Click on any story below to read!
"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
untitled
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
“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
source
At approximately 5:30 pm on June 26, 2010, a group of students I was with decided that after all the confusion of the all the actions in downtown Toronto in protest of the G8/G20, the best place to go was Queen’s Park, since it was the officially sanctioned protest zone by the Toronto Police. We walked north up University Street to find the entire street blocked by police a block down from Queen’s Park. When asking the Police on this line if we could get through to Queen’s Park, they refused to give any answers and then without warning, used their bicycles to violently push us and others gathered there back about 40 meters. Finally, several of the Police told us that if we wanted to go to Queen’s Park we were free to do so by going around and entering from the North side. We decided to follow those instructions, walking west, through the University of Toronto and joined the several hundred of individuals who were on the north part of Queen’s Park lawn. When we arrived we joined many people who were standing on the path running parallel to the Parliament buildings about 50 meters from the buildings. I watch in horror as every couple of minutes, anyone who was not standing in a group, was picked out by a group of Police that would rush through the Police line and violently take them to the ground and drag them back. I repeatedly asked the Police why they were arresting people and under what jurisdiction did they have to remove us from Queen’s Park, since I was under the understanding this was the sanctioned protest zone. I received no response until the Police line rushed forward screaming “Move! Move!”, hitting me and other people with their shields and batons. They were pushing people to the north-west of Queen’s Park lawn, so I turned my back to the Police line and started walking in that direction. I did not run, since I thought that this could only provoke further Police violence. Police would later tell me they had used loudspeakers to tell people to disperce – at no time did any officer tell me to leave the lawn. All they would say is “move” – nothing more. I was walking calmly off Queen’s Park lawn, with both hands in the air in peace signs when about 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. I was then transferred to officers who were not in riot gear, who demanded I tell them why I had come to trash their city and with which group I was with. When I responded that I wouldn’t answer any questions until I talked to a lawyer, they said that would only make it harder on myself and painfully tightened the handcuffs to cut off the circulation in my hands. When they were about 20 meters from the University Street intersection area, where I could see other individuals detained lying on the ground, one of the officers very forcefully squished the palm of my hand toward my forearm and squeezed painfully underneath my upper arm, making me double over in pain, while he screamed “Stop resisting arrest asshole! Stop resisting arrest!” repeatedly. They then pushed me to lay face-first on the concrete that was covered in horse manure, while taunting me about protesting in general and attempting to have me answer a series of questions, other than my name, birth date, address and emergency contact, which I had done without hesitation. After every question I refused to answer, they would twist my arm or put a knee in my back and ask me forcefully if I was sure I didn’t want to answer the question. Once I was put on the bus, feet and hands shackled, I was sent to the detention centre. Until some point at the beginning of being at the detainment centre, I had never been told what I was being charged with, nor read my rights. At that time I was told I was being charged with “obstruction of justice”; yet several hours later when on my one phone call to a lawyer, I was told by a guard I was also being charged with “unlawful assembly”. In the detention centre, I was forced to have a strip-search, had all my clothing other than a t-shirt and shorts taken from me, forced to sleep on the incredibly cold concrete floor, and moved every one to six hours. By the time I was transferred to the court house jail at 9 am Sunday morning – approximately 15 hours after being arrested – I had been given only two Dixie cups of water and one small white bun with a thin slice of processed cheese. During the entire time almost every single police guard would taunt everyone in every cell, whether they had said anything to them or not. Many of the comments were extremely homophobic, very sexist, quite violent and always demeaning. The comments were made by almost every single police guard I encountered. At the court house jail, these comments continued, although there was finally a water fountain in my cell. By the time I had had a bail hearing and was released, shortly before 10 pm Sunday night, I had only received one more of the “sandwiches”. I have kept this report short and did not include what I saw and heard from other detainees, but would be prepared and willing to elaborate if need be.