The Protest Anthem by 4D is a hip hop tribute to the act of taking back the streets. It is a response to the events outside the G20 summit in Toronto, where a police state emerged to resist and repress, and attempted to withhold that which belongs to the people. Footage by Eye Witness.
Video posted on YouTube by MISSISSAUGAWATCH
WATER: THE GREAT TEACHER OF PEACE DURING THE G8
by Kate Heming
My name is Kate Heming. I am a writer, event organizer and first-time filmmaker from Huntsville, Ontario. For over twelve months, I’ve been directly involved in the coming of age story that is Huntsville, working under the vision of long-time resident and director Brenda Darling.
This film has been a labour of love. Unsuccessful in our attempts to secure funding, we were fortunate to have many friends from whom we’ve begged, borrowed (and stopped just short of stealing) cameras for the past year. With over 100 hours of footage, our project – tentatively titled Hello World, This is Huntsville – tells the experience of the G8 coming to a small town of 18,500 in Northern Ontario through the eyes of the local residents.
“We have filmed dozens of ‘locals’, both high profile and reclusive, who will tell our collective story of the year of the G8,” explains Darling. “They are students, politicians, construction workers, merchants, business owners, social assistance recipients, campaigners, spiritual leaders and several special non-residents such as David Suzuki, Ella Kokotsis (U of T G8/20 Research Group), Maude Barlow, Tony Clement and the military.”
Fear was a prevalent emotion expressed by local residents as the G8 Summit approached. Fear of violence, fear of protestors, fear of damage to property, fear of the police: fear of the unexpected. There was awe and amazement as the bull-dozers crashed through the forests, paving over fields to make room for military tents as infrastructure spending flooded the streets: Huntsville was getting a first-world make-over, whether we wanted it or not. We filmed it all.
I grew up here, went to high school here – I had never been to a major protest and did not know what to expect from the thousands of protestors we were told would descend upon our downtown. Honestly, there’s only one major street. The whole thing seemed impossible. At some point, a wall seemed to go up in people’s minds, surrounding their hearts: we were sufficiently scared and told to stay home. Residents in this town weren’t going to rock the boat. Apathy settled comfortably over fear, and the town of Huntsville got very, very quiet.
Yet, an underground movement had begun. “Two years ago, 2008, we began to call the community together in response to the news of the G8 coming to Huntsville,” explains Jessica Reaske, Elder of the Huntsville Dare’ Community. “In April of 2009, Diane Longboat of Grand River Territory came to hold ceremony with us in preparation for this, and identified the water underneath our meeting place at Shifting Earth Gallery in Emsdale, Ontario as having healing properties. Last summer we held concentrated Dream Councils with some of the more forthcoming of our Dare’ members to ask what our role with the coming G8 was to be. The spirits spoke strongly through the core community dreams – our focus was to be healing and water.”
Four women Elders – Laura Heming, Sally Ferguson, Jessica Reaske and Evelyn Wolff – committed to meeting weekly for prayer and guidance until the time of the G8. I often met with them then, filming and dreaming. “Kate’s presence was always with us,” says Jessica, a key character in the film. “And her other activities fed our common purpose. We are seeking to understand the water spirits, asking to be shown what is wanted, how we can be and send healing into our own hearts and minds such that healing will come into the hearts and minds of everyone, in order to remember our original relationship to life.”
I began to have dreams of a Water Festival. A celebration of water, an education outreach tool that would utilize the media platform provided to us by the coming G8 to bring awareness of the world water crisis, while at the same time impact our local community directly, and inspire them to become better stewards of the water we live with and near.
Guided by the education I’d received working on the film “Water On The Table” by Liz Marshall (www.wateronthetable.com), the core issue quickly became the fight to make water a human right. Generously, Liz agreed to screen her film in Huntsville on the eve of the G8. The Dare’ community decided that a Water Ceremony was the correct medium of expression. I went to the town and secured park permits for the week of the G8. Huntsville Water Fest was born.
