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G20 protestors to join Tuesday drum circle
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| PivotTechno |
Free country? Since when do the people organising the summit get to choose where the people opposed to the actions of those involved in said summit are allowed to protest?
All G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park
With the upcoming G20 summit looming over downtown Toronto, the event is casting an increasingly larger shadow, one that now stretches as far west as Trinity Bellwoods Park.
Summit officials have chosen the park as the designated protesting area for the G20 summit on June 26 and 27. That means demonstrators — at least, the rule-abiding ones — will be wielding placards and shouting through megaphones from inside a 37-acre residential park, located some two kilometres west of the summit’s outer boundary, or so-called “yellow zone.”
Susan Atkinson was shocked to hear that summit organizers have decided to send hoards of protestors to her neighbourhood park.
“I think that’s a really bad decision,” said Atkinson, who lives on Gore Vale Ave. along the eastern edge of the park. “I want to know what kind of factors they considered when they made the decision. This is really shocking.”
Along the groups that have already begun mobilizing, the Ontario Federation of Labour is planning a march to Trinity Bellwoods from Queen’s Park. The march will take place on the Saturday of the summit weekend and includes groups like Greenpeace, Oxfam Canada and the Canadian Labour Congress.
But there will certainly be several demonstrators who choose to steer clear of the designated protesting area, which is three kilometres west of the Metro Convention Centre where world leaders and dignitaries will actually be congregating.
Councillor Adam Vaughan said he is more concerned with demonstrators causing havoc around the edges of the outer yellow zone, which he says will be bordered by Queen St., Yonge St., Lake Shore Blvd. and Spadina Ave.
“That will mean consequences for businesses on Queen,” Vaughan surmised Wednesday. “Also, consequences for businesses inside the yellow zone.”
Pedestrians will still be allowed inside the yellow zone, Vaughan said, but vehicles will face restrictions. This means, for example, that theatregoers won’t be able to drive to the Mirvish theatres but can likely walk or take public transit there.
Vaughan said baseball fans taking the TTC to the Rogers Centre during the G20 will also have to walk south on Bay St. from Union Station and west along Lake Shore Blvd., ultimately accessing the stadium from Rees St. Vaughan added that some sidewalks will have to be constructed along certain portions of this route.
Vaughan still has no information about the high-security zone that will encircle the convention centre, or “red zone,” which will likely be established with a three-metre-high fence. He doubts this information will be released until shortly before the summit but hopes to learn more about other security measures at a town-hall meeting scheduled for Thursday at Metro Hall.
Almost two months before the event, the G20 is also causing ripples outside the designated security zones. Kensington Market recently learned it will not be able to get a permit this June for Pedestrian Sunday, a monthly summer event now in its seventh year. And to the east of the summit site, Toronto police have rented an old movie studio at Eastern and Pape Aves. that will likely serve as a prisoner processing area.
At this point, Vaughan says he’d like to get as much information as possible to his ward constituents so they can make the necessary preparations for the G20. Right now, summit officials are sharing information with him every two weeks or so, he says.
“It’s very much a case where this boat is being built as it’s being sailed,” he said. “I just hope it reaches the dock.” |
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| VDub |
Only a weak protestor would abide by that rule...
What would be the point?? |
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| feelgood |
| quote: | Originally posted by VDub
Only a weak protestor would abide by that rule...
What would be the point?? |
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| PivotTechno |
| quote: | Originally posted by VDub
Only a weak protestor would abide by that rule...
What would be the point?? |
Ah, but the point is that the G20 organisers are showing their muscle early on in the game, letting the populace know who's really in charge. And all it will take is one police infiltrator to chuck a rock in order for security to justify running roughshod over the entire protest. They purposefully make Freedom of Peaceful Assembly an impossibility.
This is going to be a show. |
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| Jayx1 |
freedom of speech?
Canada? LOL!
lets see.....
Ersnt Zundel
George Galloway
Anne Coulter
and my personal experience:
no passing of flyers allowed on public street
Freedom of speech in this country is an illusion to most in Canada |
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| Halycon |
| at least i wont need to fight through a hoard of protestors to get to work as i have in the past. |
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| daves |
Lies! we wouldnt have this kind of commie control-freakism in a country run by Conservatives instead of the idiot leftie Liberals?!
it unpossible!
(...is it the RCMP or Metro Police who are in charge of the "security" efforts?) |
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| Yohan |
i've yet to hear of a G8 or G20 summmit protests that was without an incident
actually, it's always funny to watch hippies get beaten up after they start troubles |
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| Anas Attia |
Too bad protesting has been loosing its ability to influence
- The majority of Influence in our society today comes from media news outlets
- Protests are simply not on the news agenda, at least not in any clear journalistic sense (in most cases the media is against the views of xx protest)
It is also too bad seeing protests losing power in the act (not in the aftermath)
- The majority of the general public thinks protesting is an annoyance, as they often do not know what is at stake let alone what the protest's aims are (ie it took me an extra xx minutes to get to work today, damn those protesters wasting everyone's time) *
- The governments are making it as hard as possible for protest organizers to do their bidding, placing timing restrictions, location restrictions and being completely difficult to work with as they hand our arrests like candy and intimidate those who will let them
* Using my own reasoning I think that this is not only the biggest hurtle but the most important
All in all I will be at the G20 protest but unfortunately I expect that it will not be a trend breaking protest. Never the less I’m going with the aim of meeting some like minded people, at least the conversation is still open. |
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| PivotTechno |
| quote: | Originally posted by Yohan
i've yet to hear of a G8 or G20 summmit protests that was without an incident
actually, it's always funny to watch hippies get beaten up after they start troubles |
Again, in most cases it isn't the so-called hippies that start the trouble. There's plenty of documented footage showing police/security infiltrators instigating violence in order to justify their own violent actions.
According to the Canadian Charter we have the right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly, which means that protestors should be able to stand right at the steps of the Convention Centre, if they so please. Do you not see anything wrong with the fact that this fundamental right is being summarily taken away?
And quite telling that you take pleasure in seeing violence inflicted on the very people who have the wherewithal to stand up for those rights, which are in fact your rights. |
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| Jennifer_P_ |
I have a very tough time believing protesters will stay in the park...
Considering the subject matter being protested - this is one time I won't be annoyed by the inconvenience it might inflict on my day... In fact, I may join-in. |
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| Jayx1 |
| what exactly are they protesting at the summit? |
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