Monday, June 28, 2010

Fear and mayhem in Toronto






Fear and mayhem in Toronto


So much has happened to my city over the last three days, in this report I am only going to try and give you a quick over view of what I personally saw and experienced and leave the political commentary for later. I’m tired after five days of protest and morally discouraged. As I sit here just after midnight Sunday I almost feel like giving up trying to explain what happened and just give up writing altogether.

Friday June 24 – Allen Gardens

What a difference a day makes! Friday’s protest marked a drastic change in attitude from the police in Toronto. Up to that point the police were telling protesters they only wanted peace and were friendly with protesters, starting with Friday’s OCAP protest the police clearly had a change of heart about being nice guys and started confronting peaceful protesters for no reason.
As I got off the streetcar at Allen Gardens where the protest was to start from, Police were grabbing people entering the park ripping protest signs out of their hands, destroying them, and searching people’s bags whether they consented to being searched or not .

I watched as one police officer played tug of war with a protester over a protest sign while another ripped an umbrella from the hands of a very old lady, handed their booty off to another officer who took them away with the old lady running behind trying to get her brolly back. ( She did not, they stole and destroyed it )

As I started to photograph this scene I had an officer bark orders at me that I was not allowed to stand there and take pictures and to move away, when I ignored his request he ordered this officer to stand in front of me and put up his hands to block my camera. After dogging the officer that was blocking me for a minute or two the sergeant decided to take pictures of me, so I took one back.
 
After this I walked into the park where it was a party atmosphere.
With bands playing festive music and people making speeches the ugliness of police at the entrance to the park was quickly forgotten. There were many disabled people in this crowd listening intently to speeches about how the government is discontinuing the special diet allowance for people on disability and how these people find it impossible to live on what they receive. People also talked about the ten year waiting list for disabled people to get affordable housing.
As expected this was not reported in the media. The buzz in the park was about a secret law that the government pulled out of their butt that nobody had ever heard of, the law which forces a person to produce I.D. on demand and failure to do so meant three months and a $500.00 fine. I was not the only one who thought this smacked of Nazi Germany.
After the speeches the homeless who call the park home and the protesters lined up for a fabulous vegetarian lunch that was filling and very tasty. Well fed and calmed down from the harsh police welcome to the park we were ready to start the march. The crowd of over a thousand people started to make their way up Carlton Street. I joined the march with a group of topless women thinking that was the safe crew to march with. The march was peaceful until we hit yonge St. where the police threw a line across the street trying to stop the march there. The police backed off their line and let the march go on one more block to Bay Street where they held the line and let the march go no further. Except for one incident where police waded into the crowd to arrest one protester and shoot a blast of pepper spray into the crowd for good measure. The protest was very peaceful and there was no good reason for the violence at that time. From where I was it looked like the police attacked for no good reason. For the most part the crowd was very peaceful and the police did not attack again. The next day that was all to change, On Saturday all hell was to break loose in Toronto the good.
 
Saturday June 25 – Queens Park (Ontario Provincial Legislature)
 
Saturday was a hot humid day and it was raining cats and dogs as I got off the subway at Queens Park. Thousands of people standing in the rain in the park, spirits were high in the crowd as those in particular groups formed together ready to fall into place in the march as a group. Many, many different groups with their banners, whole family’s with their children, union groups and native groups with colours
flying. Everybody happy and hopeful, except one small group of about thirty people, all dressed in black, faces covered, huddled in a very tight small group under a tree. The Black Block was here with about 10 to 15 unmasked supporters who ran around blocking and swatting at any camera trying to take a picture of them.
At the time I thought to myself that they were going to start trouble and if the cops wanted to, they could get these guys all at once with little trouble from the union protesters who did not want them in the march anyway. The other protesters stayed away from these guys and there were people openly asking why they did not get scooped up by the heavy police presence.So the march began, at least 30 thousand people with this small group of criminals right smack in the middle of the line. The march was to go down university to Queen St., up Queen to Spadina and back north again to the park.
Everybody knew the trouble would start at the bottom of the U, which was closest to the fence but still blocks away from the 20 meeting. Again why did they not take out the block before the trouble started? As the march made its way down the street the sun came out and people enjoyed the company of many different groups together in one purpose. The police however like the day before, again not being friendly. As the march got to the bottom of the loop and turned north on Queen Street a line of riot police fell in and set up a line behind end of the march, when the end of the march, where I was by this time reached the point where the march turned north again it happened.


