I've only seen the shorter version on YouTube and would love to see this fuller version but it says: "this user's videos are private". Can you share this please? It's important for everyone to see. Thanks. :)

Your title for this video and your youtube video is misleading. A peaceful protest would need to take place in the sanctioned zone.
This is an illegal congregated protest on city streets. The police did their job.

The title is just fine. Peaceful protest means no violence.

you must've had a clear view of the cop car on fire in front of Steve's too.

blind-sided hit sucks!

@Core Logistics: I don't on which country you live, but in mine, Canada, free speech and peaceful assembly are core values of any free and democratic society. We do not need permission to assemble in a street to make a political statement. This is a right granted by history, tradition and laws.

This film shows a clear case of abuse and brutality. Guess what! A very small number of the 600 people arrested will be found guilty of any crime. At worse, some tickets for people crossing at a red signal or running a bike against traffic in a one way street.

Civil liberties are at sake here and people are right to stand against police to defend freedom and democracy.

Next time, maybe demonstrator should consider another song than oh Canada. After this, the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, would be more appropriate.

I don't see any force displayed in this video, I merely see police walking forward and people running away. I see a policeman trip over a protester and fall, but perhaps I'm missing it but I see no shots fired, no punches thrown, no clubs in use, and I don't see any shoving or pushing either though it is a bit of pandemonium and perhaps that is being lost in the rush.

If force was used to disperse this protest, it is not shown in this video. There is no brutality evident, there are policemen in riot gear moving forward and protesters running away. If police brutality happened here, it happened after people crossed the trees.

I watched it several times, I paused it several times, and the ONLY moment where protesters and police seem to physically touch each other is in the middle when it really seems like they just ran into each other, and the person who trips and falls the farthest is the POLICEMAN and not the protesters, who were already seated and standing up to run away.

There are problems evident in this video, but crying police brutality when there is no physical contact between the police and the protesters hurts your argument immensely and does you no favors to win people over to your side.

chi z:

chill? did she say anything incorrect?

If you want more proof here is a picture of one of the guys that was sitting in front of the police, he clearly got hit by something baton sized even though it's apparently invisible in the video.

sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs517.ash1/30468_422755876544_580526544_4849101_6851856_n.jpg

I can also testify for the police violence, not too shortly after this I was standing with a group of 6 or 7 people in a parking garage because it was pouring and we all had sensitive camera equipment. Cops rode up and two slammed me into the wall, one with a night stick, then forcefully seized and searched my bag.

Thank you for putting this up.

Thank you, thank you for posting this. This is a valuable part of w veritable mountain of evidence of police brutality and illegality over the weekend.

OMG Tiananmen Square? Free speech? Violence? Come on, folks, get real; it was a faux protest. To view these "protesters" as vigilant defenders of our Charter rights and guardians of our civil liberties is as inflated as the references to Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Please don't insult the memories and victories of these two heroes and those who died in Tiananmen Square with the exploits of these weekend warriors, there's just no comparison. To think the police presence and behaviour this weekend in Toronto represent the thin edge of totalitarianism is laughable. Let's take a collective deep breath, stop calling each other names and try to put the weekend in perspective.

Thanks Meghann, its a peaceful protest and cops were cops..with force. No blatant slamming or horse ramming, but none the less a very clear example of state power over the people in the street; their street. The power is physical intimidation and domination by state authority, its real, and its designed to keep us silent obedient, and scared. I`m glad there was no obvious bloodshed, it makes my point all the more poiniant, in that this is a battle of the psyche, as much as anything.