Under the observant eye of our cameras, Huntsville Water Fest took place on Sunday, June 20th, the first day on the week of the G8. It included a water ceremony, water song, a choreographed flashmob called the Huntsville G8 Dance for Water, and merchant booths selling sustainable products. There was a specific intention to create a positive environment for the G8 leaders. Whether their meeting was productive or not wasn’t the concern – for the residents of Huntsville: the focus was to create a peaceful environment for protestors to be heard, police to protect and serve, and the world leaders to do their business and be done. It was an effort to learn from water and manifest peace.
News began to filter in from the city. “Toronto hosts thousands of protestors for the G20. Chief of Police Bill Blair, claiming intentions to facilitate lawful, peaceful protest, institutes controversial Public Works Protection Act.” Under the breath comments were muttered, “Well, at least we’re not hosting the G20…”
The G8 began on Thursday, June 24th. Our cameras documented streets and surrounding forests filled with thousands of OPP, military, dozens of media…and no one else. No protestors. Beautiful weather and soft active citizens, rushing around getting ready our grassroots music festival Girl 8, featuring local artists and organized by Ruth Cassie as a part of the Huntsville Water Fest. The cops, not having anything else to do and generally relaxed after days of manning the quiet streets, expressed their excitement to attend. “Hey Kate!” (By now they knew me by name, as I’d been running up and down the one and only street a million times setting up tables and banners about water and attempting to catch any and all action with my camera.) “We’re so excited about Girl 8!” They said, “We can’t wait to attend. Whoa – you need any help?”
That evening, the doc, “Water On The Table”, screened from 6-8pm. It shook apathy from our fingertips; it moved us to action. A desire to stand up on behalf of water hummed in the theatre itself.
The next morning at 8AM, 2 dozen people gathered in the main park with homemade placards that read “Canada! Designate Water a Human Right!” Head of G8 Security Calum Rankin went out of his way to stop traffic, facilitating our last-minute protest with a cop car entourage, helping us every step of the way. We marched down the main street in Huntsville, chanting “WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A COMMODITY”, circling the downtown core and returning to pause by the river. Our camera was not alone in documenting the voice of the local residents. The media, thirsty for any story – especially of protest, – surrounded us. “Who are you?” They asked. “The community of Huntsville!” we replied. This seemed an insufficient answer. We weren’t angry enough, organized enough. It was too organic, too peaceful. But that was who we were: water. Peaceful resisters. We made international news and the issue was at the forefront of the story – it was the biggest G8 story that day.
The next day Brenda and I departed for Toronto, following the protests of the G20 through the eyes of local 19 year old activist Jesse Cole. This was his first major protest experience, and the stark contrast between the G8 and the G20 was over-whelming. It seemed we’d left a utopia of discussion and peace and entered into a dense energy of violence and abuse of power. Helpful, friendly police were nowhere to be found – instead we were threatened by guns with rubber bullets, stopped and searched repeatedly, corralled with other peaceful protestors and detained at Queen and Spadina in the rain for hours.
As the sky burst and torrential rainfall pummelled down, a fellow detainee noticed my Huntsville “WATER” Fest button. Grinning she said, “Well, you got what you asked for.” “What?” I asked, totally over-whelmed and distracted by my fear of being arrested. “Water – if you asked for water, you got it. Be careful what you wish for!” I laughed and nodded. “You know, it’s funny,” she continued. “The rain has washed all my anger away. I was so angry, but now, I’m just ready to go home.”
Water: the great teacher.
“I believe that water could become nature’s gift to us, to teach us how to live in peace with one another, and in harmony with the Earth, if we only have the wisdom to listen.”
- Maude Barlow, Chairperson Council of Canadians, from the film Water On The Table.
Huntsville experienced that truth.
With a kiss-in, a sketch called “Queer Billionaires for the G20″ and a song and dance number centered around the sexy Mr. Harper, The Creative Queer Resistance brought much needed lovin’ to the streets of Toronto. This fierce and creative action was part of the activities for the themed day of resistance for gender justice, queer rights and disability rights. Starting from the week leading up the summit, each day was assigned a theme around which the protests were organized. Other themed days include: Environment and Climate Justice, Indigenous Sovereignty, Migrant Justice, End to War and Occupation; Income Equity and Community Control Over Resources.
