news G20 Live: Saturday

This weekend, Torontoist is covering the G20 summit live, all day and all night, both from the streets and from the inside. Updates—from our reporters, photographers, and readers—are in reverse-chronological order below. Our full G20 coverage is collected here; you can also follow us on Twitter.





Toronto Fire extinguish a police car set on fire by protesters. Torontoist’s videos from the scene, shot by Ryan Walker, are here. Photo by Christopher Drost/Torontoist.

SATURDAY

HOW TO SEND US UPDATES We want your G20 stories, photos, links, and tips. Email [email protected], send updates to @torontoist on Twitter, or submit your photos to Torontoist’s Flickr pool.

6:16 AM: Just published: a collection of photos of a chaotic Saturday on the streets of Toronto, with some of the best shots from Torontoist’s photographers (and a few of our readers as well). Three of those photos:









Top photo by salty_soul from the Torontoist Flickr Pool; middle photo by Remi Carreiro/Torontoist; bottom photo by Ryan Walker/Torontoist.



The full set of sixty-two photos, presented as a timeline, is here. Torontoist’s live coverage will resume again here in a few hours. DT

4:57 AM: Christopher Drost sends these photos, of arrested protesters outside of Eastern Avenue’s temporary detention centre being put into the back of a police van:





The photos were taken after 3 a.m. this Sunday morning. DT



2:42 AM: Our live coverage for today is winding down, as you can no doubt tell if you’ve been following us since this morning. At Eastern Avenue, outside the temporary detention centre, some protesters are now being arrested, reported Sarah Barmak moments ago; our Chris Drost and Chris Bird, also on the scene now, are confirming that arrests are being made.

We’re also currently putting together a gallery of as-yet unpublished photos from Torontoist’s photographers and readers, from Saturday. When it’s online, we’ll link to it here. DT

1:53 AM: From Eastern Avenue, we’re receiving reports that Jesse Rosenfeld‘s parents and girlfriend are with other protesters outside of the temporary detention centre on Eastern Avenue. Protesters are right now outnumbered three to one, reporter Sarah Barmak is tweeting from the site. Earlier, there was dancing. DT

1:14 AM: Just circled Queen’s Park, both north and south, and it’s deserted. No cops at all, and no people except for two guys smoking on a park bench. Oddly, no litter at all. It’s like today never happened. (Although there is some horse poop.) ES

1:01 AM: As best as we can tell, the city is quieting down again. An hour ago, Kelli Korducki, at Queen and Augusta, reported back to us about a “gigantic bloc of riot cops…with no protesters.” At 12:51 a.m., John Semley spotted “no fewer than thirty bike cops at Augusta and Dundas, apparently waiting for some group coming down Spadina.” Over at the temporary detention centre on Eastern Avenue, meanwhile, it’s “protesters protesters protesters,” tweets NOW. DT

12:07 AM: We’ve learned that the reporter arrested at the Novotel Hotel earlier tonight, who Steve Paikin claims he saw “assaulted,” is Jesse Rosenfeld. Rosenfeld is a Guardian freelancer, on assignment with the U.K. paper; on Friday, he filed “Rejecting G20’s consensus of the few” for the paper. DT

11:59 PM: Steve Paikin, host of The Agenda on TVO, was at the demonstration at the Esplanade earlier, and says he witnessed a “totally unneccessary” assault by police, on a reporter claiming to be with The Guardian. Right now he is tweeting @spaikin. Some of those tweets:

i saw police brutality tonight. it was unnecessary. they asked me to leave the site or they would arrest me. i told them i was dong my job. they repeated they would arrest me if i didn’t leave. as i was escorted away from the demonstration, i saw two officers hold a journalist. the journalist identified himself as working for “the guardian.” he talked too much and pissed the police off. two officers held him…. a third punched him in the stomach. totally unnecessary. the man collapsed. then the third officer drove his elbow into the man’s back. no cameras recorded the assault. and it was an assault. the officer who escorted me away from the demo said, “yeah, that shouldn’t have happened.” he is correct. there was no cause for it.

