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"Catch & Release"
by Nathan Adler
7/16/2010 12:11:00 PM
Jail experience harrowing
by Skylar Radojkovic, Owen Sound Sun Times
7/13/2010
Bad News at Bancroft Avenue
by Dylan C. Robertson
7/13/2010
Arrested And Jailed In Toronto – A G20 Protestor’s Firsthand Account
by Sarah Pruyn
7/7/2010
Of my illegal detention (with 899 others) and the G20 protests
by Ben Powless, Organizer, Defenders of the Land
7/5/2010
Independent Journalist, Daniel Adam MacIsaac
by Ali Mustafa
7/5/2010
Ashamed
by Tracey Cox
7/3/2010
"The story of my unjust arrest" - Lacy MacAuley
by Lacy MacAuley
7/1/2010 10:32:00 PM
Without provocation, they attacked our peaceful protest”
by Adrian Naylor
7/1/2010
One woman held by police 'didn't even know what the G20 was'
by Alison Hendersen
7/1/2010
“They were going to release us until this one cop came and saw that we had the legal number written on our arms. She then said that we were elegible for arrest.”
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
“several police officers lining the west side of the street had removed their names and badge numbers”
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
“they were detaining me until I told them where I was staying in Toronto”
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
“They demanded identification and searches of bags and persons, without cause, and under the threat of physical violence, detention and legal action”
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
“I was beat roughly 20 times with batons”
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
“blood poured out of his head, down his face and on to my friends jacket, dripping on my pants”
by Bethany Horne
7/1/2010
Queen & John Eyewitness Report
by Emily B.
7/1/2010
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by James
7/1/2010
“I cannot stress this enough: it was a completely peaceful protest. People were being arrested in a brutal, violent, and seemingly random way.”
by Johanna Lewis
7/1/2010
“I was there as a monitor for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. . . like many others, I was never given an opportunity to remove myself from the intersection”
by Julia Croome
7/1/2010
“It is important to note the horrid conditions in the jail. The cells, which were over-glorified dog cages, were often over-crowded.”
by Maximilian Pacheco
7/1/2010
“I have been having nightmares”
by Natasha Borris
7/1/2010
“At no time during the detention was anyone in my cage allowed to speak with a lawyer”
by Philip Boyle
7/1/2010
“police said they had the right to conduct these searches”
by Robert Bertuzzi
7/1/2010
what happened last night at queen and spadina g20
by Rodrigo Bravo
7/1/2010
Violence on Toronto streets for G20
by Ryan Bolton
7/1/2010
“Five officers grabbed me, hit me repeatedly with batons and fists, threw me to the concrete, crushed knees into my cheek bone, back and thighs, dragged me on the pavement and put handcuffs on me”.
by Seamus Wolfe
7/1/2010
“I couldn’t sleep last night. I took the day off work, I’m so upset”
by Sherry B. Good
7/1/2010
“I saw many injured detainees with arms in slings and faces bruised and swollen being led quickly with their ankles chained”
by Taiva Tegler
7/1/2010
“In a matter of seconds, without warning, we were trapped. Our questions were met with blank stares, our panic with more pushing, complaints with arrest”
by Terra Dafoe
7/1/2010
“we were staging a peaceful protest when riot police surrounded us on all sides and would not let us leave”
by Trevor Grant
7/1/2010
Of a million G20 stories in this taken city, this was mine
If anything, there was less black being worn on Queen than usual
by Tabatha Southey
7/1/2010
Personal Experience
by Greg Stones
7/1/2010
'Unlawful Assembly'
by Syl Grady
7/1/2010
untitled
by Karen Nickel
7/1/2010
untitled
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
Mourning Canadian democracy
by Roberta McQuade
7/1/2010
untitled
by Kiel Widmeyer
7/1/2010
In His Own Words (Interview Transcript)
by Jesse Rosenfeld
7/1/2010
untitled
by Neil Stanton
7/1/2010
Singer Marc Mysterio caught in Toronto riots during video shoot
by Marc Mysterio
7/1/2010
Thorold, Ontario Amputee Has His Artificial Leg Ripped Off By Police And Is Slammed In Makeshift Cell During G20 Summit – At Least One Ontario MPP Calls The Whole Episode “Shocking”
by John Pruyn
7/1/2010
How I Got Arrested and Abused at the G20 in Toronto, Canada
by Tommy Taylor
note: photos/videos are not included in this but all text is original. To read this story with images, please click on 'Source' above
7/1/2010
Man and family being picked up from work brutality attacked by police
by Anonymous
7/1/2010
and this time, it won't be me.
