G8/G20 June 2010 Protest Watch

[The Bread Guy]

From the Toronto Sun/QMI:

TTC riders are in for lengthy delays and traffic chaos next month in the downtown core as police install fences and shut down streets to protect leaders attending the G20 Summit, officials say.

Three rings of security, incorporating miles of fencing, will be created around the Metro Convention Centre when the leaders meet June 26-27.

Some of the leaders will attend a G8 summit in Huntsville on June 25-26.

Police said there will be less parking and it will be harder to get around downtown as the meeting draws near.

“Our riders will be greatly affected,” added TTC chief general manager Gary Webster. “This will have a significant impact on the City of Toronto.”

Webster said the TTC will be working overtime to ensure riders know about road closures or route changes around the convention centre ....

 

[The Bread Guy]

RCMP seeking tents & tables to work, flights to go back & forth and tow trucks.

Edited to add:  Looking for fuel as well.

 

[mariomike]

"Take our G20 ... please!":
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2010/05/05/13838526.html

 

[mellian]

"Take our G20 ... please!":
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2010/05/05/13838526.html

"How about Montreal? Quebec City? Trois-Rivieres?"

Gahh, not Montreal, not Montreal! Or even Ottawa! Actually, keep it out of Canada!

Is it even worth the cost of having half of the G8 and G20 meetings in Canada? Since the public has no access, can they not just privately keep to themselves when and where they will have the meetings, and then spring ot upon that location in the last minute. That way, they have their meeting and do not need to spend so much on security as protesters would be totally caught off guard.

As is now, advertising the meetings some time ahead and planning for huge security measures is just asking for it, also making the natural rallying point for all protests against...whatever related to the meeting somehow.

 

[The Bread Guy]

NORAD exercise planned for South-Central Ontario Region
NORAD news release, May 5, 2010
Link

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) will conduct Exercise Amalgam Virgo this week in the south-central Ontario region in support of preparations for the G8 and G20 Summits.

The exercise, which will be conducted May 6-7, will involve Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet fighter jets and CH-124 Sea King and CH-146 Griffon helicopters flying at low altitudes. Residents in the exercise area may hear aircraft noise and perhaps see aircraft flying at various times throughout the day.

NORAD maintains aircraft assets throughout North America in order to support its bi-national mission of aerospace warning and control for North America. As the Canadian geographical component of NORAD, CANR provides airspace surveillance and control, and directs all air sovereignty activities for the Canadian NORAD Region.

Training is conducted in a disciplined manner and in a professional environment to ensure NORAD’s rapid response capability.  To maintain the integrity of its air defense mission, NORAD will not discuss specific details of the exercises.

-30-

A bit more from CanWest here.

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from the National Post:

Toronto police say the G20 summit’s Designated Protest Area will not be in Trinity Bellwoods Park as planned because of local residents’ discomfort with it.

“Following discussions with the community in and around the Trinity-Bellwoods area, a decision was made to find an alternate location for the Designated Speech Area. We are currently considering options,” police said in a release this afternoon.

The decision was made together by the City of Toronto and the G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit, which includes several police forces and the Canadian Forces ....

TPS news release attached.

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from CTV.ca:

Downtown restaurant owners are upset they'll have to shut down their patios for two weeks before the G20 summit begins on June 26.

"It's not affecting us for two days of the summer, it's affecting us for the entire month," said David Bagley, owner of Cora's Restaurant on Blue Jays Way.

The restaurant is just a few hundred metres from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where leaders of the world's 20 largest economies will gather this summer.

"With good weather, which June usually is, weekdays you're probably looking at $2,000 a day. On the weekends, especially on the weekend of the summit, it'll add up to … close to $20,000," he said.

A meeting last week didn't inform businesses about the patio restriction.

Coun. Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) said shotgun weddings have been planned better than the G20 summit.

"When it comes to getting the details as to how businesses, residents and local parks and even things as simple as restaurant patios will be affected, every day it's a different idea," he said.

Vaughan thought the rationale might be that violent protesters could use the patio furniture to damage other property ....

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from the Canadian Press:

Activists are vowing to defy police and take their protest of next month's G20 summit in Toronto to the city's streets.

The Toronto Community Mobilization Network says it won't stand for having protesters penned-in at designated demonstration areas.

The warning today comes after the city and the G20 security team backed off on a plan to designate a city park as a protest zone following community complaints.

The Integrated Security Unit says it would announce another designated demonstration zone as early as today ....

Meanwhile, this from the Toronto Community Mobilization Network page:

Street Medic Orientation and Training - One
Start: 05/09/2010 10:00
End: 05/09/2010 14:00
Timezone: Canada/Eastern

Want to demystify MOFIBA?
Unclear how such a seemingly benign antacid like Maalox/TUMS will help to overthrow capitalism?
Want to discuss radical health and care while resisting the powers that be?
Interested in beefing up your first aid skills while theorizing beyond the fences?