i can appreciate that the police were on edge today, after seeing four or five of their cruisers burned. but why such overreaction tonight? the demonstration on the esplanade was peaceful. it was like an old sit in. no one was aggressive. and yet riot squad officers moved in. police on one side screamed at the crowd to leave one way. then police on the other side said leave the other way. there was no way out. so the police just started arresting people. i stress, this was a peaceful, middle class, diverse crowd. no anarchists literally more than 100 officers with guns pointing at the crowd. rubber bullets and smoke bombs ready to be fired. rubber bullets fired i was “escorted” away by police so couldn’t see how many arrested, but it must have been dozens.

we must make a distinction between the “thugs” who broke store windows and torched cop cars and the very reasonable citizens who .just wanted to remind the authorities that the freedom to speak and assemble shouldn’t disappear because world leaders come to town.

Individual tweets within the space of a paragraph above are demarcated with a symbol. DT

11:34 PM: Protesters outside the Novotel Hotel on the Esplanade are being arrested en masse, according to the Globe‘s Anna Mehler Paperny. Global’s Mark McAllister tweeted that police are trying to break the protest up. DT

11:31 PM: One more update [from Queen Street West]: the police, with a small mounted regimen, are moving west on queen. Beyond Cameron. Wondering how far west this will go? KK

11:27 PM: It seems that the Eternal Flame of Hope being extinguished was an omen, after all. DT

11:16 PM: Biking through Allan Gardens—nothing left of the tent city except wet banners and overflowing garbage bags. ES

11:11 PM: Deborah Mensah-Bonsu sends this report from Queen Street West, where she was earlier this evening (and left at 10 p.m.):

“It started with a police car on fire on Queen Street near Spadina. I got there at about 8:30 p.m. At first there were no police anywhere in sight, but a large crowd assembled, and it didn’t take too long for the police dressed in riot gear to show up.”





A police car burns in the foreground, while police in riot gear stand in the background. Photo by Deborah Mensah-Bonsu/Torontoist.



Police, she reports, “began pushing the crowd east on foot, and were then joined by police on horses. These charged the crowd at intervals and everyone started running. Some people were hit with batons. Protesters were throwing things like water bottles and rocks at police, as well as breaking windows. The entire front of the Starbucks at Queen and John Streets was smashed, and a few people went inside to do more damage and steal water bottles. More riot police began advancing from Richmond Street, and the cops on Queen continued to push the crowd east.”

Kelli Korducki, at Queen and Cameron now, says that “not too many people [are] left…apart from agitated row of riot cops.” Police, she says, are “beginning to slouch at Cameron. One gives the order to ‘Hold this line’….no-one anticipated that this would go west of Spadina, but those predictions appear already to be proven wrong.” DT

11:10 PM: The Post, meanwhile, is reporting that two of their photographers were arrested today. DT

10:56 PM: TTC Chair Adam Giambrone tweets that the “subway and all transit south of the [Bloor–Danforth] line will remain closed tonight and reopen @ 9am” on Sunday. Shuttle buses on Parliament and Bathurst are still running, and are still free. DT

10:51 PM: Line of riot cops on Queen continues pushing westward against increasingly agitated crowd. “Disperse or you will be arrested,” shout cops. Arrests now happening at Cameron and Queen. KK

10:31 PM: Torontoist’s Kelli Korducki reports: “Riot cops at Cameron and Queen, west of Spadina for the first time today. Crowd chanting before them.”

Meanwhile, in Yorkville, a report from reader Stephen Otto, who was “having a drink at the Hazelton” patio at 9:45 p.m. “Police officers,” he says, “came along Yorkville [patios] asking patrons to please move inside or make their ways out of the area in the event, as seemed possible, that protesters would choose to march that way…after the warning [I] had the chance to pay my bill and scram, so took it.” DT

10:16 PM: According to the Integrated Security Unit, the total number of G20-related arrests as of 9:30 p.m. tonight is 130. DT

9:45 PM: When the first police car was set on fire in the midst of protests at King and Bay at 3:45 p.m. today, Torontoist’s Ryan Walker was there. He shot two videos.