by A Canadian Serviceman
7/1/2010
Fear and mayhem in Toronto
by Lawrence McCurry
7/1/2010
My Experience
by Jesse Miller
7/1/2010
Inside Torontanamo
by Matt Shultz
7/1/2010
Beaten by police before being arrested
by Andrew Stakhov
7/1/2010
Don't breathe or I'll kill you
by Facebook User: Drew Ferguson
7/1/2010
“I was held for 21 hours for peacefully protesting.”
by Marc Gleeson
6/30/2010
Thugs take over Queen's Park
by Matthew Webb
6/29/2010 10:08:00 AM
How I Ended Up In A G20 Jail
by Michael Talbot
6/29/2010
Union Station Washroom
by Andrei Poliakov
6/28/2010 5:30:00 PM
I was just harassed by Toronto Police
by Mike Brock, Western Standard
6/28/2010
Sonia's Story
by Sonia Zawitkowski
6/27/2010
Luke's Story
by Luke Keeler
6/27/2010
Someone call 911!
by Eda Martinovic
6/27/2010
Selwyn arrested at G20 protest
by Selwyn Firth, Mayoral Candidate
6/27/2010
Civil Rights, Interrupted: A G20 Arrest
by Mark Donald
6/26/2010
My Story - Help ID This Criminal!
by Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy
6/26/2010
Pre-G20 Atrocities
by Sean Salvati
6/23/2010
Eye Witness Accounts
“I was held for 21 hours for peacefully protesting.”
by: Marc Gleeson
source
I was downtown Toronto on Saturday June 26th 2010. I live in Whitby Ontario, and took the go train into Danforth station and the subway into the Yonge/Bloor subway station. I made my way with a friend [...] to the 25,000 person union march. We marched with the large peaceful group. The march ended we ate food and returned to my friends condo located at yonge and wellesley. We remained here until about 9pm, we saw reports of peaceful protests occurring along bloor and heading south. At this point we left the condo and headed south on yonge street. Our goal was to make it as south as possible then begin our journey east as far out of the city as possible to eventually get a ride back home to whitby as all of the public transportation was inoperative. On our journey south, we ran into a large group of people at the corner of bay and king. The people were surrounded by a large group of riot police, the group was sitting on the sidewalk singing. Eventually the police granted the people passage. The large group(approx 1500-2000) then headed east on bay towards church, we walked with this group as they were extremely peaceful and non confrontational and it was unsafe to be alone around so many police. Once on church the large group headed south towards front, took a right on front and started heading west back towards bay, a standoff occurred at the corner of front and bay. Until the group headed south on bay, and then east on esplanade as the end of bay was blocked with a large number of officers. While on the esplanade riot police approached from the east, while people scrambled for side streets, more riot police boxed us in from the west. The crowd was extremely peaceful and non confrontational with the police. Once having us completely surrounded they slowly moved closer and a closer, telling us we can leave but not actually offering any passage. The group then sat down at this point while some stood on the sidewalk. The media was blocked off from entering this scene, but people were in constant contact with cp24, ctv, etc. The police circled us, holding us offering no explanation for about an hour, after an hour they began to pick of certain people from the crowd. These people seem targeted, and they were removed rather violently, shields to peoples faces as they sit on the ground with peace signs in the air. I saw many baton strikes to the faces of non resisting people. After removing the targeted people they announced to the 600 or so people remaining that we would be peacefully arrested. The police then slowly one by one continued to pick people from the crowd. We were corralled at 11pm, the first arrest started around 11 30. I was detained at about 12 45. I was grabbed by two Toronto police officers, I notified them that I am surrendering and not resisting, I informed them that I have had serious shoulder injuries to both of my shoulders and asked them to show restraint when cuffing me. The officers laughed and decided to twist and contort my arms in an extremely painful manner. I was handcuffed, searched, had all of my information taken and all of my property placed in a property bag. I was told I was being arrested for breach of peace. I was placed in the back of a paddy wagon with five other males on our side and, 6 more on the other side. We were driven around the corner and then loaded onto a bus, the bus had more passengers than available seats and people were forced to sit on the floor handcuffed. We arrived at the film studio detention center, we sat on the bus for some time before being taken off, my hands were zip tied extremely tight in front of me, I had to use the bathroom in an extreme way, I was told to “piss myself cause you smell like shit anyway.” I was taken past a bunch of cells containing many people to cell number OL6. The cell is a 10×20 steel cage with a single bench at one end and a out house style toilet at the other. When I arrived at my cell there were approx. 