Why couldn't they also hold it in Huntsville like the G8, or some easy to secure island, or a remote resort in the Rockies? It's obvious that holding it in Toronto is asking and expecting trouble, as if to purposely rub in our faces their no-holds-barred power to disrupt our daily lives. With the city literally transformed into a Police State with draconian laws, their message for us is, yes we can infringe on your personal liberties so live with it! It's social engineering, really. What scares me is not a minority of violent protestors during this period, but the government arbitrarily taking away the freedoms that separate a democracy from a Pinochet dictatorship. Eliminating our Charter Rights when they become inconvienient is in itself a form of terrorism on the population. They are psychologically conditioning us to accept their gross display of dominance. To the apathetic I quote Ben Franklin who once said that people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both

Amazing job! Canada thanks you!

When protests are relegated to a small area to limit exposure, and any attempt at peaceful demonstration outside of that is met with force by stormtrooper like armored police officers, it's time we just admit that our rights and freedoms in this democracy are fading toward irrelevancy. I am appalled at what happened in Toronto, by the few idiot violent "protesters", and the crowd of police that seemed to lack leadership or common sense.

The police didn't do anything *until* the protesters decided to sit in the street. That's a no-no when it comes to public safety. They were just doing what they needed to do to keep things "moving along." What made it so dramatic was that the police just happened to dispatch the command to break up the potential sit-in at the moment the anthem ended. Purely coincidence, nothing more. I think some of those crying injustice have been watching WAY too many Hollywood flicks.

Simple.
Oldest trick in the book. Steer a crowd into an area, then surround them so that no one can leave. This of course creates tension and fear which ultimately leads to confusion and anger. Any group of protesters at that point usually start to get aggressive, then one thing leads to another.
(Apparently this group of protesters and passersby caught up in the riot police 'walling-in' technique, remained trapped from around 4pm until they were allowed to go home at 10pm)

Growing up in N. Ireland I of course had the misfortune to witness many riot scenes.
I've seen bricks/bottles/acid and petrol bombs thrown at riot police and the British army on many occasions. Even under that barrage of hatred the riot police would only sometimes attack the violent protesters.

That said, to witness this video where a group of young Canadians (who by all witness accounts remained peaceful during their 6 hour entrapment) sing the National Anthem for moral and to illustrate unity, patriotism and honour, to then be attacked by the RCMP is really more than quite disturbing.

The RCMP have brought utter disgrace and shame not only on their uniform but the National Anthem of Canada itself.
I believe in the very strongest terms that the RCMP have committed an act of treason towards the Crown and this matter really needs to be dealt with in the highest of courts and those responsible held accountable for their actions.
Considering also that the RCMP's lack of action the previous day allowed a group of about 300 troublemakers break away from the main peaceful protest march and go on the rampage through the streets of Toronto burning police cars, smashing shop windows and causing general mayhem without intervening, all seems rather confusing.

peace

possibly the funniest video ever. The police's comedic timing is spot on.

Thank you for posting this, Meghann. I can't tell you how weary I am of the individuals that I know (who were no where near the downtown core over the weekend), simply writing off the actions of law enforcement during the protest. Many of these individuals have also resorted to flinging around angry words against Bloc members and peaceful protesters alike, commending the efforts of the police to near exaltation. It's refreshing to see so many comments on this video where people have expressed genuine outrage or concern over the events that took place. I've showed this video to a number of my family and friends who all seem to think it's funny and something to laugh about. I've never felt so... sad or appalled in my life. These are images I won't soon forget...

It looks to me the so called peaceful protesters were being smartasses in there own way getting closer and closer trying to intimidate the officers and all I saw was the cops having enough pushing them back by running at them scaring them using NO force. Plus I think they had, had enough with the other protesters who took out parts of downtown. Your acting like the cops ran at them and then started beating them with their clubs when in fact they ran at them and stopped to push them away a little cause the kids were moving closer and closer being smart @$$es and down deep you have to admit that if thouse kids got any closer (and they would have gotten up to there faces) that they would have stated talking and saying nasty things to the cops and someone would have taken a swing at a cop to be funny just like thouse other protesters thought it was funny to do that stupid distruction downtown. Look at the video again. The cops start running at them then stop as the protesters start running back. If the protesters would have just stayed their distance not inching closer and closer then the cops would have not ran at them.... Come on people lol.