There was some kind of device going off putting out a lot of smoke, I don’t know if this was set off by police or if it was fireworks by the free Tibet group but almost if on cue, the black block changed direction and came running back around the corner towards the police line at the rear of the march spooking hundreds of people not knowing which way to run. Was there trouble up ahead? Were the block running from the police or right at them? Nobody knew where to go, we were a couple of hundred people that were left behind from the march and most of the crowd were chasing the BB to find out where they were going. What happened next was hard to believe, the police let the Black Block anarchists go right by or though the police line ( I could not see which ) and boxed in the innocent protesters. The black clad anarchists had run off as a group unmolested by police to run up Yonge Street breaking windows.

It would seem all the police that were on Yonge St. had disappeared to leave the BB to run amok while they boxed in whoever was left behind. After a long time of hanging out trying to figure out what to do next, most people went the way the parade had gone as this was the only way open to leave the area. What happened next was odd as well, an old police cruiser had parked behind the police line, the police moved the line back leaving the old cruiser behind to be torched by the young wanna be’s that were left behind, (mostly kids looking for trouble and news media that seemed to know something was going to happen for their benefit. ) When the car was torched the police just stood back and watched, it seemed to me that the trunk may have been filled with live ammunition of some type.
I took this as a sign to leave the area before I ended up in the police “rat cage” for the rest of the weekend. I had to walk a long way in the wrong direction to try to loop around back to the subway. Along the way I stopped and sat on the steps of a daycare across from the Art Gallery of Ontario and spoke with a pretty young protester named Anna who was an exchange student from L.A. she told me that the day was kind of like the day of the L.A. riots and warned tomorrow may be worse, she was right. By the time I reached the main drag of the city I found the police had closed down the public transit to the downtown core trapping thousands of people with no way out except to walk.I had already been walking all day and
was beat,lots of other people were in the same boat, it would be getting dark soon and was starting to rain again. On the busiest corner in Canada, Yonge and Dundas I met a 9/11 truther named Mike that was giving out literature.


Mike told me that at one point hours earlier, all the cops in the area had piled into the black SUV’s they had been tooling around town in and disappeared, shortly after the Black Block boys who had been in my march had come running up the street and started mayhem on a scale not seen in this city before. As I walked up Canada’s longest street I felt like I was a refugee walking though a war zone. This was a neighborhood I knew well as I had worked here for years as a young man. Windows were broken all the way up the street to collage where I am told the BB boys had changed clothes and gone north heading back towards Queens Park and the U of T grounds, a good place to play cat and mouse with the cops. As I dragged my tired butt up the street though block after block of broken glass, I started thinking about what I’d seen that day. Could the police have planned it this way? It seemed crazy, was all this destruction not what they were trying to avoid?

 I needed more information and a a place to rest for a couple of hours before hiking my way up to where the public transit might still be running, that’s if the whole thing had not been shut down. In my whole life I could not ever remember them shutting the subway down.


I found a pay phone and called an old girlfriend who lived in a neighborhood just a little north and east referred to in Toronto as “The Gay Ghetto” As I got to the homosexual strip in town it was business as usual. The cafes were full of people and it seemed like just another Saturday night in the district of trendy gay bars and restaurants. You would never know that just blocks away it was as if a bomb had gone off. When I got to my friends apt. I was greeted with a large glass of Ice water and a glass of wine. I collapsed on her sofa with her large dog and turned on the news as she made me a much needed meal. What I was watching on television blew my mind; three or four police cars had been torched. Looked like the police were getting rid of some older cars in their fleet ( none of the shiny new black SUV’s were burning just older cars ) I stayed at my friends place for an hour and a half then started the march north where I learned the East-West subway line was still running. I got to my home in east Toronto just before midnight. My cat welcomed me wanting to be fed and I fell asleep slumped in front of my computer.