The first is of the scene after the fire started:



And the second was taken just east, at King and Yonge, with the fire burning in the distance and police in formation:



Walker’s photos from today, along with others from Torontoist photographers, are coming soon. DT

9:44 PM: Openings and closures: Bloor Station now fully reopened, the Metro-Central YMCA announces it will be closed tomorrow. HD

9:41 PM: Tensions are apparently flaring on Queen near John, says Deborah Mensah-Bonsu. At about 9:35 p.m. mounted officers charged the crowd and people started running. HD

9:27 PM: Bill Blair is currently updating the media on police activities. “Saturday has proven to be a difficult day,” he said, “and it remains a challenge tonight and tomorrow.” A total of seventy-five people have been apprehended so far and are being held in detention facilities. Blair confirmed that tear gas has been used but did not confirm the use of rubber bullets, despite numerous reports that these had been fired. He also blamed the Black Bloc for escalating protests to the point of violence, and estimated the total number of violent protesters to be between twelve and fifteen hundred. “We have never seen this wanton destruction,” Blair said, his tone firm and even angry. CB & CD.

9:24 PM: Bloor Station has partially reopened. HD

8:54 PM: The TTC has just closed down Bloor Station due to security concerns. HD

8:47 PM: Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy is reporting that Queen’s Park north has now been reopened. 680News, meanwhile, has spotted protesters heading east on Bloor near the ROM. HD

8:37 PM: Protesting can be joyous, too. For many people and much of the day, it has been:









Top and bottom photos by saBEEshots; middle photo by Greengrrl313, all from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.



We’ll continue updating from Queen’s Park and elsewhere as events unfold. HD

8:23 PM: At Queen’s Park South at around 6:45, the mood was calm, and police were standing in two lines, not interacting with protesters. Then at around 7:20, without warning, some police broke apart from the lines and ran north into the crowd on foot at seemingly random intervals, some grabbing individual protesters and dragging them back behind police barricades (where I couldn’t see them). Police hit some of the protesters that they grabbed with batons, and other police officers kept advancing towards the crowd and pushing it further north towards the Legislature Building.

Five minutes after first rushing the crowd and having already removed some protesters, a few groups of police ran forward with batons, and began hitting some protesters. Several unarmed men were beaten to the ground as they curled into the fetal positions—some were crying—while some of those onlookers who begged police to stop were hit with batons themselves. While quickly running away from police seconds after I saw the men on the ground, a male officer who I had my back to hit me in the side with a baton, above my hip. A medic from a volunteer group stopped to make sure I was alright after the police stopped advancing; others were far more in need of medical care. As I was leaving into the north half of Queen’s Park, the police rushed into the crowd again, and pushed protesters to the north side of the legislative building. WBM





Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy’s bruise, about an hour after she was hit by a police officer with a baton. Photo by Ryan Walker/Torontoist.



8:15 PM: We are hearing scattered reports from our readers about pepper spray in Queen’s Park and an escalation on Queen Street West. HD

7:39 PM: Some police officers have their batons out now at Queen’s Park, says Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy. At least a few protesters have been hit. HD

7:24 PM: Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy is among the protesters at Queen’s Park. Police have started charging the crowd, and are dragging some protesters off the scene. HD

7:21 PM: Those TTC shuttles we mentioned earlier? They are free. Ride in peace. HD

7:13 PM: Earlier today, protesters smashed windows and threw feces into the American Apparel store at Yonge and Dundas:





Photo by an American Apparel employee from inside the store at Yonge and Dundas.