Join Toronto Street Medics for the G20.... and beyond!

Street Medics 101
Location:  Centre for Social Justice- 489 College Street, Suite 303

Introduction:
Toronto Street Medics was established in the 90s as a collective of persons with various types of health care experience who used their skills to support their communities in protest for many different convergences. Dormant for the last few years, the arrival of the G20 in Toronto is inspiring a second coming and cause for questions about what the G8/G20 means for the health of people in this city and around the world,  what radical health(and care) is and could be,  and what the role of street medics could be during and beyond the G20.

We view the G20 as an opportunity for interested street medics to:

    * Use our skills/build skills to support our communities in protest
    * Build and strengthen radical health care networks across this city, to discuss health and politics, and to discuss/work to dismantle hierarchies/structures in health care provision

This training/workshop will serve the following purposes:
1)      An orientation to what/who street medics are
2)      Provide some basic training on street medic skills (eye flushing, kit packing, wounds)
3)      Discussion on the connections between the G8/G20 and health, health care provision
4)      Discuss issues related to diversity of tactics and street medics
5)      Collectively assess available community resources
6)      Help us to collectively decide on what kind of further training is necessary  for the G20 and when this training will take place
What we hope to come out of it:
1)        Better idea of persons interested in being street medics during G20 and their training needs
2)        Understanding of resources available to street medics G20
3)        Ideas related to health and resistance to G20, ideas related to how to integrate and work with other collectives coming from beyond Toronto, ideas about how to sustain a street medic project/radical health community beyond G20
4)        Dates for more specific medical trainings in June
5)        Identification of persons/organizations who can assist with support Dissemination of essential information (CPR/First Aid books) street medicine references/resources for people to read before the next trainings ....

And what is MOFIBA?  Link here for more details.

Interested in "health & safety for acivists"?  Link here.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Please oh please issue us  the taser-claymore

 

[medicineman]

You've been watching GSG-9 vs SWAT again haven't you :nod:...

MM

 

[Jarnhamar]

Yea we had a marathon at our Mess the other night.

I hate the show but the claymore taser seems pretty awesome for ruining a protesters day.

 

[medicineman]

I agree whole heartedly - pity there aren't rapidly deployable electric cattle fences that could be similarly...

MM

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from CanWest:

Activists planning to protest next month's G20 Summit said yesterday they will continue to organize demonstrations at various locations throughout the city, despite plans by officials to confine protests to one "designated speech area" in downtown Toronto.

"The demonstrations are about issues and we will talk about these issues where it makes sense," said Syed Hussan, a spokesman for the Toronto Community Mobilization Network. "It cannot be limited to any kind of one action or one place for action."

The group said it expects thousands of people to participate in protests, forums and panel discussions during the G20 Summit from June 26 to 27 at the Metro Convention Centre.

(....)

Hussan said the idea of setting up a designated "free speech" zone is "undemocratic and authoritarian," the same ideals activists will be picketing against.

"We have a government that is hiding. They want to sell Toronto as this amazing place," he said. "They want these leaders to see the quality in our communities but obviously they want to hide us, push us out of where we live and work. This is our struggle." ....

"No," says the neighbourhood "we really, really DON'T want the protest, thanks":

The Ontario Federation of Labour has bowed to objections from residents living near Trinity Bellwoods Park and has cancelled plans to hold a G20 demonstration there.

“The OFL has listened to the residents,” president Sid Ryan said Friday.

G20 summit security officials announced Thursday that, in the face of strong community opposition, they would not use the west-end park as a “designated speech area” for demonstrators against the international meeting of finance leaders being held in Toronto in June.

However, the OFL, in conjunction with the Canadian Labour Congress, Council of Canadians, Greenpeace and Oxfam, was still going ahead with a planned rally at the park after its G20 march on June 26.

This sparked continued neighbourhood protest, especially since some estimated attendance at the OFL march as high as 20,000.

These objections prompted the OFL to change its plans Friday. The rally will now begin and end at Queen’s Park, Ryan said ....

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from rabble.ca:

MP (Trinity-Spadina) Olivia Chow's office has compiled a list of websites, contact numbers and information for Toronto residents living in and around the convention centre where the G20 summit will be held:

Access to your home or work: G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit

The G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit is in charge of security, traffic and access for the event. For information about access to your homes or offices, please visit www.G8-G20isu.ca or call 1-888-446-4047.

Security zone

There will be two fenced-off perimeters. The inner area is a "red zone" which will be secured by the RCMP. This will encompass the summit site, the Metro Convention Centre, and hotels where officials will be staying. The outer area will be secured by the Toronto Police. The exact boundaries will not be released until approximately two weeks prior to the summit.

Superintendent Tom Russell, is the planning lead from the Toronto Police Service. Constable George Tucker is the primary spokesperson and Meghan Gray from community relations and public affairs is also available.