Video by torontogenderjustice
The Art of Oppression and surveillance, as seen in video at:
http://artthreat.net/2010/06/the-g20-summerblockbuster/
That the hundreds (at last count 900+) of G20 protesters (and random civilians) held in pens at a detention centre in Toronto also happen to be extras in a former movie studio should come as no surprise to those who took part in this summer’s biggest blockbuster hit. This production note is but one piece of a larger spectacle of fascism recently carried out in the streets of Toronto.
While tens of thousands of us peacefully marched and did so as representatives of every strata of diverse Canadian society, we witnessed the most cynical, unprovoked and violent police and state actions rarely—if ever—seen at such scale in this country. Walking down one of the main Toronto arteries yesterday as the march got under way, I was horrified to see an elderly man beaten by six riot police. Several friends—mostly organizers of civil society groups and independent mediamakers—have been arrested and many have been beaten and have had their personal belongings searched, including cell phones (still others had all their pictures and video deleted or destroyed). In the detention centre, reports are emerging of sexual harassment and the segregation of queer activists and countless abuses of the Geneva Convention.
Standing on College street watching a procession of dozens of dark-tinted vans go by full with riot police, we watched as a man walked toward us calmly and was violently seized and dragged away by ten riot police, a scene reminiscent of so many Hollywood horror films.
Waiting yesterday for our buses to leave for Montreal—far outside the downtown melee—we were photographed by undercover police and police accomplices (see photo below and video in this post). Indy media centres where our friends have been tirelessly covering the protests have been raided, other spaces where activists merely found shelter were violently raided too, between 2AM and 4AM. We have dozens of friends—none of who participated in any form of violence—who are incarcerated or missing.
This spectacle of civil-society-gone-wrong is a fine-tuned production that credits the city of Toronto, the provincial and federal governments, the police and corporate and national media who have eagerly worked together to serve up the Canadian public with a narrative that is so far from reality it is indeed a fine work of fiction.
The lasting picture, the dominant and enduring index of what was overwhelmingly a peaceful demonstration against the illegitimate, unaccountable and non-transparent elite G20 group, is that of marauders, a city in chaos and dissent as articulated in acts of mindless violence. And this mainstream hit costs a bundle.
Discrediting Dissent with tax dollars
The 1.5 billion dollar summer blockbuster has been paid for by taxpayers and has the best channels of distribution – ensuring no Canadian set of eyeballs or ears is left unaffected by the dramatic tale of wanton destruction, devoid as it is of political will.
t is no surprise then, to hear that the police cars that were set afire were left on purpose by the police themselves, to eke out some real action from protesters. After all, every dramatic narrative needs a dramatic image to provide a theatrical arc in the storyline. The burning police cars are indeed burned into the Canadian psyche – a powerful and enduring signifier of lawlessness and terror.
Yesterday, we happened upon a gentleman sitting in a bar feverishly finessing some stills from the G20 Blockbuster. He told us he was a photographer for the right-wing and pro-business (and pro-G20) Canadian newspaper the National Post. As I looked over his shoulder and complimented him on his skillful rendering of the burning police car, I asked if he intended to report on the other 99% of the day’s demonstrations – the ones that included grandmothers, lawyers, doctors, organized labour, women’s rights groups, Human Rights advocates, First Nations’ groups, artists, teachers, and more. “Maybe,” he replied, “but this is a powerful image.”
The vilification and de-legitimizing of activists in this country has reached a crescendo at the G20 protests and the state has scored big in its production of power and oppression. With an army of actors (some 20,000 well-paid police and even more secret agents), tens of thousands of extras in the role of peaceful demonstrators, a starring cast of black-clad “anarchists,” along with explosions, fires, helicopters, mountain bikes, rubber bullets, tear gas and other real props, the fascist production, “G20 Protest Turns Ugly,” has been a spectacle of unparallelled artistry, technology and careful orchestration.
