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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
In His Own Words (Interview Transcript)
by: Jesse Rosenfeld
source
He says. She says. Jesse Rosenfeld was writing for The Guardian newspaper when G20 security beat him up and arrested him. Amy Goodman on what it means to have a real independent media.
1:48 - 13:45 Jesse Rosenfeld was writing for The Guardian when G20 security beat him up and arrested him. rabble radio spoke to him a few hours after he was released from detention.
14:08 - 32:15 Amy Goodman is the host of the radio/tv/podcast Democracy Now! Friday night, at the Council of Canadians event Shout Out For Global Justice, she spoke about what it means to have an independent media, and why it is important.
Interview with Jesse Rosenfeld, transcribed:
Meagan Perry: You were reporting for the Guardian newspaper when you were detained, what was your assignment with them?
Jesse Rosenfeld: Well I’d been working for Comment Is Free on a three part series on the G8 and G20 focused on the flashpoints of empire and contesting democracy. And looking at comparing the self created legitimacy that the G8 and G20 have based on their own political and economic power. Compared with the alternative to their economic vision and the global economic plan of the 20 wealthiest nations with the alternatives that were coming from the streets and the kind of coalitions coming from the streets. I’d already gotten out a piece about indigenous sovereignty that went online on Friday about the demonstration and the context of contesting sovereignty. I was working on the piece about contesting the global economy when I was arrested, penned in at the demonstration in front of the Novotel Hotel on the Esplanade just south of Front Street.
MP: Before all of that happened what was your impression of that crowd?
JR: It was really interesting, it was possibly one of the most interesting political moments I’ve seen here in Toronto and I grew up in Toronto and left when I was 18. What was so interesting about that demonstration is that it wasn’t the long developed, theoretically thought out radicals that had organized the whole thing. It was actually people that had almost been instantly radicalized when the police threw them out of Queens Park – the one free speech zone. When police beat, arrested and pushed people all the way up to Bloor Street, they reorganized and almost 1,000 people decided: “Well if the state won’t give us any place to express ourselves than we’ll take it directly to the fence.” And they marched down to the fence. What was interesting was that you could tell the sort of organic nature of how people were thinking these things out in the street. The kind of discussions they were having about the G8/G20 and this highly unorganized march that was basically guided by the political determination to make sure these issues stay central.
MP: How were the police reacting at that point?
JR: Well, I mean the thing was the police had thrown everyone out of Queens Park and I guess they were completely surprised at what happened. We had gotten down to the fence in two different places where the police penned people in who were able to negotiate with the police and they let them out. Eventually they went on to the Novotel Hotel area where they were blocked in by riot police on both sides. When the riot police found out that they were not Novotel Hotel workers who were currently on strike, well many people were highly sympathetic to the Novotel workers strike, when they found out they weren’t actually workers from the hotel they immediately moved in and started making mass arrests. I was with the block of media and some of the alternative press said: “Okay how are we going to deal with the situation?” We were obviously covering what was going on, so we asked the police: “Are you going to be arresting the media too?” Their immediate response was yes, you are not supposed to be here, everyone will be arrested. Then they came back and said those who have the official summit media accreditation will be allowed. What is interesting is that I had applied for official summit media accreditation on June 11, I had given them my letter from the Guardian and it had been approved. Subsequently they said I wasn’t going to be given my lanyard until I cleared an RCMP background check, which just kept going on and on and on. It was because of that, because I only had a media pass from the alternative media centre that the police decided to arrest me. When I originally told them about my assignment with the Guardian, but I was also in the editorial collective in covering the story with the Alternative Media Centre they said: “Alright we will check your credentials and your accreditation so come over to the side.” Then and officer looked at my press pass and said that it wasn’t legitimate and you’re under arrest, after which I was immediately jumped and beaten to the ground. I was punched in the stomach, my arms were pulled back, and I was hit in the back when I went down. After I went down, cops piled on me -- they were hitting me in the back of the ribs with their knees. They lifted up my leg and twisted my ankle as if they were trying to sprain it…my leg smacked against the curb on the way down, my face was pushed into the concrete. All of this interestingly happened after two police officers had identified that I was a ‘loudmouth’ that had been bothering them the day before. What had happened was, I was covering the front lines of different clash points at different demonstrations. Both at the queer demonstration against the G20 earlier in the week and at the demonstration on the Friday and I was on the front lines when some other reporters I worked with were hit in the face and had their microphones snatched. I was covering (the demonstrations) when they were directly targeting arrests at activists or anyone they could grab through what looked like racial profiling. They were first taking any kids of colour and people with indigenous backgrounds. I had been on the frontline documenting all of this, I had been out forcefully with a piece in the Guardian discussing RCMP and Toronto Police racism, so it was clear to me that this attack was political.