Traffic zone

There will be an outer "traffic zone" which will cover the area between Yonge St. and Spadina Ave., King St. and Lake Ontario. This zone will remain open to pedestrians and vehicles. However, expect delays as passage will be temporarily restricted at times due to the passage of motorcades. It is highly encouraged that alternative transportation be used during the summit weekend.

Union station will remain open. TTC and GO service are not expected to be affected.

There will not be any access to the Ward's Island ferry as of June 24.

Accreditation - for easy access to the Toronto Police Security Zone

Accreditation is the voluntary process of obtaining an access card to allow residents or people who work within the outer security zone access to the secure areas of the summit.

This is intended to help people enter the zone as efficiently as possible via an express line. People will not be subjected to security checks when entering the zone with the access card but will be asked to show a piece of photo identification.

The Community Relations Group will be contacting local businesses and condominium property managers inside the outer security area in the coming weeks. Employers and property managers will then relay the information to their residents and employees.

For those who choose not to be accredited, there will be a general public entrance gate where admittance will be at the discretion of the Toronto Police. The security gates to the outer security zone will remain open as long as possible. In the case of a potential security threat, the gates will be shut and no one will be permitted to enter or exit.

Ex Gratia Payments

A dedicated line has been set up to answer your questions about compensation to potential damages or lost business opportunities. Call 1-877-750-6042 for inquiries regarding compensation applications or visit http://g20.gc.ca/important-notices/#payments

The Canadian Government has also set up a general inquiries line. Please call 1-877-G20CAN1 (1-877-420-2261) to leave a message. We have been assured by the Summit Management Office that all queries will be responded to within 48 hours ....

This from rabble.ca:

challenges of running an independent media website.
Call for submissions: Gearing up for the G8, G20 summits
By rabble staff | May 6, 2010

rabble.ca is gearing up to cover the G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto from June 25 to 27 and related events. We are currently seeking submissions from contributors (writers, bloggers, photographers and videographers) interested in examining both local and global impacts of the G8 and G20 on indigenous sovereignty, migrant justice, women's health, climate debt, the economy among other pressing issues. We are also looking for writers to consider the local effect of the security measures for the meetings.

Here are some of the events we plan to cover:

• June 16: This Magazine and rabble.ca will co-sponsor an event on maternal health initiatives (speakers to be announced soon)
• June 18-20: People's Summit
• June 25: Shout Out for Global Justice (organized by the Council of Canadians, media sponsor and to be livestreamed by rabble.ca)
• June 26: People First! We Deserve Better! G8 and G20 public rally and march ....

This from the Edmonton Journal/CanWest:

The recent news from Halifax was drearily predictable: a peaceful protest last month aimed at a meeting of G8 ministers ended in a small scuffle between police and 30 black-clad anarchists and the arrest of a labour organizer.

There's a good chance this sterile choreography, magnified several times, will disrupt, perhaps even dominate, the massive G8 and G20 summits scheduled for Huntsville and Toronto at the end of June. Since the battle in Seattle in 1999, any meeting of heads of states is invariably accompanied by an army of media, police and protesters, each faithfully playing their part in an increasingly shopworn drama.

It raises the question: Is the whole show -- the summit and the protests -- worth the exorbitant security costs, the injuries, the disruption to traffic, travel and life in the unfortunate host city?

(....)

As for protests, one veteran leftist laments the "crisis in creativity" when it comes to tactics. Some activists continue to justify violence under the rubric "diversity of tactics." But violence only emboldens police to retaliate; they now confine demonstrators to "free speech zones" -- protester petting zoos, far from the action.

There are countless peaceful events, too -- workshops, parties, speeches and culture-fests -- planned for the People's Summit in Toronto in the week preceding the leaders' arrival. Claudia Calabro, of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, says her group wants to emphasize "not only what's wrong, but what's good" -- notably, the successes of community organizations helping welfare recipients.

But what the movement needs, too, is joy -- the insouciance and sense of play that fuelled the striking, mostly peaceful, rise of gay power. Teddybear catapults, Code Pink feminists, satirical street theatre -- anything to distract sensation-hungry media from the set-piece violence ....

 

[vonGarvin]

Pardon my use of the Anglo-Saxon, but fuck them.  I believe in freedom of expression, but that does not include teddy bear catapults and shit like that.

 

[zipperhead_cop]

If some clever dude could come up with a riot shield that had stun probed mounted in it so zap whomever was in contact with the shield, they would make a bundle. 

Meanwhile, people deployed to the G8 should suppress making fun of anyone deployed to Hippiefest G20....  ;D

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from the Toronto Sun/QMI:

Other Islamic terrorist cells like the “Toronto 18” exist in Canada, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service’s former top strategic planner told The Toronto Sun.

