Hi all, I thought I’d pass along my rather long first hand account of the events being a downtown resident and being right at Spadina & Queen Saturday when the riot broke out and being at right at King and Bay when the two police cruisers were torched (literally hiding behind planters as the rounds of ammunition exploded in the cruisers as the fires burned).
It was indeed a surreal scene – my wife and I were out shopping and went for a walk down to the so called peaceful protest to see first hand what was going on. I think the media and most comments I’ve seen on UrbanToronto and other forums seem to divide the crowd into the “peaceful” legitimate protestors and the Black Bloc, my experience suggests there is a large group of so called “peaceful” protestors that occupy a grey area in the middle. They weren’t black-bloc who from what I saw numbered maybe around 100, but there were several hundred other hardcore protestors who were claiming that they were being peaceful and that it was some kind of ‘police state’, yet they felt compelled to bring bandanas, ear plugs, goggles, make shift (and in some cases real) gas masks down to a ‘peaceful protest’ – it go ugly very quickly.
A flare went off at Spadina and Queen just as tensions between the so called ‘peaceful’ protestors and police were hitting a tipping point. I just love how groups of people claiming to be peaceful wave the peace sign with their two fingers in the air while screaming at the top of their lungs as an angry mob face-to-face with police trying to provoke them so they can claim police brutality after – police showed remarkable constraint considering what I saw and I don’t think the media images on tv came anywhere close to depicting the venom and tension between police and so called ‘peaceful protestors’. The flare that went off was obviously a signal that shit was about to go down. It was also obviously coordinated to occur when tensions reached a peak and also when the police presence was drawn quite far to the west likely exposing the eastern flank.
Within moments of the flare going off there were suddenly a significant number of black clad youths charging through the crowd moving east – the police had left Queen Street clear for the protest allowing these people to move very quickly. Many of the other so called peaceful protestors (I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the truly peaceful and legitimate protestors, but there were hundreds of non-Black Bloc protestors that essentially became an angry mob) – while these people didn’t necessarily join in on the destruction (some did) many also donned bananas and followed the lead of the Black Bloc and headed east…. Maybe not the best idea, but my wife and I decided to follow (I have sent in some photos to the police to help identify some of these thugs).
I saw mindless destruction on Queen. I saw a few police not armed in riot gear in full retreat running for their lives – the first time I’ve ever seen total fear for ones life in the eyes of a police officer in Toronto – it was scary. I’ve seen comments on this board about why didn’t the bystanders stop what was happening – easy to say from looking at photos and seeing images on tv. The air was so thick with tension & hostility you could cut it with a knife and it was a volatile situation. Yes there were the few black bloc, but there was also a large angry mob of people – I think Toronto was lucky to escape with only the damage that was done – had one Molotov cocktail or incendiary device been tossed in one of those stores the fire department wouldn’t have been able to get there for a long time and it would have been all too easy for a block of Queen Street to burn to the ground.
The crowd was moving quickly, my wife and I quickly fell behind but followed the damage to Bay Street – at this point the scene was surreal and the police had lost control. The Black Bloc tactic appeared to have been to draw the police westward with the general protest and move quickly to the east and head for the fence drawing the police there (the left leaning and anarchist web-sites had advertised a violent take down the fence protest) and then quickly leaving that scene to head north where the was little police presence on Yonge to cause destruction and to regroup with the larger and more peaceful protest at Queen’s Park in the hopes of blending in an not getting caught – they used the larger crowd as camouflage.
King and Bay seemed like a war zone. My wife and I were quickly walking south when we started to see flames and suddenly the mob turned north and was in full panic sprint. I thought I heard someone yell “bomb” and a girl near us yelled “I don’t know why they are running, but just run!” – we ran north a block then we stopped and more people were heading south – at this point my wife had enough and left. I was curious (probably not a good thing). And continued to Bay and King – at this point the Black Bloc along with many other very angry protestors were trashing everything in sight and up on top of a second police car just as riot police started moving in. Many then ran east on King and I gather that’s when the rampage of Yonge street started. I think the police expected them to move south to the fence and were caught by surprise when they all went east and then north. I didn’t follow.