But for those looking for the non-fiction version of this blockbuster, you need to turn off the despicable CBC coverage [note: it did get better since posting this] and other mainstream media and look for the under-funded indy versions of this tale – the ones that do not enjoy the massive distribution the Hollywood-style production enjoys, but serve up something much more real, much more diverse, and much more interested in revealing the machinations of oppression.
By Ezra Winton
Art Threat: Culture & Politics
To see this in its original home: http://artthreat.net/2010/06/the-g20-summerblockbuster/
(Link to http://railroadedbymetrolinx.blogspot.com/2010/07/g20-toronto-song-of-peace-and.html to read the article on the blog.)
“You will not recognize Canada when I get through with it.”
- Prime Minister Harper
This is one of the few things PM Harper has said which I hold to be true. Over the past three weeks, I marched on eight demonstrations, until Sunday, when I collapsed from heat exhaustion. I no longer recognize Toronto, or Canada, because of PM Harper’s actions, and for the last two days, I have been disoriented as if I have been caught in a tornado, and landed head first and upside down in a city which I do not comprehend. This new city is a militarized state which can suspend civil liberties to impose a summit, with a history of violence, to enable a group of self-selected economic leaders to streamline economic revenues into the hands of the corporate elite, and exclude the rights of civil society to share in this profit. I was so politically naive, I had not even heard of the Black Bloc until days into the People’s Summit workshops.
I marched for hours beside youth who had degrees in International Studies, organic farmers, grandmothers, trade unionists, First Nations leaders, and media activists. I had involved conversations about the International Monetary Fund, food security, child poverty, privatization of public assets and natural resources, and the pollution of native lands and waters through mining. We knew why we marched, and in great detail, but later, not why we were arrested for Breach of the Peace. And we watched the cameras watching us, and cameras became the protectors of pacifists, like myself, who wanted to nothing to do with the riot police, but wanted to bear witness to the brutality perpetrated on others, who were often non-confrontational as well. This 6 km, $5.5 million, zinc-bathed steel fence was commissioned by the government from SNC-Lavalin, which is paying $1 for the right of way to run 140 diesel trains daily in the Air Rail Link through west-end Toronto. (This is my nod to what I am supposed to be writing about in this column exclusively, and how everything is interconnected in terms of government contracts in the military-industrial complex.)
Although CSIS had ascertained that there was no terrorist threat for either the G8 or G20 Summits, on June 14th, Premier McGuinty secretly revived and passed a war bill from 1939, the Public Works Protection Act, to enable Chief Bill Blair to draw an invisible 5 meter line to mark an area outside this 3 meter high fence. This fence protecting the red zone of the G20 Summit became a net to catch protesters, who passed within this outlawed area, and police were able to invoke the Public Works Protection Act during their arrest. It was only after the G20 that the public was made aware that only protesters who were behind the fence could be lawfully detained by the police, and this law had no legitimate power, thus was used to suspend civil rights arbitrarily.
The media has completely ignored our stories of non-violent, educated resistance, and this possibility for equitable coverage was superseded by the Black Bloc burning police cars, and smashing store windows, with still less damage than the hockey riots in Montreal in April 2008, after the Montreal Canadiens playoff victory over the Boston Bruins. With the Black Bloc’s direct actions, they took away our rights to be heard, and as a media activist and pacifist, I believe the citizen who sang the G20 Song for Peace has infinitely more value than the erasing of our social message by hammers, combat boots, and tossed lighters.
This elderly gentleman represents to me what I love about Toronto – he had the courage to sing his own peace song, alone, with a bullhorn, with his revised lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’, because he fought for our rights in the Second World War, and was saddened to see our rights taken away by the state, police chief Bill Blair, and Premier McGuinty. At the top of this chain of command is PM Harper, who decided to hold the G20 Summit in the center of Toronto, despite the formal request by Mayor Miller to hold the Summit in the walled Canadian National Exhibition Stadium. This courageous singer can show his face, and walk alone to represent civil society’s unrepresented majority, whereas the Black Bloc chooses to remain anonymous, and run in a pack.