And what kind of so called peaceful protester uses words like Ass-hole or says Fu#* you to the cops lol.

I don't know about you but seeing as this happened on saturday( youtube.com/watch?v=1fhGneV6rQg ) I don't believe any of us were trying to be "smart a**es" by being more than 10ft away from the cops. What we did was well within our rights as Canadian citizens.

And to answer your second message, get over yourself, you're telling me you never swear? If there's any time to swear in my opinion it would be after you and other PEACEFUL protestors got clubbed by riot police who disregarded your rights.

As a serving member of the Canadian Forces and a combat veteran, I can say with absolute clarity and conviction that i am disgusted by the actions of the supposed "other half" of our nations security, the civilian shield to the army's sword. I managed to fight and win battles while vastly outnumbered, against a heavily armed, mobile, guerilla force with as few as 10 fellow Canadians. 10 Canadian taxpayer funded and trained, government employees fighting and dying to prevent the lawlessness and injustice the so-called Black Bloc seems only too willing to promote. 10 Canadian ambassadors (because that is what you are when your wear and salute your nations flag) that knew their jobs and acted as consummate, trained professionals in all things, which incidentley is why i am alive to type this. The enemy we fought was entrenched within a civilian population and knew only too well the problems that could be created by putting innocent Afghans in the center of the conflict. So as is our duty and our job we let them bait us and let them crow and then when we had a shot we took it WITH NO CIVILIAN CASUALTIES. How could I know? Because we were the medical center for the region and we visited the villages regularly.

Knowing when to apply force and how to apply it can be a very simple thing when you assign value to the thing you are leveraging that force against. Am I prepared to kill the human being who is placing the IED or recoiless rifle that will kill three of my brothers? 3 of my fellow Canadians who have answered the call to defend what we so often take for granted half a world away? Without pause yes, and I will for the rest of my life, I took an oath that does not end with a contract.

When you put that uniform on you are no longer John Smith of Toronto. You are a member of the Canadian Forces, just as you are a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, or an Ontario Provincial Police Officer. A government employee who's mandate and training is to PROTECT the public. Not to protect themselves from threats within the public. It is their job as the civilian arm of our nations security to be the blue line between those that would see our way of life burnt to it's end and the Canadians who see more than a simple flag.

Instead they formed a black wall and responded to WORDS with unrelenting, armed and often random VIOLENCE.

I don't care if Osama Bin Laden himself is hiding on Queen Street like Waldo... you don't just drop an airstrike on the village.

You PARTICULARLY don't do it after the entire village sang Oh Canada in fear.

I understand the effect of an unsuspecting ambush tactics to confuse and demoralize... but when the first three ranks of 'protestors' are waving peace signs standing outside the gap wearing American Apparel and drinking starbucks... I might tailor my tactics accordingly.

People have said that they 'understand' why Police might have been on edge due to the events of the day before...

Bullshit.

I understand that i watched friends die and then the next day went out and did my job with the professionalism expected of someone who claims to serve his country and as in holland i gave chocolate to children while the engineers rebuilt.

When you back people into a corner... they will fight and sell their lives dearly to escape.

The 'kettle' is a useful tactic to isolate 'riot ringleaders' but with even minor coordination it can simply be turned into a turnstyle type processing operation as opposed to a way to jack up arrest counts to justify budgets and manpower.

Too little too late from the Police especially after the complete lack of presence as the city they are paid to protect, burned the day before.

A number of extremely reputable journalists and civilian truth mongers have been given unprecedented ability to expose the absolute incompetence of both the police leadership and of the individual line trooper.

This is as sure a black stain on their official colors as it was a death knell to the Canadian Airborne after one of their members killed a Somali boy. I would hang my head in shame if i affected any part of Sunday's riot operation, willing or not.

