Notes about my arrest at the Toronto G20

I meant to post this earlier, but here is a description of what happened from my perspective on the evening of June 26, 2010 through until I was released on June 27, 2010. As I mentioned before, I was volunteering at the time for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association as a human rights monitor. Our task was to act as neutral and independent observers of the protests during the G20 -- to simply witness and record what we saw. Again, I want to stress that the following report is only based on what I experienced and can recall now. I am not referring to my notes whilst writing this (and once I was arrested I was unable to continue taking written notes anyhow), but I am going to try to be as thorough as I can, so I don't imagine it'll be much of an exciting read.


Around 9pm or so on Saturday evening, my monitoring partner and I followed the march of about 300 people south on Yonge Street and onto The Esplanade. A line of police officers dressed in riot gear with what appeared to be tear gas guns formed a line about 300m east of Yonge St. on The Esplanade. The marchers stopped in front of the Novotel Hotel, at the police line, and continued chanting the lines they had been chanting for as long as we had beeb following them that evening: “This is what democracy looks like!”, “Peaceful protest!”, “Who’s streets? Our streets!”, and so on. This continued on for about twenty minutes without the police line or the protesters moving, or anything more than chanting and cheering. The main group of marchers stood on the street, with a collection of others standing on the sidewalk to the north.

From the west out of Scott St., a line of police officers in riot gear formed along The Esplanade, blocking any exit to the west, and marched towards the crowd. The officers in both police lines began marching slowly towards each other, clattering their batons against their shields, and so forcing the crowd together. My partner and I were on the north sidewalk by the west line of police. A few people who had been standing outside of the KEG restaurant smoking were also being pushed along by the advancing police line. Some of them called out to say they weren't part of the protest. An officer told us to stay against the wall and they would watch out for us.

The police lines stopped when they were about 30m meters apart from each other, the marchers, and anyone else who happened to be on the street or sidewalk, were now boxed in between the two lines. It was around 10 or 10pm, and dark by this point.

The crowd's chants where more urgent, and more often people called out or chanted with “Peaceful protest!” at the police lines. Several times then, and in the time that followed, small groups of officers would suddenly charge into the crowd, grab someone and pull them back behind their line. The crowd didn't seem to be moving in any direction, just standing and chanting.

A fellow who had apparently made his way from the east side of the crowd came over near us to the west line of police and asked to be let out. I didn't hear the officer's response, but I heard the guy say something like, "But the police on the other side told me to come here!". He wandered back towards the east line. (I didn't think about it then but on reflecting about it now I believe what the police where doing here was probably Kettling.)

One marcher called out to the crowd to say that everyone should sit down, which many did. The crowd was much more quiet then. All of us, both on the sidewalk and in the crowd, seemed to be waiting. Calls and chants began saying, “Let us go!” After a while, during a quiet moment a person in the crowd called out, “Okay, I’ve learned my lesson, I want to go home now!” We waited for another hour or so.

People around me were calling their friends and families on their cell phones, or chatting occasionally with people around them. I had to go to the bathroom at this point, so my my mind was mostly focused on that, but I did call into the CCLA several times to let them know what was happening. My partner approached the line of officers to ask about using a washroom, but they shook their head as he approached and didn't say a word. After an hour or more of waiting, an officer spoke to the crowd and announced that if we raised our hands and waited we would all be peacefully arrested. This was the first time I had heard any communications from the police to the group.

Officers from behind line of police would remove people from the crowd, put them in handcuffs and walk them away. As the crowd got smaller the police lines joined to the south forming a semi-circle enclosing the remaining people in the crowd. The crowd stood still and quietly from what I could see and hear. After a while the officers in the line near us started putting down their shields and taking helmets (it was hot after all!).

I waited, standing, for another one and half to two hours or so before being taken from the crowd and arrested. The officer who took me was calm, friendly, and gentle. I explained that I really had to pee at this point, to which he gave me a sympathetic look and told me he had to go too but that there were no washrooms around and that I'd have to wait until I got to the detention centre which would probably be in 10 minutes. He also explained that I'd probably be out in a a couple of hours.

As the officer was putting my personal belongings (backpack, wallet, phone, etc.. ) in a plastic bag, I explained that I was an observer with the CCLA. I showed him the letter explaining the monitoring program to him as well. He read these over and said he couldn't do anything about it. I asked that I be able to keep the letter with me so that I could present this to officers at the detention to explain my circumstances. The officer said he couldn't do that, but that he'd put it at the top of my property bag so that it would be easy to access. I was given a wrist band with a number on it, and a sticker on my shirt with the same number.