I got caught with little options as to where to go with riot police closing in from the north, west and south – a mounted unit had also arrived on scene and myself and many others were concerned the gas tanks were going to explode and I just wanted to get as far away as possible – I kept along the edge of FCP and sprinted south to the TD pavilion and then east to Commerce Court West and hid behind the large flower planters figuring that would be somewhat safe if there was an explosion. A stupid protester was nearby yelling on a megaphone that the “police state” riot cops should all leave “because this was a peaceful protest” and the police should “stop harassing and intimidating protestors” – all while two cruisers were burning less then ten meters away and rounds of ammunition started exploding in the trunks.
Riot police moved in quickly pushing a growing mob east towards Yonge Street. At this point there were no Black Bloc, just so called regular “peaceful protestors” – all yelling at police, claiming they had the democratic right to be there and to protest and complaining of police brutality etc – all in a very very angry and confrontational manner with a backdrop of smoke and burning cruisers in the heart of the financial district. Some had their faces covered in bandanas – many didn’t. The objective of many of the so called “peaceful protestors” appeared to me to be a strategic attempt to provoke the police so they could then lay claim to a police over-reaction and brutality. I’m sorry but the charter right to peaceful assembly ends when a full scale riot begins and yet I think I heard the words “this is a peaceful protest” more then any other words uttered that afternoon.
I’d had enough and just wanted to go home. I tried to head north on Yonge, but police had blocked the intersection of Yonge and Richmond, I then tried going back south, but Adelaide was blocked off, so I took a mid block shortcut through a passageway and then due to other roadblocks again ended up on Bay Street.
Once again there was an angry mob (again not Black Bloc) of protestors pressed up again a police line that was at least three or four officers deep. They repeatedly claimed to be peaceful – I’m sure many were and others were like me, just sort of stuck down there and observing – but a good 10% - 15% wore bandanas covering some of their face and maybe 5% - 10% had other ‘peaceful protest’ necessities such as ear plugs, goggles, various gas mask type things etc. It was very tense – they mixed different chants that ranged from comical to downright hostile towards the police – I’m rather amazed that things didn’t turn really really ugly –the people at the very front line seemed to have a single objective to provoke the police to attack – yes it was all very ‘peaceful’.
I managed to get out of the area and walked up Yonge Street surveying the damage on the way back to my home at Bay/College. My wife had been trapped in a lock-down at the Metro grocery store in College Park for nearly an hour while the riot took place outside – many people in the store were very scared. I saw a range of destruction on Yonge Street and again I’m amazed sections didn’t burn to the ground – all it would have taken was one Black Bloc protestor to light one store on fire and I’m certain an entire block would have burned to the ground. The damage didn’t appear to be targeted to corporate companies and seemed random at this point. I saw independent shop keepers in tears sweeping the glass up in front of their stores and people walking around in bewilderment – it was shocking to see this in my Toronto.
Once back home I had a front row seat from my condo balcony to the commotion at Queen’s Park. I recognize this was supposed to be a ‘safe protest zone’ and I’ve heard a lot of negative commentary about police action on this site – but I’m sorry, the peaceful protest was over and large swaths of Queen Street, the financial district and Yonge Street had just experienced a full scale riot and those that caused most of the damage were using Queen’s Park as a rendezvous point to dissipate back into the crowd. And from what I could see yes there were many peaceful protestors that got caught in a very bad situation, but there were also many challenging the police. Looming in the distance I could see a smoke column rising from Queen Street as two more torched police cars burned. In the background on the tv I could distinctly hear one protester saw something like “We are going to destroy Bloor Street now” – at this point the peaceful day was over and it was time for the police to shut everything down – it was getting dark and I truly thought that parts of the city would burn – I had just seen first hand the destruction and mind set not only of the Black Bloc, but of many many others that got caught up in the mob and in the riot – many of whom over and over again used the words “peaceful protest”…. Even an hour or so after police had broken up the protest at Queens Park I heard glass smashing at about 9:00 as the CIBC at Bay & College right across the road from Police Headquarters had all the windows smashed in.
Some of the events Sunday (especially at Queen & Spadina) were an obvious over-reaction by police… but given what happened Saturday and seeing it first hand we Torontonians are lucky that things didn’t tip even more out of control. There was a full scale riot on our streets and for a good couple hours despite the massive police presence, they had lost control of the streets.