Sunday June 27

Sunday morning found me a little shell shocked, I was receiving e-mail and facebook messages about protests that were to take place in an hour or two at the temporary holding cages where police were keeping protesters in conditions that are worse than those we keep animals in at the humane centre. The TV was filled with images of police brutally mashing protesters into the sidewalks with background voice overs of people calling in to support what violence the police were committing on its own citizens. The media was starting the spin on what had happened the day before. They would tone that spin down a little (just a little) later in the day when their own reporters started getting arrested too. I decided to stay at home and ride the controlled media live coverage on Sunday, I could see which way the wind was blowing and knew it was going to be even uglier than the day before. As the TV gave me more rubber bullets and tear gas, police raids on the U of T campus where the BB boys were staying. Again if they knew where they were why did they not pick them up before the trouble began? It seems to me that leading up to Saturday they had no problem arresting people for no reason at all like Charlie Veitch of The Love Police.

I wanted to get started on this article on Sunday but could still not wrap my head around all that was still happening and did not start writing this until well after midnight. All day I’ve been dealing with hate mail and comments made to me on facebook from people who thought I should be in jail just for going to protest meetings this week. A sample of the type of things I was dealing with Sunday can be summed up by a facebook message I received from my own little brother before he deleted me from his Facebook page.

"hey asshole, I have a right to express my opinion just as much as your twisted one, and tell me big man, just what were they protesting for? Maybe if they contributed to society they would feel better about themselves, you and your little band of punks should be shot, go play with your little pals and destroy property, go on now, just be home before the lights come on little fella, oh by the way if these people want socialism they can move elsewhere."

Over the last year I’ve had a major operation, my mother died and I’ve broken up with my wife of over twenty years. I have lost my business, my family and have been trying to live on the little I receive from disability. Now after days of protest and being pushed around by police, suffering with breathing problems because of the weather and strain of being on my feet for days, I find out how much I am hated by one of my two brothers for trying to save this country from people who would sell it out from underneath us. To save it from men who would give away the Sovereignty that my late father fought for in the Second World War, to save this country that I love and care so passionately about.

This is my account; this is what I saw and what I did. I’m done; I have nothing left but tears. Make of it what you will.

Lawrence McCurry

June 28, 2010 4:28 A.M.



My Photos and video clips can be found at


You Tube links to my video clips at

June 24, 2010






June 25, 2010













June 26, 2010


















Posted by at 4 comments:

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Making Waves

A special G-20 Report



On Wednesday at the G-20, Stephen Harper’s 1.9 million dollar fake lake made waves as a small earth quake was felt in Toronto. The tsunami in Harper’s lake is small potatoes compared to the wave of protesters that will hit the city on the weekend.

This week Harper endorsed new Sanctions against Iran in support of the United Nations and the American military complex. He is also playing host to Chinese president Hu Jintao who as well as attending the G-20 is making his first state visit to Canada as well. Hu said that China is ready to work with Canada to further expand exchanges and cooperation in various fields, push forward the China-Canada strategic partnership and bring even more benefits to the people of the two countries and around the world. It makes me wonder what people Hu is referring to here? In his own country this “strategic partnership” means slave wages and poverty and in Canada it means long lines at the unemployment office and food banks. Maybe the people Hu is talking about here are the ones that own Wal-Mart, as well as the corporate weasels and politicians that are getting rich off this partnership. All I know is that neither Harper nor any of the past Prime Ministers have asked me or any other Canadian if they thought it was a good idea to get so chummy with a communist dictatorship that has no regard at all for human rights.

Wednesday’s protest was a toxic tour of Toronto, about 300 people concerned about the U.S. oil spill and the environmental and social impacts of Canada's extractive industries such as the Alberta tar sands. The march was peaceful like all of the protests so far in Toronto.

Thursday Morning brought me to Queens Park and the G-20 NATIVE RESISTANCE protest. This was the biggest protest so far this week. I got to the south lawn of Queens Park just after 11:00 A.M. and the protest was well under way with speakers and drummers on the steps of the Ontario Parliament building.
      Most of the large police presence kept to the perimeter of the park as the native organizers had their own security presence in red t-shirts that made sure the protest remained peaceful.
      