I then had my picture taken and was led to the police van. I was there for probably about 20-25 minutes as a few other guys were also led into the van. We could hear girls in the compartment opposite us laughing or calling out to go to the washroom. We sat in the van for a while and then eventually were driven to the detention centre. The ride seemed to take awhile, and even when we arrived we sat for about 20-25 minutes before we were let out. My need to pee was rather urgent at this point, and so, I could tell was that of the girls beside us who were much much more vocal.

We hopped out one after another and had our handcuffs exchanged for the plastic handcuffs that are really just large zip ties. They're much more uncomfortable, I found, and they have long ends that flop around and poke you and anyone nearby. Anyhow, I was led through the detainment centre by an officer to my cell (cell 3). On the way over the officer brought my attention to a notice that was posted explaining that there was surveillance used throughout the place. Sure enough, there was a camera directly above our cell.

The cell is exactly as the pictures show. A roughly 3 by 5 metre cage, with a cement floor, doorless porta-potty and metal bench. Two of the walls of the cage had metal sheeting on them which I gather was to stop us from seeing the other cages around us. There were about 24 other guys in the cell. Some sitting on the bench or floor, most standing. I stood. At this point I figured it'd only be a short time before I'd be released. Other people commented on the lighting and temperature: yes, we were in an enormous warehouse, lit by fluorescent lights, and kept quite cool. I was in a t-shirt and I was rather chilly for the rest of the stay there (which is odd for me, I'm usually too warm in most places). The floor in our cell was covered in a green dust -- which later one of the officers explained was old paint.

Looking out from the cell, to the left was one of the walls of the warehouse, and to the right were two rows of two school portables. Directly in front of the cell was a long walkway with what looked like walk-through metal detectors at the far end. Beyond those I could make out a much longer walkway between even more cells. To the right of our cell, against the nearest row of portables was a long line of metal shelving units filled with property bags. From what I could hear, and later see through cracks in the metal sheeting covering our cage, there were other cages directly to our right and behind.

No one talked much at first, except for two guys who were joking around with each other and occasionally calling out to the officers that walked by. I think someone asked for the time then, because I remember noting that it was 4:30am and being surprised that so much time had past since being arrested (which was at 1-2am) and from when we were initially detained by the police lines (around 10:30pm).

It's really going to be tough to give a play-by-play for the next 16.5 hours: mostly because it was all very similar -- there was nothing really to reckon the time passing. I spent most of the first while just standing, but my feet were already sore from all the walking I had done that day (I started my shift with the CCLA at 11am on Saturday) so I'd sit on the ground for a while to rest, and then stand up again. I couldn't really stretch out or sleep, except by sitting cross legged and leaning over until my body wouldn't fold anymore and then falling asleep that way. I don't think I slept more than 20 minutes in total.

The conversation in our cell was pretty tame. At the beginning we mostly just gave one other looks of sympathy or frustration. Later on we talk briefly, complaining about the pain of the restraints, or to tell our story about why were at the Novotel, and so on. For a good long while (maybe two hours?) one of the fellows, who was a philosophy and physics major, spoke to a few of the other guys about physics and metaphysics and politics. It was a pretty heady discussion and I was grateful for the diversion. Overall though, were a pretty quiet bunch, especially compared to what we heard from the other cells.

Screaming, and cage rattling, mostly. I heard screams from a cell beside and behind us throughout the morning and afternoon that there were 40 people in their cell. If true, it's hard to imagine since with 24 we were already unable to each have enough space to all sit against the wall. People would scream to be let out, or to see their lawyer. I could hear people kick the cage, which would rattle, especially against the sheet metal used to block the view to other cells. A real racket. Often one cell would start kicking and rattling their cage and then I'd hear others start doing the same until it seemed like everyone was doing it and the roar was unbelievable. Except for our cell, of course. Anyhow, this sort of thing would happen often throughout the morning and the rest of the day.

Around us, through the hallways we could see officers coming and going. Coming out of the portables with people (prisoners?) and bringing them to a line forming in front of the metal detectors at the end of the walkway, or going to the portables with people. There were always officers at the property bags on the metal racks in front of our cell, but I couldn't figure out what they were doing. Often I'd watch an officer poke around through the bags on one shelf, move to the next, and then the next, grab a bag and move it to another shelf, and keep poking around. Sometimes they would leave with a bag and other times without. Sometimes they would simply move bags around from shelf to shelf that I had just seen another officer move. It was maddening to watch. Every few minutes an officer holding a sheet of paper would come up to our cell and ask for someone inside, e.g. "Is John Doe 50245 here? John Doe?" Often the names were hard to pronounce so we ended up just asking the officers to read only the numbers to us (it was quicker that way too). If they didn't find who the were looking for in our cell (and they rarely did) I'd watch and hear them move to the next cell and ask the same question. Several times the same or different officer would come back, sometimes after an hour or so, asking for the same person! I overheard two officers talking: "Do you know where Jane Smith 15412 is?" "No, she could be anywhere. Check the overflow area."