We’ll have additional photos of damage later this evening. HD

7:17 PM: At the McDonald’s at Yonge and College, an elderly person marvels: “Usually the washrooms are loaded with bums. Today, it is cops.” KK

7:05 PM: More news from the fence: tensions are growing a bit, and a small but growing contingent of protesters has been asked to head north by the police, says Deborah Mensah-Bonsu. HD

6:51 PM: Horses charged the crowd [at Queen’s Park]. Lots of wild running. Probably more people getting hurt from the stampedes than anything else. AL

6:43 PM: One of our readers just sent images of another police cruiser on fire, this one on Queen near Spadina:





Photos by David G. Tran.



6:31 PM: If you’re just joining us, the hot spots right now are Queen Street between University and Spadina, and Queen’s Park. HD

6:26 PM: Deborah Mensah-Bonsu is down near the security perimeter, where so far things are quiet and calm. At York and Wellington right now, she says, it is “just pedestrians walking around, one guy with a boom box, and a few dudes dancing to rock tunes.” HD

6:21 PM: An update from the TTC: shuttle buses are now running from Bathurst Station to Front Street, and Parliament buses are running between Castle Frank Station and Front Street. HD

6:13 PM: One of our photographers, Andrew Louis, is at Queen’s Park. He is reporting that rocks are being thrown, and clouds of smoke are popping up. Unclear if these are tear gas, flares, or something else.

5:53 PM: “Toronto is exceptionally safe,” reiterates Miller. He advises people to exercise care downtown, but also points out that our neighbourhoods are full of people celebrating World Cup games and going about their ordinary lives. HD

5:43 PM: Mayor Miller’s just finishing a press conference, expressing anger at what is happening in Toronto today. He’s asking everyone to stay calm, and is outraged that a small group of more violent protesters is hijacking the more peaceable protests of the majority. Said the mayor: “People have a right to freedom of speech. The sad fact is that there are some groups—they call themselves anarchists though I don’t know why, I think criminals would be a better term—who are using this…I don’t think you can blame organisers of a legitimate protest for any of that.”

When asked by a reporter to comment on the sense some people have that the police have been heavy-handed, Miller responded with a strong defence of Bill Blair and the TPS: “I think we should be very proud of the Toronto Police Service. I think they do a commendable job. These are difficult circumstances.” HD

5:41 PM: Two reports filed earlier today in our G20 Dispatches series, by Christopher Bird and Christopher Drost: the first‘s about Jack Layton, who we ran into in the International Media Centre washroom; the second is about how true stories (whether they’re about protesters or police) get turned into something less than truthful. DT

5:37 PM: Toronto Police Sergeant Tim Burrows has confirmed to 680News that despite wide reports to the contrary, no firearms, pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets have been used thus far. HD

5:33 PM: A representative from Mt. Sinai hospital is just updating CBC Radio on injuries. The hospital is under lockdown, but is allowing patients to enter. So far four protest-related injuries, all minor. HD

5:15 PM: Torontoist’s Nick Kozak files these photos, shot between 1:51 and 3:43 p.m. today, of some less intense moments in today’s protest:













More photos, by Torontoist’s photographers, are coming soon. DT

5:09 PM: The Star is reporting that a few shots were fired at College and University. Toronto Police Services is now saying that earlier reports of tear gas being deployed were mistaken. HD

5:03 PM: CP24 and CityNews are confirming that tear gas has been released at College and University. HD

5:01 PM: Christopher Bird and Deborah Mensah-Bonsu are both reporting from King and Bay. There is a crowd of what looks like at least fifteen hundred. Classic protest chants, so far peaceful. HD

4:52 PM: Hundreds of protesters at Yonge and Adelaide shouting “let us walk” and (at police) “Who do you serve? Who do you protect?” Many of them are now heading west on Adelaide. DMB

4:37 PM: And because there is actually a summit going on right now, at which people are discussing important issues and making important policy decisions, here’s an interesting way to check up on the progress made at the G20 summit itself: the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto has a blog. On the blog: a compliance department that is scoring the various leaders’ commitments in real time, as well as a group of civil society analysts looking at protests and interviewing different NGOs.HD

4:36 PM: So, despite a few flare-ups, so far the protests have overall been peaceful, and the police have overall been restrained. Toronto is, despite a few unfortunate exceptions, hanging in there. HD

4:23 PM: Riot police are getting out of vans and forming a line on King between University and York. DMB

4:21 PM: The Eaton Centre is now on lockdown. Hearing reports than nobody is being let in or out. HD

4:13 PM: There’s a group of protesters at Bay and Adelaide, chants of “no justice, no peace.” Cops now hammering their shields. CB

3:55 PM: Police cruiser on fire at Bay and King. HD





Police cruiser on fire at King and Bay. Photos by Ryan Walker/Torontoist.