I believe in ingenious protest, and the creation of visual metaphors to engage the media to compete for the small amount of air time allocated to the opposing discourse, as the amalgamated, corporate controlled media has swung far more right than the average Canadian citizen. All the mainstream news media – radio, print and TV – completely ignored the Shout out for Global Justice held by the Council of Canadians, and the People’s Summit forum held at Ryerson, and other social forums held over the month leading up to the Summits. The CRTC should be notified that this complete lack of coverage on social justice policy was inequitable- they allowed the Black Bloc to dominate the media, as much as the police did by allowing the police cars to burn for 1.5 hours for the international photo op. Where were the riot police’s water cannons then? Were they only to silence citizens? Based upon the Miami Model, military tactics learned from oppressive regimes, police brutality and kettling were used to corral protesters during a non-violent event that was promised to be in a Free Speech Zone, located in front of our provincial legislative buildings in Queen’s Park. The irony of it all.
During the past two weeks, I have analyzed the mainstream media deficit regarding alternative social policy forums, and could not turn my eyes away in horror. During the union march on Saturday, I marched with two vibrant young women, and sang the Star Wars battle theme as we passed the police, who were outfitted in full Darth Vader riot regalia. We saw the visor of the leader of the squad tremble, and realized that he was giggling at our shaky, out of tune rendition.
An hour later, the Black Bloc rampaged, a small percentage of vandals who have criminalized the term ‘protesters’ for a new generation of educated, engaged citizens, and hijacked our rights to be heard by the mainstream media. The Black Bloc played right into the hands of PM Harper, and helped him justify the $1.5 billion cost for security, spoiling the event for the rest of us. During the Saturday play by play on CityTV, police Chief Blair felt it necessary to hold Sid Ryan, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, accountable for encouraging families to bring their children to Saturday’s union march, as if Sid Ryan could control the Black Bloc. This was a passing of the buck for police responsibility, and a deliberate undercutting of the labour movement by Chief Blair, I think.
As a civil society response to this suspension of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and arresting of 1079 protesters during the G20 Summit, six of us have built a repository of citizen media, The Real G8/G20, to privilege our different perspectives, and focus on the Bolivian call to arms from Cochabamba for the rights of Mother Earth. This online forum is designed to enable the ongoing transformational, social policy making and activism that arose during the Summits, but was sidetracked by violence, and the media preference for sensationalism. For all of those who had the courage to protest peacefully, and want to add to the discourse of social, environmental, trade, and water justice to add Toronto’s official voice to the People’s Agreement of Cochabamba, I salute you with my metal water bottle.
As one of my fellow protesters said to me on Saturday, “We are the people who will not look away”. These are the people I valorize by writing this column, and by volunteering to organize this online forum. I encourage you to submit material to the The Real G8/G20, and add to a movement which sets its own social policy and media representation beyond a police state, and militarized civil society. As Dr. Vandana Shiva said, as she threw her sari over her shoulder as she walked off the stage at the Shout Out for Social Justice, “This too shall pass”. We must make it go away together.
Highly Recommended References:
G20 Toronto Song of Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSAdg3LEiGk (A special thank you for the citizen who sang this, and the person who posted this video.)
People’s Summit, link at http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/3671
Mary Ormsby, ‘Fortress Toronto: Secrets of the fence’, link at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/825908–fortress-toronto-secrets-of-the-fence
Public Works Protection Act, link to http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2010/elaws_src_regs_r10233_e.htm
Linda McQuaig, ‘Police, bankers exempt from austerity’, link at http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/829902–mcquaig-police-bankers-exempt-from-austerity
CRTC Complaint and Inquiry Form, link at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/rapidsccm/register.asp?lang=e
Catherine Porter, ‘When police stick to phony script’, link at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/828876–porter-when-police-stick-to-phony-script
Star Wars battle theme, link at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aet9wYHaufk&feature=fvst
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, link at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I
People’s Agreement of Cochabamba, link at http://pwccc.wordpress.com/support/
The Real G8/G20 Submit Content, link at http://therealg8g20.com/
Dr. Vandana Shiva at the ‘Shout Out for Global Justice’, link at http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/06/features/watch-shout-out-global-justice
I attended the peaceful protest march in response to the G20 on June 26, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario and continued with the peaceful protest into the night. The movement was huge, powerful and filled with amazing energy. The messages were strong and creatively expressed through signs, music, dance, poetry and pure solidarity. However, I was saddened by the media’s shallowness of coverage and obsessive focus on the acts of vandalism by a small group to the complete exclusion of the peaceful majority who carried a strong and extremely important message to the world, so I decided to share another perspective with the footage and images that I captured during the weekend. I purposely left out the broken windows and damaged police cars that I encountered along the way because they do not represent anything that the majority were protesting or experiencing. There was a horrible disservice committed against democracy during the weekend by the mainstream media, by oversized and overreaching security presence, and by the unjustifiable fear that was instilled in the minds of the public by the government. These courageous protesters should be applauded for being actively engaged in their democracy and seeking justice for the marginalized. They are the ones who are truly looking out for us, for our children and for future generations.