    After about an hour of speeches and song by native leaders that wished to bring native issues and the state of our mother earth to the attention of the world leaders, the march started. Well over 1500 protesters and media then began the march down University Ave. with a large gang of police on bicycles riding ahead to line the route.
 At one point I fell to the back of the march not moving as fast as I might have as a younger man and a friendly red shirted native security man bringing up the rear stopped to make sure I was ok and to warn me to keep up with the protest to make sure there would be no trouble with the police present. After a short stop to chant outside the American consulate the march moved on to the Eaton Centre at Queen and Yonge St.
After the march I paid a visit to the Convergence Space at 1226
 Queen st. W,

The Convergence space is run by the Toronto community mobilization network and is a sort of head quarters for all the protests that have been taking place in Toronto this week. Right at the door I was told that as an activist I was welcome to come in and put my feet up and have something to eat, as a journalist I was not welcome, no pictures, no interviews, with anybody, Period.
Since after a long march I was thirsty and tired I pocketed my note book and Camera and as a fellow protester I stepped behind the big black Curtain to a large open space. There were large tables with fresh food piled high and a water cooler that I made a bee line for. Pretty young tattooed girls were making food for protesters that I assumed were coming later and for the very short time I stayed I was made to feel welcome.

As southern Ontario and around the city is hit with severe weather, tornados and even an earth quake, The G-20 and the protesters are the issue that is foremost in the minds of the people of Toronto.

Amidst police paranoia and common type arrests that are being blamed on G20 security, the world leaders start to roll into town. As these leaders nosh on goodies and expensive drink prepared by a team of world class chefs at tax payers expense, young protesters spread their sleeping bags on concrete floors and give thanks for scrounged and donated food. You can’t help but catch the enthusiasm and dedicated spirit of these young protesters that only wish to make this a better world for all of us. Which is more than I can say for these fat cat world leaders that come to spin their secret plans.

The large protests start tomorrow, If this week has been any indicator the viloance and mayhem that the media and security generals have been looking forward too may not happen. Either way the downtown core will be hard to navigate and the next few days will tell. I’ll keep you posted.



Lawrence McCurry

June 24, 2010


Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Let The Games Begin - A special G-20 Report


Let The Games Begin

A special G-20 Report



Still days before the start of the G-20 conference in Toronto the protests are in full swing even though none of the political leaders have hit town yet. Not only does this show how displeased the Canadian public have become with the way the Harper government makes arrogant decisions that will affect all Canadians for years to come, but how disillusioned we have become with the Canadian political system.

From talking to some protesters I have also come to the conclusion that not only are Canadians not happy about the arbitrary decisions made by the government but the lack of realistic coverage from the main stream media on the issues facing Canada and the fact that they have dropped the ball when it comes to holding the government accountable for the little they do report on. Yesterday the media gave wide coverage to a poll by Harris-Decima that said three quarters of the people polled were “ok” with the one billion dollar price tag of the G-8,G20 conference and quoted pollster Doug Anderson who made comments like "They are important meetings, more for symbolism than productivity," Of course what they did not mention is that Harris-Decima and their mouth piece have long been the Progressive Conservative party’s polling company of choice and having worked very briefly for this company when it was called by another name and Brian Mulroney was running for office I can tell you that the outcome of any poll or survey can be rigged just by the way you ask the questions. Personally I find it hard to believe that seventy five percent of Canadians are “ok” with the obscene amount of money the government has put into this meeting.

Protesters hit the streets of Toronto yesterday amongst an overly large police presence that wrongly believed they could dictate the route the protesters would take and control the protest with sheer numbers of police in the sky, on bicycle, horseback and foot. While the protest remained peaceful they did manage to occupy a gas station for a short time and disrupt traffic in the downtown core to make a point to the police that were present. Their protest would not be controlled or shut down by the threat of violence and intimidation on the part of the Toronto police dept.

Today’s protest (June 22) in contrast was more like one big street party,


hosted by Toronto Community Mobilization Network and The Queer and Trans folk network. Spokesperson Roe Velasquez wished to let the leaders of the G-20 know that gay issues such as gay hate crime have been on the rise and must be addressed in Toronto and worldwide. At the start of the protest it seemed the protesters were almost outnumbered by media and police. Soon the crowd swelled to well over a hundred and fifty to two hundred people and the party was on. I spent some time chatting with an RCMP officer named Brian from Vancouver, A fifteen year officer who expressed his desire that things stay peaceful and talked about how much he was enjoying Toronto. We talked for about twenty minutes like two guys having a beer in a bar rather than a cop and protester. Unlike many protests the police at this protest seemed more laid back and friendly, When the protest moved off the sidewalk and into the road the police merely stopped traffic and let the protesters wander where they will. No attempt was made to control the protesters, try to tell them which way to go or hurry them along. Unfortunately I don’t believe this protest will set the tone for the rest of the week. Today’s protest was more like a dress rehearsal for gay pride day, something Toronto police are familiar with and have dealt with before.