25 people in it. Over the next hour or so more people were added to our cell until the total reached 39 people. There was not enough room for everyone to lay down or even all stand comfortably, one officer walked by and asked if were in “Auschwitz”. I asked many officers when I would be able to call a lawyer and was never given any kind of reasonable answer. We asked to have people moved from our cell to cells around us containing only between 3-8 people. Our requests were denied. We explained to the officers that a 16 year old kid was in our cell, explaining he should be moved. Our requests were denied. We asked for food and water. Our requests were denied. Approx. 4 hours after being placed into our cell we were given a cheese sandwich and small cup of water, this took considerable begging, screaming and general harassment until or requests were obliged. The 40 people in our cell took turns laying down and standing up. The floors were filthy dirty with green paint, the newly installed air conditioners were blowing full blast all night, no blankets or bedding were offered. No dry clothes were offered. After 6 hours the young offender was finally removed from our cell. We continued to explain to every officer that walked by that 39 people were in our cell, noone provided any information offered any help for the over crowding issues. Even though cells were basically empty all around us. We would ask for water only to be completely ignored, or have some but not enough cups for everyone delivered up to about an hour and a half later. 10 hours after we were placed in our cell they finally moved 20 people to another cell. During this time they kept saying we were just waiting to be processed, lawyers and phone calls were denied throughout this entire time. The mood was dark and violent in the film studio, screams of pain and screams for help could be hear throughout the facility, girls crying hysterically, people begging for medical attention, people begging for lawyers. The average attitude of the police services officers in charge of us was disrespectful and intimidating. I feared for my safety the entire time, the police threatened to “disappear us” if we didn’t stop asking for water, lawyers or any of our rights. The afternoon continued on with the same treatment, with water and food after hours of begging. Finally at around 6pm, they began taking people from our cell one by one. Our person were numbered, the cells were numbered, our evidence bags were numbered, yet they had no system to keep track of everyone, they slowly wandered from cell to cell asking for last names. Many people were sleeping and the officers would quickly mumble a name and move on. My name was called around 8pm, I was lead through the entire facility, past row upon row of people locked up. I was lead to a cell at the back of the facility with 4 other people in it. After about 5 minutes a staff sergeant came up to the cage, read us a statement from a sheet of paper, told us if we ever are caught protesting again we would be locked up for sometime. They then lead us one at a time out of the cell, my picture was taken again, and I was walked to a door. They never explained where I was, I asked if trains were running and I was given no answer. I was told not to talk to the media or the crowd gathered across the street or I risk being arrested again. I walked outside into pouring rain, I was lost, unable to communicate with media or the crowd around me and on my own. I was never given the opportunity to speak with a lawyer. I was never interviewed by any kind of police, I was never allowed to explain my actions. I was held for 21 hours for peacefully protesting. Many of my rights were violated. Mr prison number was 1612, I have my property bag but no paperwork or any documentation on why I was detained.