I have a relative who was caught up in the crowd. Just a student who is young and wants to take inspired photos, and does it damn well. He was detained (not arrested) But I have seen his footage and i am disgusted.

I did not put my life on the line and watch my best friends take their last breath to come home and watch the largest gathering of law enforcement this country has ever seen... cowed to the point inaction as the city and its citizens endure the wanton destruction to their homes and business, only to have it answered by a heavy handed and indiscriminant hammer blow against quite possibly the very same people they so utterly failed to help previously.

I understand that to put a riot line in front of the black block may have caused injuries and violence.

Well... they asked for it. Says so right on their sign.

Guess what else. That's why you took the oath of service to your country. If you don't want to get injured on the job... be a yoga instructor.

Excuses are quite common apparently everyone has one. I would advise anyone reading this to write their local MP and ask what your government is doing to police it's members and policies that have utterly failed in their duty to this country.

I was in the city all weekend and if i had a dollar for every group of 6 police officers i saw sitting on corners shooting the shit... I would probably have enough to hire a ten man infantry section for the weekend to lead the police through some drills, of how to serve the nation they are sworn to defend.

This should not be taken as a sweeping assault on the police as i even have a few relatives and many friends among their ranks. But just as I would not stand for injustice within my own house... I will not stand for it in theirs.

I have met countless officers who uphold our laws with dignity and professionalism. I would gladly give my life for anyone of them.

What will not stand is when under the guise of 'security' police are given sweeping powers with no chance of reciprocity, the need to explain themselves or chance to defend against bullying tactics employed on a peaceful gathering of my country's citizens.

I don't give a flying squirrel if they were threatening, or there were reports of weapons. You have full body armour and shields. Suck it up. Besides, you should be happy. Bricks move a lot slower than bullets.

I support our law enforcement as i support our troops. But my support is not a blank cheque to be held cheaply against the values and rights you trample as surely as you stepped on our flag. You will find me a tenacious opponent and one now who wants to know just how that cheque i did write you was used... and i think after saturdays impotence and sundays ignorance someone has to pay the piper...

and this time, it won't be me.

Andy, I do need to wonder why, in the link you just offered, the people are all right up close to the police, but in the top video, there is a huge gap? Is it possible that the police had told these people to back up already?

Also, that image of the guys back, the one with the round red spot on his back that you claimed was baton shaped (assuming it isn't just one more big zit)... Looking at the fact it's round (baseball shaped, not baton), is it not far more likely that it is a knee print from when the cop tripped and went flying over him?

And I need to ask, those who claim they were beaten and had their bags searched after this charge, how is it you can see where the police form up their new line through the trees, and the crowd is well off from them and noone has been dragged behind the line (clearly a tactic consistently used during the last few days)?

And to misfitsherry, do you honestly believe you would have been shot at, beaten, thrown to the ground and arrested? seriously, what gives you that idea? really, the "shot at" part just astounds me. most claims of someone getting beaten in these clips are of when police get firm with someone who's resisting arrest (did they deserve to be taken into custody? we don't know, that parts never shown on these video's). Is it not entirely possible you are buying into the hype, and overreacting just a ton?

These video's need to really be taken with a grain of salt. Current popular opinion seems to be against the police, and they have even performed horribly in some ways to deserve that opinion, but people are going to prey on those perceptions to fear and hate monger. The whole point of the riots was to create tension and dissension, and it worked, as seen by video's like this (and the responses they incur), that only show the parts that put the police in the worst light, and don't show any of what happened leading up to the event. the video of people getting arrested linked earlier was clearly edited, most of these video's only show what happens as the police begin their action, not what leads up to them, and many testimonies are extremely exaggerated, if not outright lies, and really can't easily be confirmed (should we just take their word on it?). if you really look at this video, the closest the police come to violence is hitting their shields with batons and tripping over the one poor guy. A lot of the cops actually go around the people sitting, giving them the opportunity to stand and move, but that's not the story we've been given, we've instead been asked "who rush's people sitting with their back's turned"... well, I'd say, one possible answer could (just a guess here) be, a line of police officers that told people to back off and move along (did this happen, i don't know... the record of event's doesn't start early enough to say one way or the other... get my point? if not, here it is: Don't be so quick to join the herd. question what you see, the whole story is rarely seen in just one sitting, particularly when only one side gets to speak)