Last night the police had a chance to deal with a real security issue and blew it big time, in a spot where the security fence meets the entertainment district someone in a car pulled up around 3:00A.M. and fired two shots in the air, although the police were on the scene at the time the gunman escaped scot free. I doubt this guy was an anarchist, more likely just more gang violence that has plagued the neighborhood of the entertainment district that the police have not been able to control for some time. You would think with all the extra police they might have caught these guys just this one time.

As the week progresses the bigger protest marches will take place and we will see if the protesters and police can keep it somewhat civil or whether all hell will break loose.

Today’s Video 1             Today’s Video 2             Today’s Video 3



Lawrence McCurry

June 22, 2010





Posted by at No comments:

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Story of the Fifth estate propaganda and the G-20 Circus


The Story of the Fifth estate propaganda and the G-20 Circus


Why all the propaganda from the main stream media about the upcoming G-20 conference in June?  I have seen new stories every day in the news for over the last week, very often the lead story. It all started a couple of weeks ago with a You-Tube video of an anarchist group calling itself the FFFC. I have spoken to many people I know involved in many different protest groups and all of them have told me the same thing, No one has ever heard of this group before. There is however a few reasons that make me believe this may be a staged event by police provocateurs. For one thing this film was posted on You-tube with a very polished message in a very short time after the event, the film makers (appearing to be a west coast based group) commit the crime in Ottawa and promise to attend the G-20. Wow these guys really get around. Oddly enough the event takes place the same day the government announces the cost of the G-8,G-20 to the Canadian public. Days later when the opposition calls out the government in parliament for the amount of tax payer money spent on the event, the government sites the bank attack only three miles from the house where they sit. (Note they cited the bank blast and 9/11)
Most of the stories reported on the nightly news range from fluff pieces to acts of vandalism that at any other time are not even considered news. I recall one story where a reporter was standing in front of a wall in an ally off Spadina Ave. where someone had taken a can of red spray paint and written “G-20 = New World Order” across the wall. The reporter droned on about how these groups not only engage in vandalism but can be very dangerous. The joke about this is that lane way off spadina Ave. has been covered in graffiti as long as I can remember! The message was written on top of other graffiti that has been there for years! Yes there has been spray painted vandalism on bank machines and bus shelters in Toronto and in one case a local teenager was arrested for it. I doubt he belonged to a dangerous anarchist group. In fact the media has been pushing the anarchist label to the point of making it dangerous to peaceful activists, last week at my local watering hole when I made a comment about my non support for our troops in Afghanistan I was called an anarchist and physically attacked by some drunken old man! I merely pushed him away and it was not a big deal (afterwards we bought each other a drink) Point is this same old man used to call me a tin hat wearing conspiracy theorist and now I was an anarchist, I doubt he even knew what an anarchist is.
One story last week that got a lot of play on TV news was about a mysterious man with a foreign accent and three fingers on one hand who bought a large amount of fertilizer without being checked first by the RCMP. Composite drawings and descriptions were plastered all over while speculating he was building a bomb just like the one in Oklahoma City or at least running an illegal grow op. A couple of days later this man came forward, turned out he had a garden and bought enough for himself and a couple of friends.
Other nightly stories have been about a hotdog vendor that has been on front street for years being forced to close for the whole month of June, theatres closing down for the safety of their patrons (guess they never heard the show must go on), garbage cans in the whole downtown area being removed, Not only behind the fences but all around so anarchists cannot throw them into windows of innocent local businesses. The mayor even called for local restaurants to remain open twenty-four hours to cater to the people attending the meetings. They would be the only ones as nobody else can get anywhere near the overpriced eateries on king street since the fence has gone up. There was one story about an internet travel agency offering a special to residents who live in the area that wish to get away for some sun and fun to avoid having to get a special I.D. pass just to go home, Oh and if they do remain they cannot have visitors to their home during this time, Only people that have gone through the process of being cleared for special passes. Imagine having to get an RCMP check just to go to your own home.
Sometimes the tone of these reports are about how great it is that our city will be show cased to the world and how much money the G-20 will bring to town? I doubt the crooks attending will be spending enough to make up for the one billion dollar price tag. These upbeat reports even show mounted police officers practicing crowd control on police officers pretending to be protesters with signs, being chased around a field.  I guess library footage of mounted police beating and trampling real protesters would not fit with the “how lucky we are” tone of the report.
Today’s report was about an envoimental group holding a “G-20” protest today on front st. to protest global warming. The report goes on to tell us all how if this were one day later these protesters would not be on Front Street as the whole area goes into lock down mode tomorrow. Cut to a bubble headed woman covered in oil holding a protest sign, the rush hour commuters giving her a wide oily birth. She tells the camera how they should be talking about how to stop the oil leak and pushes the U.N. global warming hoax. Behind her people dance around in giant paper Mache heads of the G-8 leaders. Next story different reporter is about the United States government issuing a travel warning to Americans to stay away from Toronto due to the “danger” of the upcoming G-20.
Seems to me the main stream media can’t decide if the protesters are a bunch of funny kooks or a dangerous bunch of stone throwing anarchists. In the end how the main stream media decides to portray the protesters matters not. They will never report the real reason why most of them will come out, the police have already made up their minds to gas and beat them. And at the end of the day the media will only focus on the violence, make the protesters out to be the trouble makers, the cops to be hero’s ( No matter who starts trouble ) and the real message behind the protests will not be spoken of.
The revolution will not be televised.      See ya at the 20