3:49 PM: Christopher Bird is reporting that people now sitting a few feet in front of the cops at Richmond and University. Protesters aren’t chanting, it doesn’t seem to be an organized group, but gradually more are showing up. Police are looking increasingly tense. HD

3:46 PM: The scene on Queen just east of Spadina a few minutes ago:





Photo by Emily Shepard/Torontoist.



3:43 PM: Meanwhile, things are considerable quieter at Queen’s Park. “The worst party in the world,” says Peter Saltsman. “Even the cops are leaving.” HD

3:42 PM: Fifty to one hundred protesters are standing in a line right now straddling University south of Queen, about twenty feet away from the cops. Some more damage: a CBC truck, a CIBC branch. CB

3:31 PM: Scotiabank at Queen and Duncan smashed up. Some overturned mailboxes. Cops still acting with restraint, providing exits to protesters who want to leave. CB

3:22 PM: Blockade on Queen is steadily retreating east, the police seem to be trying to give the protesters breathing room to tire themselves out. Blockade on John holding firm; one officer has a tear gas launcher at the ready. All the cops at the intersection have donned their gas masks. CB

3:18 PM: Protesters are steadily advancing against a police blockade at Queen and Peter. Protesters now attempting to smash storefronts. CB

3:15 PM: Windows on police cars smashed. Cops aren’t moving and are acting with restraint. CB

3:12 PM: Violence is flaring now: a few physical attacks on cops, some bottles thrown. Queen and Peter. CB

3:10 PM: The cops on scene now are saying they didn’t deploy any devices at all—it was the protesters who set off flares. CB

3:07 PM: There is currently a white cloud hovering near Queen and Spadina. Though many people jumped to the conclusion that it was teargas, right now the CBC is reporting that the police have fired off flares. HD

3:36 PM: The scene at City Hall a couple of hours ago:





Mounted police near City Hall, 1:13 p.m. Photo by Ryan Walker/Torontoist.



2:54 PM: Christopher Bird is at Queen and John, right outside the MuchMusic building. A row of people with the Canadian Labour Congress is standing between the protesters and the cops, encouraging people to keep on moving, and generally trying to maintain order. They are getting yelled at by protesters for taking away their rights to protest. Which, given that the Labour Congress contingent is trying to act as a shield for the protesters, is perhaps somewhat ironic. HD

2:48 PM: The protesters trying to move down John Street have been stopped and police have taken the signs and banners they were trying to use as weapons. A small army of riot police has amassed at John and Richmond. SM





Spadina and Richmond around 2:45 p.m. Photo by Emily Shepard/Torontoist.



2:44 PM: Also at Queen and University, a nearly naked man scaling the war memorial statue in the centre median:





Photo by Christopher Drost/Torontoist.



Nearly Naked Man’s objectives are thus far unknown, reports Christopher Bird. HD

2:41 PM: Despite the strong shows of police force, so far it seems that things are staying calm. Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy reports that the protest is now winding down at Queen and University—there have been no visible clashes or arrests thus far. HD

2:34 PM: Stephen Michalowicz is reporting from the intersection of John and Richmond that police just donned gas masks and what looks like tear gas guns to confront the protesters that are trying to

charge down John Street. Similarly, Deborah Mensah-Bonsu is seeing riot cops at every intersection looking south from Queen. HD

2:32 PM: GO service to Union Station has now also been suspended. HD

2:29 PM: If you are thinking of heading downtown, be advised that the subway is no longer running on the Yonge-University-Spadina line between St. George and Bloor stations (so the entire downtown loop). The TTC is also saying that streetcars are not entering the downtown core.HD

2:07 PM: Kelli Korducki, who was at yesterday’s Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protest, reports from today’s (larger) protest, currently on the move: “Much better communication between police and organizers today. Am seeing much better cooperation than there had been yesterday. It also helps that the riot cops are less visible. They’re still all over, but keeping some distance.”