As to you osterhoudt, you have repeatedly claimed the G8 AND G20 represent only 15% of the worlds population... I can't account for the G8, but the G20, the event held in toronto, accounts for 2/3's of the worlds population. it also accounts for around 90 per cent of global gross national product and 80 per cent of world trade (including EU intra-trade), and given it is generally discussing economics and envirounment, I think those are far more significant metrics. Additionally, they only make policies for those attending, that may impact the remainder of the world (decreasing america's deficet is going to have an impact on whoever's leanding them money, and China's currency increase will affect anyone dealing with them), but there is no global pollicies made that force non-member contries to change how they function, and there reallly isn't any means of enforcing the agreements made, even within the 20 members (other then a stern look and words of disappointment). those interested, read for yourself and don't just take other peoples word for things, here's a start: g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx

I have actually had to do riot control so I can look at this with a different eye.  I have had to medivac officers injured who where simply doing there job trying to protect people and property.  You have to look at the times the protesters set police cars on fire and smashed and looted during this same meeting. They are faced with mobs that can be incited to violence in a heartbeat  They have to try and stop that kind of violence before it happens; and from what I can see the police used measured force to keep that from happening at these sites. The police where looking at a group that was going to start sitting in the streets.  Yes this is a peaceful group, but when a group starts to set up like that it will draw the militant protestors also.  The police need to keep protestors from being setup too long.  If you look at the tape, all the officers did was rush them to scare them off.  One officer tripped over a person he was trying to push but he had no intent of hurting the person.

I am not saying the police do not make mistakes but I see no malice in the officers doing this job and they want to go home safe at night. In fact what I saw was text book action to insure the safety of all involved. They held restraint until they felt they needed to act and when that time came they acted decisively to maintain safety for all involved. Both the protestors and the police. No excessive force. Again, look at the other news clips of the police car on fire and the stores and businesses being broken into by rioters. It is a small group of radicals that infiltrate an otherwise peaceful demonstration that ruin it and force these kind of actions by the police. I saw nothing but professionalism on there part.

Most of you seem to be educated folk so if you truly believe that this so called police brutality how do you not see that this is a perfect display of cause and effect??

Protest taking place on Friday and the earlier part of the day Saturday seemed to have gone off without a hitch! It wasn't till the Balck Bloc tactics were used on Saturday that police re-grouped for Sunday and realized that they HAD to be a much stronger presence than they had been on Saturday!

For those arguing that the police is what brought out the Black Bloc in the first place do you not see what a pathetic argument that is?? Do you really believe that a bunch of people running around with masks on, wreaking havoc and a path of destruction, says that we are a society ready for LESS policing??? Give your f*&%ing heads a shake!!!!

And to those of you who were there yes it may have appeared that the police were acting brutally to those being arrested but it would only be because those individuals were resisting arrest. Several people allowed themselves to be arrested just to get out of the situation and their stories do not match these of unnecessary force. This includes members of the press who would love nothing more to sensationalize the so called police brutality!!

Just a note to those who participated in the Black Bloc tactics of Saturday (because I believe that there are participants who have commented on this thread) It is easy to wreak havoc and destruction while wearing a mask! If you want to stand up against Capitalism etc.. do ti with some balls and show your face!

@ eric j - like KenazCreative said, my salutes to you as well.

This doesn't show up in either video so I don't know if there's some reason that the first protestor to sit down was rushed in way I describe below. Was he a violent protestor at some earlier point?