By Michael Napiorkowski
Oxfam activists dress up as Big Head G8 politicians on the dock in Huntsville, where the G8 took place on June 25th 2010. They demand that the G8 countries re-confirm and follow through on their commitment to improving food security and function in a more transparent manner.
OXFAM PROTEST: The activist organization staged another theatrical protest in Huntsville Friday at Blackburn Landing. Below, a group of Huntsville residents staged a peaceful march demanding that water be seen as a human right, not a commodity.
Activists with the International Confederation of OXFAM staged another theatrical G8 protest on Blackburn’s Landing outside the Cottage Waterfront Grill in Huntsville on Friday. OXFAM’s G8 ‘Big Head’s’ illustrated the choice the organization feels G8 leaders face: turning one way requires investing in the future now – turning the other way condemns a billion of the world’s poorest people to chronic hunger. Their stunt was disrupted by a peaceful march of protesters – a group of Huntsville residents who said water is a human right, not a commodity. The two events were the only protests happening in downtown Huntsville so far today. Humorously, four young people from Ottawa protested the protesters, with chants like “water is free – turn on the tap”. They were warned by police for being too loud.
COUNCIL OF CANADIANS PROTEST: Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow led a canoe flotilla on Fairy Lake today in an attempt to take our ’scrap the summits’ message to G8 delegates in Huntsville.
The canoe flotilla was buzzed by a military helicopter and closely monitored by Ontario Provincial Police boats.
As the canoe flotilla approached restricted waters near the Deerhurst Resort where the G8 leaders are staying, it was stopped by officers in an OPP boat and we were told we couldn’t proceed any further.
With G8 representatives not willing to meet with us, and a multitude of media watching, the police agreed to take our ’scrap the summits’ message to the resort.
The Toronto Star reports that, “‘We tried to deliver a ‘Scrap the summits’ message to the G8 leaders. We believe the G8 is an undemocratic, illegitimate body and that it is much better to have a meeting like this at the United Nations,’ Brent Patterson of the Council of Canadians told the bobbing reporters. Patterson said since the G8 is sealed up like a drum and protected by thousands of police and soldiers, the water route seemed a good way to make their statement. ‘The point of today’s exercise was to try to tell a much broader audience that a club of eight of the richest countries in the world should not be making decisions that impact the whole world. So that’s our concern and that’s the message we wanted to deliver,’ he said.”
“Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, waited until she was on dry land to give reporters a piece of her mind. ‘We wanted to state through this action our concern around the use of a fake lake (at the G20 media centre in Toronto) when we have this gorgeous lake, but being used in a very terrible way with an unnecessary amount of security, which is just outrageous when you think of what that money could be used for,’ she said.”
The Toronto Star report, ‘Four canoes, 12 protesters and plenty of polite cops equal classic Canadian showdown’, is at http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/827968–four-canoes-12-protesters-and-plenty-of-polite-cops-equal-classic-canadian-showdown?bn=1.
OTHER HUNTSVILLE MEDIA LINKS
http://www.moosefm.com/cfbg/news/1357-oxfam-and-water-protests-happen-in-huntsville
http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/24/huntsville-canoe-protest-delivers-anti-g8-message/
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/g20/2010/06/25/14520801.html