And with police and intelligence agencies preparing for world leaders’ conferences in Huntsville and Toronto in June, David Harris fears jihadists may be preparing a major disruption for visiting dignitaries.

“It stands to reason that, with the G-20 here, it offers a wonderful opportunity to Islamist extremists and radicals of all types to launch an offensive,” said Harris, a lawyer and director of the international and terrorist intelligence program at Insignis Strategic Research Inc. in Ottawa.

The “ultimate goal” of such subversives is “to kill as many of the infidels as possible,” he said Monday. “By doing so, such extremists demonstrate the radical Islamist threat writ runs in Canada and is capable of compromising any security efforts,” Harris said.

The geography of a large city or the rural area of Muskoka where the G-8 will be held, is of no concern to determined terrorists committed to a cause, he said.

The G-20 summit offers a “choice target,” Harris said.

Other than saying larger cities are their likeliest hideouts, he couldn’t disclose specifics or the location of groups similar to the 18 GTA men arrested in 2006 ....

 

[mariomike]

1) Regarding the change in venue from Trinity-Bellwoods to Queen's Park:
http://www.trinitybellwoods.ca/media-release-labour-movement-announces-new-plans-toronto-g20-rally-march-no-longer-trinity-bellwood

I was stationed at the south end of Trinity-Bellwoods. Toronto Life magazine described Trinity-Bellwoods as "a desolute drag flanked by flophouses and seedy bars". Classic "inner-city". In recent years however, there has been some "gentrification". A lot of hipsters and suburbanites have moved in.
I can't say that I blame them, or anyone, for not wanting anything to do with hosting G20 in their neighbourhood.

2) "We view the G20 as an opportunity for interested street medics to:
•Use our skills/build skills to support our communities in protest
•Build and strengthen radical health care networks across this city, to discuss health and politics, and to discuss/work to dismantle hierarchies/structures in health care provision"
End Quote.

Toronto's Paramedics are the experts in street medicine. Not these people.
Nobody knows that better than Chief Bruce Farr. He joined the Department the same year I did, and has my complete confidence:
http://www.newstalk1010.com/node/1126001
http://www.newstalk1010.com/player/player?mediapath=&type=mp3&sid=81&nid=1125998&

J-EMS magazine reports that the G20 in Pittsburgh last year was "the largest EMS mobilization in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from the Power Shift G8G20 Facebook page:

Want To Attend The G8/G20 Summits? Join The Peoples Road Trip From Vancouver To The G8/G20
Share
Yesterday at 13:25
Do you have concerns about the state of the world?

Is it Climate change and the Environment? Poverty? Economic development?  Human rights? Democracy? Whatever your concerns may be, you have a voice and your voice deserves to be heard. You are a citizen of this world too!!!

This year between June 25 -27 in Toronto, The People representing our voices are coming together for the 4th G20 summit.

This is what our PM sees as priorities to be discussed
http://g20.gc.ca/statement-by-the-prime-minister-of-canada-2/

Might there be other priorities that you would like to see discussed?  Possibly!

So here it is: We’re offering you the opportunity to let your voice be heard in Toronto!

Join us on an epic journey from Vancouver cross country to Toronto on the People's Bus.

On June 20th people from all walks of life and with a variety of concerns will be gathering at the Vancouver Peoples Summit. After this event we’ll be leaving on our road trip to Toronto, stopping in designated areas to pick up and join caravans from other locations in Canada to arrive together in Toronto on (remove ‘the’) June 24.

You can be part of this great movement of the people!

How? Easy! read the schedule/requirements below and sign up to be part of the journey!

Start: Vancouver June 20 departing time 8pm from the Vancouver People's Summit on Main and 33rd.

Stop 1: June 21 Calgary ( location tba)

Stop 2: June 23 Winnipeg (location tba)

Arrival: June 24 Toronto ....

Post attached if link doesn't work for you.

- edited to fix links -

 

[The Bread Guy]

This from CTV.ca:

Aboriginal protesters are planning to stage blockades at major rail routes in the days leading up to the G20 summit in Toronto, CTV Toronto has learned.

It is believed that the protest will be staged on Thursday, June 24. The G20 Summit will take place in the city's core on the weekend of June 26 and 27.

Organizers from Red Power United, one of many groups planning to protest the meeting of world leaders, said the action will be called a "national day of protest."

They will be among dozens of groups rallying during the meeting.

Union members are also expected to fill the lawn at Queen's Park at a demonstration being spearheaded by the Ontario Federation of Labour. A march through the city centre will also be likely.

"We haven't yet decided the parade route," said OFL president Sid Ryan. "We will be working it out with police, but we will be marching as closely as possible to the perimeter of the security fence." ....

Red Power United:  web page - Facebook - National Day of Action details (Facebook)

More links to G8/G20 & protest info here.

- edited to include link to article, and link to updated page o' links -