The Bad Taste Of The G20 Still Lingers
I don’t think that many people enjoyed the carnage and damage a few vandals had during the G20. This heavy handed senseless action was followed up with heavy handed policing. Sure some perpetrators were rounded up among the approximately 1,000 mass arrests. The problem was that many innocent people, journalists and bystanders were beaten and arrested. All told, close to 800+ were released with no charges laid.
Yes, it is amazing that there were no life threatening injuries to the security forces or protesters (or vandals) but that hardly warrants blanket praise from council. There was good reason for yesterday’s 1,200 person march at Queen’s Park. There are masses of people calling for a public inquiry. Many feel each of the Toronto Police, Toronto Police Services Board or the Ombudsman reviews will leave too many questions unanswered. Questions over civilian oversight and use of force are valid considering what transpired.
The bad taste of the G20 will linger for sometime. Hardly the good PR campaign sold to Toronto by the Feds. The strategic bungling of a dual G8/G20 in cottage country, the failure to hold the “back up” Toronto G20 outside the downtown core, not to mention the Fed’s blank check given to security forces should have been foreshadowing enough. Glad the madness is over but a serious, although belated, review of the failings should take place.
A few acquaintances were severely hurt during the entire ordeal. The city reeks of the summit’s aftermath, at least the papers and the pictures. I really hope that peace can be restored soon.
Thanks for your coverage, it’s been interesting reading how Toronto differed from Pittsburgh. We had a lot of the same feelings and issues after our G20, but it feels like we returned to normalcy quicker.
I know for a while, it looked as if it was all for naught, but we did have a positive PR boost after our summit, so I hope Toronto’s is just around the corner!
Things were back to “normal” pretty quickly. I had parked my car near where the first of several police cars blew up less than a week later.
The questions still remain regarding both the police and vandals. Were there under cover instigators among those who caused much of the chaos?
One thing for sure, the amount of street surveillance was unprecedented. Face recognition software on steroids scanned and cleared 100’s lawful protesters who were detained under brutal conditions and then released without charge. Four investigations/inquiries are on the go but somethings may never get answered and small businesses may never get compensated.