patti?

Anne C. (Toronto, ON Canada)

[Tokira]

Every year in DC for the World Bank - but the same loonies showed up in Toronto, as they move from "protest" to "protest" and THAT is enough from me.

Years ago, when they were building the Seabrook (NH) Nuke Plant, of course there were all kinds of protesters.  The plant got built in spite of them  They howled about using stuff like Hydro, wind, and solar power.  So, soon after, when a group of Hydro people wanted to rebuild an old Hydro station, with modern turbines (not so different from old ones BTW), the SAME protesters showed up there.
Professional protesters.  They did manage to halt the Hydro project  :
Carol
now in WV

[Patti from Kentucky]

...  And, well, the rest is history...  How about you, Patti?

Anne C. (Toronto, ON Canada)

Not much in the way of protests and marches...though I'm not a spring chicken, I graduated from high school in 1979, so I missed most of the heady days of organized protests.  About the closest I came was when our school district embarked on court-ordered busing to desegregate the schools and many of my neighbors protested by boycotting school and keeping their kids off the buses.  My parents, having the opposite political leanings (I come from a line of bleeding hearts, and the apple did not fall far from the tree), they made sure we were on the school buses in those early days...had rocks and smoke bombs thrown at us...luckily that was as bad as it got, and things settled down after a few days.

I just don't hear about many opportunities to do such things locally.  So I write letters to my congressmen and send money.  For volunteer efforts I've mostly restricted myself to local environmental efforts that have immediate impact, like participating in the local invasive-species removal at the park where we run, or the organized river cleanup...haven't done much of anything for the last 3 years while dealing with my mother's final battle with Parkinson's disease.  Time to change that...

I'm so sorry that you didn't get to share the event with Kevin, but glad you went anyway!

Patti

[anneintoronto]

I just don't hear about many opportunities to do such things locally.  So I write letters to my congressmen and send money.  For volunteer efforts I've mostly restricted myself to local environmental efforts that have immediate impact, like participating in the local invasive-species removal at the park where we run, or the organized river cleanup...haven't done much of anything for the last 3 years while dealing with my mother's final battle with Parkinson's disease. 

I was rather thrust into the “politicalâ€� milieu, being up at York University, which was young and out to prove that it were a political hotspot!  That was in 1967-8 and things were hot in Vietnam and young Americans were starting to protest by running to Canada and, of course, a place like York, perhaps in its innocence, was the type of place they naturally headed for...  Although I came from a very conservative family, when I was at York, it was the “thing to doâ€� and frankly my parents were not obstructionists – didn’t approve – but didn’t stop me, as long as I didn’t get hurt or fail my year!  By the time Kevin and I had cemented our relationship and started to join groups in 1972-3, I was then at the University of Toronto and it wasn’t hard to fall into any protest you were interested in.  I wasn’t living at home and, honestly, my parents didn’t know what I was doing, except for the physiotherapy degree stuff!  I guess they always trusted that I would live up to their teachings...

Boy, you’ve lived things I’ve only read about.  Must have been pretty overwhelming to be part of it, no matter what the role!  I would like to talk with you about it sometime!  And your volunteer efforts, frankly, are far more farsighted and much more productive, than any protest march!  It’s easy enough to go out and march around for a few hours, and then go home, knowing that you tried to be part of the answer...and knowing darn well that you probably didn’t make one iota of difference.  But to get involved in your community and do something regularly, shows much more character!  I find it much more difficult to volunteer for some ongoing effort and am always impressed by people, who are so unselfish that they do this voluntarily and then throw themselves into it!  I can understand that the last three years put a halt to most of your “activeâ€� volunteering (although I have a feeling that you never forgot a vital part in any situation – money), as caring for an ill loved one is a very heavy job and, in dealing with your Mom’s problems, you again were unselfish and loving, and what more can one ask of a person?  If all mothers were so fortunate!
You know, I didn’t get to share this experience with Kevin and I truly missed him, but today is today and you can’t go back...so it was good for me to go and stand on my own two feet.  It made it special to me.  After 38 years in a relationship, sometimes one forgets that one can actually do things alone, so this was a good stepping off point.  Hey, you never know – maybe I’ll follow your good example and actually do some volunteering!
Anne C. (Toronto, ON Canada)

[huddiecat]

Kudos to you Anne for sticking by what you believe in!  Wondered whatever happened to all those '60's and '70's protesters?!