Look at 1:12 - 1:14, the officer charging at this protester you could say either trips -or- tries to tackle and fall on the protestor. An officer in a dangerous situation is probably trained to stay their ground and protect themsleves and their fellow officers. To me, this does not look like he tripped, it looks like there was intention to hit this protester -with shield in hand. The officer had other choices like slow down or drop the shield. Luckily the protester was a fast enough runner. There might have been some teeth on the pavement otherwise.

If protesters want to protest fine. Just go to a park or large area of gathering so its not blocking the street. If necessary, get permits from the city and let police know where you will be. If kept peaceful and then something like a scene from the movie "300" happens, the public, media, police and politicians can't argue anything but "Hey, these people have clearly organized this peacefully .... and look at what happened".

All I know is with the Olympics or other large scale venues/activites/protest ralies most people could give a damn about turning violent or vandalism. If the point of security is "keep delegates" from being killed by trained killers or terrorists, that doesn't take $1 billion and would have been MUCH smarter (and cheaper) to hold the talks elsewhere. Maybe the next G20 should take part over secure Internet or some other secure Private network.

Jay..., claiming they are trained for things like this and therefor don't make mistakes like tripping or falling down... I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. I don't think officers generally spend a lot of time in riot gear and shields, practicing their crowd control. Some, likely, but enough to train yourself to be immune to mistakes? really? I can't imagine charging a group of people while wearing heavy armour is easy. And it's not like they can say, oh, this guys sitting down so I'll stop and wait for him... That kind of defeats the purpose of the push forward... and going around them, while other cops choose too, if too many had, that again would have defeated the purpose of the push forward.

And you might ask, why did the police need to push forward? don't I have the right to go and do what I please?...no, you can't...well, technically you can (in the sense that there is no cosmic force that will actively prevent you), but you can be arrested for a lot of them. You still need to obey the law (IE, you can't really do what you want, because you can't kill someone without being arrested. you can't really go where you want because some places are private property and can lead to trespassing charges). and here's the kicker... police have the authority to deny access to city property and to direct the flow of traffic beyond the normal operation. Don't believe me, next time you see a couple police cars blocking off an intersection (perhaps for a funeral, perhaps because they're hunting down a criminal in the neighborhood, perhaps for a parade, or... and here's the funny bit... perhaps for a peaceful protest that had done as you suggested, and scheduled a time and route for their protest LOL, oh the irony in that)... drive right on around those cars and see what happens. next time the police corner off a crime scene or perhaps a location someone important will be speaking publically, ignore them and keep on going. I'm willing to bet you'll see a real, legitimate charge. Cops have always had that authority, you've just never seen it done the way it was here... you usually see it being done with 2 cop cars and 4 cops... but, come on, do you honestly believe that would be enough to stop a mob of people this size?

And peaceful protests happen all the time in Toronto with very little of this kind of police presence. it was the situation, the G20 conference, protection of 20 world LEADERS and the violent people that kind of thing draws, that called for this kind of police action. your last paragraph appears to be written as is the police, or even the mayor of Toronto, actually had a say in the matter.

The police didn't really do anything to these or other protesters that they couldn't do any other time of the year, we've just never seen it done in this way, or to so many people. Does that mean they did things right? HELL NO. they screwed up on quite a few things, but not the things most any police propaganda are saying they did.

