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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
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
Arrested And Jailed In Toronto – A G20 Protestor’s Firsthand Account
by: Sarah Pruyn
source
After the People First March (on June 26) my father and I walked back to Queen’s Park to look for my mother whom we had become separated from during the afternoon. It was about quarter to six pm. Riot police were surrounding all roadways leading into the park, but we managed to find an unguarded pathway in through the University of Toronto campus.
As we looked for my mother, a line of riot police began to walk towards us, ordering my father and I, along with hundreds of other protestors, to move as they did. My father refused to move, as we were on public property and had the right to be there. The police began to push him and still he would not move. At this time I noticed that officers about five meters away to my left were shooting tear gas cartridges from riot guns to force protestors to get out of their way. Eventually my father did back from the police line. The line had advanced a few meters and stopped.
After this, my father and I decided to sit down with a group of protestors on University Avenue. Two activists, male and and in their early 20s, were sitting beside us. They offered us water and we discussed why police were pushing protestors off of Queen’s Park despite it being public property. As there were pockets of tear gas around us, I wetted my bandana with apple cider vinegar and held it to my face.
Before sitting for more than five minutes we were suddenly assaulted. The line of riot cops pressed forward while shooting more tear gas and officers from behind the riot line ran towards where we were. They slammed into us and hit us.
“These four,” one of them shouted to other police around him. We were surrounded by officers on the front, left and right (and) activists who had been behind us started to retreat. Someone ordered my father to stand. He could not do this with ease as he is an above-the-knee amputee and has an artificial left leg. Police kicked and bashed my father as my left arm was grabbed and twisted behind my back. The two activists who had offered us water attempted to help my father stand while repeatedly telling the police that my father only had one leg. The police did not listen and began to hit us more violently.
As I yelled for them to let my father stand, the officer holding my arm wrapped his right hand around a fistful of my hair and began to drag me away. He brought me on the other side of the riot line as a chunk of my hair was pulled out. I hollered to my father that everything would be fine. After a couple moments of being forced along I managed to stand upright and walk with the officer.
We stopped once we arrived at a paddy wagon. The officer put zip-ties around my wrists and asked me for identification. Knowing that he would find it anyway, I told him to look at my driver’s license in my wallet. The backpack I was wearing was removed and searched. The officer began to complete a form on me and told me that I had been arrested for “obstruction of justice.”
My possessions were put into bags, my zip-ties were removed and replaced with handcuffs and I was locked into the paddy wagon. I’m not sure how long I was in the there for. During this time I could see officers in plain clothes, dressed as protestors, running back and forth across the riot lines. They were assisting in arrests of protesters. After about 20 minutes another arrestee joined me in my cell of the van.
Ten minutes after that we were taken from the paddy wagon, leg cuffed and told to walk onto a police bus. My father was put on the same bus as I was. His glasses, prosthetic leg and walking sticks had been taken from him and he had to hop onto the bus with his hands cuffed. The police did not help him to his seat. From the window of the bus, I saw a group of officers kicking male people of colour who were lying in submission on the ground.
After waiting a little while longer, we were driven to the G20 Detention Centre on Eastern Avenue. We were forced to exit the bus one at a time. As I descended the stairs of the vehicle an officer smiled at me and said that I shouldn’t forget to tip the driver.
Immediately upon exiting the bus I was told to kneel on a chair that was against a wall. My leg cuffs and handcuffs were removed, and a different pair of handcuffs were put on my wrists. I was brought to a cell with about eight other women near the back of an enormous studio room the bus had pulled into. It was the first of five cells I would walk into during my twenty-seven hour stay in jail.
Before an hour was up I was removed from the cell to be processed. This took about an hour and involved my picture being taken, my shoes being removed, two more searches and a meeting with a sergeant. I was reminded twice during this process that everything I said or did was being videotaped. When I met the sergeant there were two other officers present. The sergeant asked me questions such as “Why were you arrested?” “Why were you protesting?” and “Who were you with?” I said that I would not answer these questions without speaking with a lawyer first. However, I did answer some questions such as “what is your address and phone number?” since they already had these things from going through my identification.