A few folks from our cell were removed by about mid morning.. I think we were down then to 17 or 18 guys. I don't think a single one of us left until later in the evening even though officers kept coming to our cell asking if so-and-so was present. This would be frustrating on its own, but was made worse by the fact that every few hours an officer would come up to our cell and thank us for being so calm and tell us that because of that we would be released soon. Eventually folks in the cell, myself included, started to get upset that we seemed to be being ignored or lied to. I believe it was just incompetence and disorganization for the most part.

Guys in our cage would often call out to officers as they walked by and ask them for water, or for the time, or for an explanation of what was happening and when we'd be leaving. Most would give us the time, few would say anything. Occasionally an officer would come over and talk to us, and seem genuinely sympathetic. One time an officer came over and a few guys in the group started to yell at her about having asked for water but not receiving it. She explained patiently that she didn't know anything about that, and that she didn't have to talk to us but was doing it because she wanted to. She stood with us and answered every question we had, but what was frustrating to me was that most of her answers were: "I don't know" or "I know just as much as you do". She didn't know what the system was for "processing" people, she didn't know how long we'd be, she didn't know when we'd get water or food, etc... She seemed genuinely apologetic and sympathetic. A few other officers did the same, but the sympathetic officers seemed to be the exception. Most either ignored us, or laughed at us as they walked by.

Food and water. Much has been written about it. We got a sandwich and a drink about every six hours as far as I could tell - so I received about four "feedings" (as one officer referred to them as). We were given a styrofoam cup full of water and at one feeding a cup of Tang (which we couldn't exchange for water "because we needed the sugar"). The sandwich was a hamburger bun with processed soy cheese (the officers made a point of explaining that) and margarine wrapped in plastic. None of it was good or satisfying at all, but I didn't ever feel hungry or thirsty for very long either (but I also have a very poor awareness of hunger and thirst). Others in the cell were obviously thirsty and called out for water in between feedings but didn't get any. The cell got pretty trashy as the day went on because there was no where to put the garbage.

I'm not sure what else to relate. I have lots of little stories I could share about the time in the cell: the fellow in my cell who spent five hours calling out to officers to have his restraints loosened before anyone got around to it; how we took to spelling out phrases for officers to read by stuffing our cups in the mesh of the cage ("Let us out now", and "why?"); how in the afternoon we collected all of the trash and pushed it out under the cage door into the walkway in a symbol of protest and frustration; how i learned that if you bend the surplus end of the plastic cuffs 76 times it snaps off; how we asked why we had restraints on whilst being locked in a cell, to which the officer replied smugly, "Because you are arrested"; and so on. Mostly, the day just past really really slowly.

The last time an officer came to our cell to tell we'd be out soon, around 6pm, he asked if we were all arrested because of breach of the peace. We actually hadn't been told why, but we assumed so and said yes. He explained that because of this, instead of having to see a staff sargent like everyone else an officer would come to our cell and walk us out, soon, just as soon as they found our papers. I was let out around 9pm.

An officer came to the cell, and walked me down the walkway past the line of people waiting at the metal detectors, past all of the cells in the long walkway beyond (most of the cells were smaller and had one or two people in them) to a room with another cell. My handcuffs were cut off, and I waited there for about 10 minutes. An officer said to us, "I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that you are not getting charged. The bad news is that it is pissing rain outside." He then explained that if we were arrested at any further Toronto G20 protest we would be charged with obstruction of the police. As well, he pointed out that all of this was being filmed and that it could be used against us in court. One by one we were released. I was taken out of the cell, my picture was taken again, and then I was handed my property bag and walked outdoors to a turnstile at the end of a driveway and released.

Across the street some intrepid and lovely folks had set up a tarp and were cheering to each person released. I was really grateful for that. I pulled on my rain gear under the tarp, and soon after walked away to catch a bus up to the subway to head home. I wish now I'd stayed a bit and thanked everyone who was there, but I wasn't really thinking so well by then: I believe by the time I had made all the calls to my family that night I'd been pretty much awake for 40 hours.