And one more thing, before your thinking these protesters were entirely innocent and undeserving of being controlled...This CP 24 report youtube.com/watch?v=VB8irzTuGtM&feature=channel states their was another hotspot of protesters west on queen (plus I've read there was a lawful raid also occurring further west, but have no evidence for that), and I think it is reasonable for police to keep these two unrelated groups of protesters apart, easier to control if things get ugly and keeps any small groups of Black bloc hiding among each group from coalescing into a larger, problematic one. So, the police, within their rights, were best off, for pubic safety, keeping these two groups apart...Despite this lawful and reasonable application of their authority, the group of protesters that got boxed in at Queen and Spadina, chanted and bullied their way past a line of unarmoured bicycle police earlier, in front of city hall on queen and tried again to continue going west on queen (according to this reporters testimony... citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/80075--personal-story-how-i-ended-up-in-a-g20-jail ). Was this the same group? don't know, but given this is east of Spadina with the protesters heading west, if it is it means these people got past this line to get to the intersection. If it wasn't, it means these people were interfering with the police dealing with the protesters who effectively broke the first police line they had encountered, who were at the intersection. Did a lot of innocent people get caught up, including some who likely didn't join until after the first police line had been broken? HELL yeah. but them's the breaks. hang with a mob (bullying their way past a lawful police line changes them from peaceful protesters to mob, IMHO), you'll be treated like one.

awesome video
it's amazing how more and more, financial power grows over the world and controls it bit by bit....
but we can't and won't stand down and watch it on TV saying it's not right, we need to get out and solve this problem for ourselves before it's too late...
there's another video posted by a photographer that was actually participating in the streets

vimeo.com/12967971

Here's another video show these "peaceful" protesters chanting their way past a police line, admiting they did this every 100 meters, and once they get to queen and spadina, there are bike cops blocking off the south and west directions, directing them north, but they start chanting "let us through once again and refuse to head north... so reinforcements are called in...

youtube.com/watch?v=myA9MoGldZg

Hey guys I was here, this was not the Queen and Spadina protesters who were blocked in and shown on tv. this was another one that turned into a protest because the police attacked first. Here is my account of it, please read it.

reddit.com/r/canada/comments/ckpgz/g20_what_the_media_chose_not_to_cover/

In the video, follow the person sitting down in the green shirt. At the end of the rush, he/she gets hit in the back of the head with a shield, and it looks fairly intentional. No tripping there...

Also, this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=GaYbq484abs&feature=related

It's hard to keep up the old "The police are just doing their job" mentality when you keep seeing these videos popping up.

It got out of hand on both sides, which is very unfortunate. But when the sides aren't equal, the more powerful side (i.e. the ones with shields and batons) needs to work even harder to maintain their calm and to not get carried away.

Sure, everyone condemns the vandals for destroying shop windows and burning police cars. But if they were apprehended, they'd certainly be charged with criminal offences and put in jail. But what happens to a police officer who attacks a person with a baton and pepper spray for sitting in the grass? Nothing, and that's a problem. It's simply an accountability issue. I mean what's worse, hitting a shop window with a stick, or hitting a person with a stick? And then blasting him in the face with pepper spray? One is a criminal offence punishable by law, and the other is apparently in a police officer's job description. It just kind of gives me that uh-oh feeling...

Ok, that may have been the funniest video I have seen in a while. Next time, sing slower!

I was in TO - Yonge and Bloor - when there were significant sporting victories (Canada gold at SLC olumpics, etc.) that led to massive crowds, blocked streets and traffic, chanting, etc. Surely those public displays were illegal, yet strangely enough, there were no cops attacking people there.

Funny how this was suddenly sooooo necessary this Sunday.

So we've got this G20 group in town hidden behind the barricades and protected by the police. Imagine for a moment that the rest of us simply ignored the event and didn't come downtown to march or watch or cause havoc. Would we have lost our civil liberties or freedoms or Charter rights if no one had marched or confronted the police? So why then did people feel the need to do so, to exercise their right to provoke a response? Why isn't anyone marching today, when there is no heavy police presence on the streets of Toronto to prevent it? I suppose it's all cause marketing and street theatre but in the case of the G20 protests, whatever the protest messages were, they have been overshadowed by the behaviour of all the participants. It's sad really. We should all have stayed home.

I think they did a damn fine job controlling the crowd.

All this protesting... did it actually have any sort of productive impact?

Yea I saw this scene live on CP 24 channel. There was no "force" per ce. the police moved in to push the people away from the area. I didn't see anything that could be considered "force" in this instant.