The sergeants told me that I was arrested for “breach of peace”. I don’t know what happened to my “obstruction of justice” charge.
“What does ‘breach of peace’ mean?” I asked.
“That you disrupted the general harmony of Toronto.”
After processing was complete I was deposited in a cell in the detainment zone. On my way there someone told me that I would be able to make a phone call. It was around 10:00 pm. The cell was cold, about 16 degrees. There was only one other person in my cell with me, a female. She told me to ask for a sweatshirt from the police, which I did. A few minutes later they gave me a green sweatshirt that would help a little as the temperature in detainment dipped throughout the night, probably down to 13 degrees. As more and more detainees came in and requested sweaters and other clothing, the cops soon ran low on supplies. Within eight hours, they ran out completely. Prisoners were freezing.
I was escorted to a phone booth and permitted to make a phone call to the TCMN (Toronto Community Mobilization Network) legal support line at about 11. I was lucky that I got to make this phone call; several prisoners were in jail for more than 24 hours and never got to make a call or speak to duty council. Others, such as my father, were never charged with anything. Worst of all, some, such as my cellmate with a bloody forehead, never received medical attention till after a day had gone by. When we asked the police why we were being mistreated so, some said that it was because we were criminals, and others claimed it was due to organization problems.
At 1 am, I was moved to another cell, about six feet by ten feet in size. Unlike my last cell, this one had not port-o-potty. Whenever we had to go to the bathroom, an officer would take us to a cell with bathroom equipment. Throughout the night, more women were added to the cell. By the late morning, there were ten of us in the cell. At around 2 p.m., I was told that I could make another phone call. This was strange to me, since, as alluded to before, some prisoners had been there longer than me and not permitted to make any phone call at all. I called the TCMN legal support line again. No one picked up. Later, I found out that many TCMN volunteer lawyers had been arrested. Still later I found out from incoming prisoners that the TCMN convergence centre had been raided and shut down by police.
No longer having a link to the outside, I requested to speak to duty council, which I was permitted to do. I am still bewildered as to why I got to see duty council while other prisoners did not. Poor bureaucratic organization? Were they playing “good cop” with me? Did they want things to seem chaotic so they could have an excuse for being negligent of the prisoners’ needs?
When prisoners asked for food or water, they told us that they would “have some shortly.” But it usually took from an hour to two hours. Some were in jail for eight to 10 hours before getting any water at all. Arbitrarily, about four times during the time period I was there, we were offered processed cheese on two slices of white bread with butter. Since I am lactose intolerant and allergic to yeast I could not eat the sandwiches. At 6 p.m. Sunday I begged an officer for something that I could eat. About an hour later, he brought me to a cell out of sight of the other prisoners and gave me an apple and some orange juice. Despite my anger at being mistreated I was grateful for the food.
Since other detainees and myself had been in custody for more than 24 hours, we asked cops walking by our cells why we were not being released. Some officers ignored us. Others told us “we are just too overworked to have time to release you.” Some said “I don’t know. I just do what I’m ordered.” Others claimed “we are going to, very soon” and still others swore that “there are protestors outside and they are dangerous. We can’t let you go until they go”.
At around 4 p.m., I along with the others in my cell were moved to a slightly larger cell. Three or four others were also placed in this cell. At about 8 p.m., some officers took a girl from my cell and I was taken to a tiny cage in a separate room from the detainment cells we’d been in for so long. Here, an officer told us that we were being released and charges against us were bring dropped, but that there were certain conditions to our release, such as we would not take place in any more G20 protests in Toronto. Our belongings were returned to us.
We asked if we could have a copy of original charges and our release conditions. We were ignored. They took another picture of each of us. Before we even had time to put our shoes on, we were shoved out a door into the pouring rain.