Emily Shepard, at Queen and Simcoe, sends this photo of riot cops (though it does not, unfortunately, include a photo of the person who moments ago mooned them):





Photo by Emily Shepard/Torontoist.



Our minute-to-minute coverage is collected over on our Twitter. DT

1:46 PM: One of the big stories so far today has been the overnight raid by police of a house where some protest organizers were staying. The Globe is reporting that police arrested several people staying at 114 Westmoreland Avenue. Some protesters who were also at the house but not arrested spoke to the National Post from Allan Gardens; they claim that the police failed to properly show a warrant, and that the arrests are illegal. HD

1:41 PM: During this afternoon’s protest, which is now starting and which is expected to attempt to head towards the security fence, we’ll be posting minor, minute-by-minute updates to our Twitter; major updates and photos will be here, in this post. DT

1:34 PM: What’s going on right now, according to Torontoist reporters on the ground across downtown:

Kelli Korducki, with the mass of protesters at Queen’s Park, says: “Samba Squad is playing in Oxfam group and people seem more positive than yesterday despite rain.” There are “more children visible today, notably among pro-Tibet and Uyghur protest groups.” Stephen Michalowicz is reporting that cops “have started clearing people off University and onto the sidewalk as the protesters begin to march.”

Deborah Mensah-Bonsu, at University and King, at the fence some protesters are planning to march towards, reports that it’s a “literal ghost town. A few pedestrians, some taking photos of the fence and the non-action, lots of security standing around in groups.” Two “massive military helicopters flew overhead—apparently Obama’s; they’re sending five or six, and he’s in one of them.”

Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy, at Queen and University, reports: “plenty of police but not a protester in sight. When I asked police what they’ll do if the protest splinters south towards the security zone, they told me it was the first they had heard of it and asked where I got the info. Seemed genuinely shocked! One cop said with certainty, ‘I can assure you they will not be going south.'”

Suzannah Showler sends this update from outside the temporary detention centre on Eastern Avenue: “Nada at Eastern—security is hanging out, reading Metro, etc. Nary a protester. One officer just joked to me: ‘See, we’re ready for ya.’ Cops also teased me for jay-walking. They’re obviously bored.”

Peter Saltsman, at Union Station, reports there are more cops than passengers. “Most of them discussing lunch.” DT

12:54 PM: Around downtown, protesters are collecting, and starting to make their way to Queen’s Park, and to University. Christopher Drost sends these photos from forty-five minutes ago, of a smaller group at Bloor and Spadina:







Photos by Christopher Drost/Torontoist.



Our Stephen Michalowicz spotted one group, protesting “crimes against humanity in the Ethiopian region of Ogaden,” on their way down University at 12:35 p.m.—police, then, were keeping them on the sidewalk. DT

12:30 PM: There is a deceptively light police presence on University Avenue between College Street and Queen Street West. Hundreds of police officers are keeping dry in nearby buildings and in their SUVs and minivans. SM

12:25 PM: A few hundred at the Greenpeace building at 33 Cecil building. Handing out disposable ponchos. OH THE IRONY. ES

12:18 PM: One small but notable mistake, which we’ve corrected in previous updates: the name of the deaf protester arrested yesterday and being detained at 629 Eastern, according to the Star, is Emomotimi Azorbo; we’d been spelling his first name “Mototimi.” DT

12:05 PM: And the Globe and Mail is reporting that there have been thirty-two arrests so far, with fifty-one charges—though for most of them, police have released no details, which has led Globe reporter Siri Agrell to question the lack of transparency. DT

