What's a G20?

Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/10088890@N07/4737235967 via Flickr

In 1989 I was living in Notre Dame de Grace, Montreal.



One day I witnessed a rather violent police take down.  It happened right outside my first floor apartment.



It looked like the kind of thing you see on TV police dramas, but it felt very different.



The police came out of nowhere and ran faster than I knew that anyone could run.

I could smell their fear.



Neither I nor any of my neighbours went outside until it was over.

The police had a dangerous job to do and in the interest of the safely of the whole community no one would have expected them to consider the rights of any curiosity seekers who wanted to watch and/or make comments.



I guess that is the way I've been feeling about events that transpired at the Toronto G20.



The police had a job to do and in the interest of the safety of the world leaders and the whole city I wouldn't have expected them to worry about the rights of the people who either went back downtown out of curiosity or never left after the organized protests ended.



But losing your right to be somewhere during a critical situation is one thing, being beaten, arrested, imprisoned,  etc. for your foolishness is another.



I am changing my mind about the need a full scale inquiry.



There are just too many unanswered questions.

Too many pictures that defy explanation.



The saddest thing was the report of an elderly, frightened homeless man who got caught in the crowd and found himself arrested and detained.



"What's a G20?" he asked in bewilderment.



My question exactly.


Let's get to the bottom of it.

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Inquiry urged into police conduct during G20 protests (calgaryherald.com)
• Inquiry urged into police conduct during G20 (canada.com)
• Report demands full inquiry into G20 'rights violations' (ctv.ca)

It Just Isn't Canadian

Image by nosha via Flickr

A Canadian has always been a person who agreed with the opinion of the last person with whom she or he spoke. That gave rise to our well-deserved reputation as being a particularly polite group of people. Everybody liked us. If we had personal opinions, we kept them to ourselves until the rest of the world went home.

That isn't to say there weren't Canadians with opinions. That's why God gave us Rick Mercer and Christie Blatchford, after all.

The problem is, thanks to easy access to facebook, twitter and blogger, every single Canadian  has an opinion on everything now. Which might be okay except we don't agree on anything and nobody knows how to compromise because most of us have never had opinions before.

Take the outpouring of vitriolic comments about the G20 fiasco in Toronto. Like a dog with a bone, we just keep shaking it. But we aren't getting anywhere. Nothing new is being said. Not one mind is being changed. It just goes on and on.

I tell you, this business of having opinions, well, it just isn't Canadian.

I think we should quit talking about it, let the civilian-led police inquiry happen and then see where we are.

That's my opinion.

Not that I expect anyone to agree.