Thank goodness for technology. Earlier today, I found out that a solidarity rally was being held at the police station in Ottawa in support of those who were detained and treated poorly by police officers at the G2o protest in Toronto this past weekend. Having recently expressed my opinion on the subject, I thought I’d head out to the rally and try to find people who were in Toronto during the G20 protests and who might be able to share their opinions and accounts of what they saw and heard while they were there. I found Dan Murphy on Facebook and he agreed to tell me about his experiences during the protest.
I’ll be posting more videos, including other eyewitness accounts, as well as a series of photos over the next few days.
You can sign up to the right for email updates or follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/julie_laurin.
Overall, the rally was a good experience. I wasn’t there to judge or form opinions – I just wanted to document. If you were not at the rally but would like to share your experiences or thoughts about what occurred in Toronto, please feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to record an interview with you.
I guess my only wish is that I could get an interview with a police officer who was there, too. It would be so interesting to learn about what it must be like to carry out orders that you may or may not agree with and what kind of pressure they’re under to follow directives from those who plan things at the higher levels of enforcement.
Just a few photos of tonight’s event… more to come soon!
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8 Comments
Great photo of Lara!
Thanks, there are more!
Subtitles needed!!!!!
Think of the deaf and hard of hearing. I cant send this to my community it is not accessible for us! Thank you!
Hi Genevieve, you’re right, I can make my videos more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. I’ll add subtitles to this video and other videos of the rally. However, I’m on a tight schedule over the next few days so it won’t be posted until sometime next week (unless you know of someone who can volunteer to transcribe the text for me and then all I have to do is hard code the subtitles and re-encode the video)… and then I can repost it sooner on youtube.
Let me know if you want to be notified directly when the more accessible version of the video is posted.
If someone does want to volunteer some time and write up a transcript of my current video, please let me know. In return, I will automatically enter you into my next draw for the book of the month giveaway (hint: it’s going to be a play by Tennessee Williams).
Thanks for posting all of this on your blog Julie, keep it coming. Here are a few more links you may find interesting:
http://news.aol.ca/ca/article/in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time-held-hostage-at-g20-protes/19533757
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZbgz3eo4YI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohGLp00MmU
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=137083386317190#!
My brother who lives right near Queen and Spadina had gone out to check on his close friend’s store front window to make sure it had survived the vandalism. On the way home he got caught up in the kettle blocade and was detained for 5 hours in the pouring rain, two of which he was in plastic handcuffs. He wasn’t charged with anything. It is a sad day when you can’t even leave your home without being illegaly detained by the police, nor can you exercise your right to engage in peaceful protests.
Thanks for posting these links Natalie. I keep hearing stories from people who weren’t even involved in the protests and who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and got detained, assaulted, hit with pepper spray or police batons. If he wants to tell me his story, I’d be happy to write up a little something about what happened to him.
Hey Julie,
I’m a friend of Dans (well technically he’s my younger brothers friend) and I ran into him this weekend as well, I went to the protests all weekend to document it just like you but I wasn’t accredited media which means I didn’t get to walk out of touch situations if I wanted to.
I can’t believe the way that police acted on Sunday when 2 friends and myself were caught up in the Queen and Spadina mess for hours on end. People involved are traumatized. I’ve never been political, I’ve only ever been a filmmaker but I’ve never been so furious in my life. If you’re interested I’d love to talk further about it I’ve got a lot of information about this weekend and it’s nice to see someone that wasn’t there that still cares about it. Like I said I’ve never been a protester but I’m going to start, my one regret was not filming more, not filming closer, my regrets are running when they started shooting tear gas at us, or charging us with horses. Next time I’ll be prepared to get the shots that make your stomach turn but for now I have to admire those that did it so well this weekend. For me this video is the epitome of Sunday at queen and spadina, it perfectly replicated the feeling I experienced that day and I hope that it does the same for anyone that is watching it with an outside perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohGLp00MmU&feature=related
Michelle, thank you so much for sharing that video with me. I’ll repost it in my next article and I’ve shared it on Facebook. I am completely stunned. Like you, I’ve never been a protester. I hadn’t even been interested in the G20 coverage until details, articles and videos made an appearance online and I learned of the atrocities being committed by the police. This particular video however is one of the worst I’ve seen so far. I hope that charges are laid and that everyone who was grabbed and dragged and hit will be compensated for their distress and losses. But most of all, I hope that this never happens again.
I haven’t had the opportunity yet to witness really large demonstrations and I haven’t decided if I would be willing to subject myself to abuse or rough situations in order to document the story. Part of me thinks that on principle, those of us who can document, should. And then the other part of me just wants to survive and not be harmed, naturally. But instances like this make me want to value my civil liberties more than my instinct to protect myself… I guess we’ll only really find out what we can do for the sake of citizen journalism the next time we’re subjected to incidents like this.
Are any of your videos or photos posted online?
Yes, I would love to hear more about what you have to say. I’ve heard that there’s another rally in Ottawa this Sunday at 2:30pm. If you’re game, we could meet during that rally and you can express your thoughts on video. I can also combine some of your footage with your interview if you want to send me some of your edited or raw footage. Feel free to contact me directly as well at blog@julielaurin.com