We (my wife and I) went down to the planned protests at Queen’s Park. It was moving to witness all the different concerns/causes/stories/sufferings people brought into this public space. There were trade unions like CAW and CUPE. There were people protesting political oppression—speaking for Viet Nam, Tibet, Turkey, Gaza, Iraq, etc. People like Craig Kielberger speaking for children’s rights. (My grandmother would say: he’s such a nice boy.) Maternal rights. Communists. Anti-capitalists (not necessarily the same thing). Greenpeace.
From Queen’s Park, people—thousands and thousands of people—marched south to Queen Street. Along the way, Tamiko and I stopped in at the Timmy’s beside 52 Division for something hot to drink. There was a line for the bathroom. Two cops entered and went to the front of the line and made everybody else wait. They went together! I guess they’re not allowed to pee alone.
From 52 Division, we went south along University Ave. past the American Consulate which was heavily guarded. But nothing was happening and the guards were bored, so they were mugging for the cameras. We turned left at Queen Street, but at Bay St. it was my turn to answer nature’s call, so I ducked into another Timmy’s. When I was done, my wife motioned me to hurry up and get the hell out. A crowd was swarming east from York Street, lots of cameras at the front, people dressed in black behind. They were carrying red “No One is Illegal” signs. They turned south down Bay Street, smashing windows, and lighting something on fire. If I didn’t have to pee, think of all I would have missed.
Rather than following them, we went up Yonge Street, then ducked into the Eaton Centre, thinking we’d make our way north to the Dundas Subway station. By the time we got there, Security personnel had locked down the Eaton Centre, so we grabbed a bite to eat, calmed ourselves, then exited onto Dundas Street. Heading north up Yonge Street, we saw that the Black Bloc protesters had already made their way up Yonge Street, smashing the windows of American Apparel, Swiss Chalet, a jewelry store, the Zanzibar strip club. We could see the mob further north. When we passed de Boer’s and its broken windows (I wonder if they thought it was de Beers instead of a furniture store?), people started running south towards us, so we ran along the alley on the south side of de Boer’s and behind College Park. From there, we walked north on Bay Street past Bloor St. because we had heard that subways weren’t running south of Bloor Street. After a much need detour to the LCBO, we hopped the subway at Summerhill and got out of there.