11:44 AM: Via the Star, an excellent tip sheet put together by journalists Jim Rankin and Stuart Laidlaw, to “Surviving the G8/G20 Protests.” Explicitly for media, it’s useful for just about anyone. DT

11:39 AM: 680News is reporting that the G8 in Huntsville has “wrapped up”; world leaders will be on their way into Toronto shortly. The Globe (with whom we are partners) have more from Huntsville on their G8/G20 page. DT

11:07 AM: Emily Shepard files this report from “Shout Out for Global Justice!”, held last night at Massey Hall. DT

11:04 AM: The Star profiles today’s protest, which starts at 1 p.m. at Queen’s Park, and is expected to be the largest demonstration of the weekend. DT

10:57 AM: On a rooftop near the Don Valley Parkway, near Queen Street East, a group attempted to stage a protest of the now-infamous G20 airspace restrictions, which include a ban on kite flying within fifteen nautical miles (or about twenty-eight kilometers) of the Summit. The plan was to fly kites within view of the highway, and, presumably, the authorities.

Chris Chopik, the ringleader, whose office is in the building where the protest was set to take place, told us he hadn’t planned on protesting until he heard about the kite ban. “It’s one thing not to be able to wear a suit downtown,” he said. “But to have a fifty kilometer no-fly zone around the summit…” He gesticulated with his kite, which was plastic, with a picture of a salamander. “It shows a lack of sensitivity to the populace.”

This morning’s rain had kept turnout low. There were two protestors on the roof: Chopik and his publicist. There were also two photographers, two reporters (including us), and a Rogers satellite truck parked by the DVP, recording video. SK

10:25 AM: Here’s video from last night between 9 and 10 p.m., outside the temporary detention centre at 628 Eastern Avenue where Emomotimi (“Timmy”) Azorbo, a deaf man, was held after being arrested. In the first half of the video, shot by Christopher Drost, York University grad student (and friend of Azorbo’s) Saron Gebresellasi tells cameras about the “very specific, special, precarious position” that Azorbo is in. In the second half, we talk to Doug Pflug, a Guelph media relations officer—one of the many media relations officers brought in by the ISU—and another officer.



Christopher Bird’s article last night has more information about the arrest and peaceful protest that resulted from it. DT

9:53 AM: One last photo from yesterday’s OCAP protest that we can’t not share, by Harry Choi, of riot cops facing down protesters at University and Elm. DT





Photo by harry choi from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.



9:32 AM: Just published, Chris Drost and Chris Bird’s short piece about how gross the International Media Centre is getting, as a result of the journalists there. DT

8:49 AM: Published late last night on Torontoist was “Full of Sound and Fury,” a look at yesterday’s protests—including the one that saw protesters outside of the temporary detention centre near Filmport before midnight, demanding that Emomotimi Azorbo, a deaf protester arrested on Friday, be given access to a lawyer and an interpreter.







Protesters outside of 629 Eastern Avenue on Friday night. Photos by Christopher Drost/Torontoist.



The article—written by Torontoist’s Christopher Bird, with photography by Christopher Drost—is here. DT

8:40 AM: Torontoist’s Ryan Walker was in the midst of Friday’s Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protest at its climax:





Photo by Ryan Walker/Torontoist.



A full gallery of a dozen photos from him are here. DT

8:01 AM: From yesterday’s OCAP protest, Torontoist’s Nancy Paiva files these photos:















Photos by Nancy Paiva/Torontoist.





REPORTING BY: David Topping (DT), Hamutal Dotan (HD), Christopher Bird (CB), Christopher Drost (CD), Nancy Paiva (NP), Ryan Walker (RW), Emily Shepard (ES), Stephen Michalowicz (SM), Suzannah Showler (SS), Kelli Korducki (KK), Deborah Mensah-Bonsu (DMB), Peter Saltsman (PS), Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy (WBM), Andrew Louis (AL), and Steve Kupferman (SK).