MP: When you were at Novotel and you were negotiating with the police, before they said that this isn’t legitimate and threw you to the ground. Did you have any sense that that was going to happen to you?
JR: I mean I could tell that they were a little put off and I suspected that they may try to arrest me. I wasn’t expecting to get beaten. To be honest I’m not surprised, this is what the Toronto Police do. This is what Canadian police forces do. They beat people when they think that they can get away with it. It is not a new story, it may be new that it is happening to someone who is an accredited international journalist and someone who is white, in their upper twenties and male, but it is a daily reality for indigenous people, people of colour, people living in ghettoized communities, queer communities. This is the daily reality for them when it comes to police violence without justification apart from the fact police want to subdue that element of society and what it might say.
MP: What did you experience in detention?
JR: It was kind of interesting. I’ve been working in the Middle East as a journalist for the last three years and I’ve never seen a jail like that in Canada. It did remind me a lot of, in many similar ways, of the way that Israelis’ detain Palestinians, or the way Palestinian Authority jails work. What happened was, we were in handcuffs from 10:30 in the evening when I was arrested, until 5:00 in the morning. In an overcrowded cell with people, a porta-potty washroom, sparse access to water and never enough water when it was needed. Finally I was moved through into processing, I was moved into a 5 x 8 cell with five other people and I mean, you couldn’t even all lay down at the same time. There were no benches, no bathroom, it was just a cold concrete floor. The centre was just absolutely freezing and we weren’t given any blankets or anything. I was in there from about 11:30 until 5:30 a.m. I only got my phone call to my lawyer at about 3 p.m., although I had been demanding it the entire time.
MP: There were a number of Twitter reports of people not being able to call lawyers at all. Is that something you can verify?
JR: Yeah. I told them I was a journalist, they wouldn’t allow me to call my lawyer. I heard that my editor had tried to get through and made a call to the police, but obviously hadn’t been able to get through. I saw other independent media journalists that had been beaten badly, other people that I had worked with at the AMC throughout the week who had been arrested. I saw all sorts of different kinds of people that had all been taken down. I was witnessing these arrests, unprovoked, brutally violent arrests. People with blood gushing from their face all over their shirts even while being brought into jail, black eyes on both sides, scrapes all over their bodies, walking with limps. In my cell even, three people were denied access to medication for incredible periods of time. One guy had an asthma attack and I don’t think he got his ventilator for over 40 minutes. Another guy had anti-anxiety medication and it took him hours to get his pills. This other guy had both of his shoulders dislocated, he had a muscular issue, which had been exacerbated by his handcuffing, and the police took hours upon hours to give him his anti-inflammatory medication. He was just sitting there with dislocated shoulders.
MP: What are you hearing from people abroad? What kind of reaction are you hearing? I’m assuming you are talking with your editors in the U.K.?
JR: I haven’t had a direct line to my editors yet, I’ve just been out of jail for several hours now and I haven’t been able to get through. I intend to talk with them soon. But, from the community around me I have felt incredible support and there has been incredible organization outside. I really appreciate it. Especially the fact that people realize that it is not just me. This has been happening to people across the board, the only reason I’m getting attention is because I happen to be an accredited journalist. I am expressing the same opinion, or similar ideas to other media that is getting arrested and we are discussing the same ideas as the people in the streets are. These are all the ideas that the government and the police force are trying to sweep from the streets and not have this discussion in Canada.
MP: What are you hoping to see in Canada after this?
JR: It is very much what I am looking at in these pieces, the alternatives that come from the streets. I’m very much hoping that as global empires decide to restructure themselves from the G8/G20 in terms of negotiating an international enforced consensus both politically and economically and the alternatives from the streets really start to jettison not just an idea of specific grievances, but actually alternative systems that are coming out in both the organization and … of things starting to happen and I’ve been quite impressed by it.
MP: Well thanks for talking to us today.
JR: From what I hear we still have all the other people in jail that need to be defended. We need to get our people out.
MP: Absolutely. How long do you think that is going to take?
JR: Who knows? They’ve gone after the organizers all weekend. We have people being detained on warrants, we have all sorts of trumped up charges that we’re looking at. We’re looking at a government completely intent on breaking social movements in this country. It needs to be fought. It needs to be fought bitterly. It needs to be fought on all fronts.