Lawrence McCurry
June 17, 2010
Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Facts


Facts


The following points are facts. They are not some tin hat wearing conspiracy theory, the ravings of some mad man, mine or anybody else’s opinion, speculation, rumor, estimation or belief. They are fact. Provable, verifiable, incontestable, documented, irrefutable fact. In other words the following points are all TRUE.

·         Almost all of our Prime Ministers and many of our cabinet ministers and provincial premiers since Lester B Pearson have been employees of Paul Desmarais and Power corp.

·         The elite of Canada and the world, the most powerful leaders of the media, politics and education have for decades been meeting in secret with bankers, corporate leaders, and European monarchy with the goal of imposing an unelected fascist dictatorship one world government on Canada and the whole world.

·         Canadian prime ministers and politicians have publicly stated that Canada must give up its Sovereignty ( The same sovereignty that our fathers have fought and died for ) and yet for the most part these statements go unreported and unexplained by the main stream media.

·         The Canadian government has been arming local police forces with riot gear, sound cannons, machine guns, tanks and other military weapons for use on its own citizens.
     ( That’s you and me )

·         In the last twenty years most of the manufacturing jobs in Canada have been moved to third world countries and the profits from this slave labor market have gone to corporate and banking interests that have bought political influence in both the PC and Liberal parties.

·         Fluoride ( the same fluoride they put in drinking water ) is a cumulative poison. It is a waste product of nuclear reactors. According to a recent report in the Globe & Mail recent research is suggesting that fluoride may be connected to a number of serious conditions, including the development in teenage boys of osteosarcoma, the rare bone cancer that killed Canadian icon Terry Fox, reduced intelligence levels in children, and impaired thyroid function. Just read the fine print on a tube of tooth paste or a box of rat poison.

·         The Canadian government pays over 170 million dollars a day ( Your tax money ) to private banks in compound interest on the deficient.( This is interest, not the principal on the loan ) Canada allows these same private banks to create and print as much Canadian currency as they want, when that is clearly the purpose of the publicly owned Bank of Canada.

·         Canada has spent over a BILLION dollars on the G-8 and G-20 meetings in Toronto in June 2010. The downtown area of Canada’s largest city has been turned into a police state. Local businesses have been forced to close, people who live in the area have been encouraged to leave during these meetings and anybody standing on the public sidewalk with a camera is stopped by police asked for I.D. and told it is now illegal to take pictures of banks and buildings in the area. Anyone who does not comply is arrested.


·         Sadly the majority of Canadians believe there is nothing they can do to change or stop all of the above or are too apathetic to care.




Wake Up Canada


Lawrence McCurry
       June 16, 2010
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)