As G20 world leaders reconvene today in Seoul, the events of the last summit in Toronto already seem a distant memory.

Four and a half months have passed since Toronto hosted the G20 meetings, but for many caught up in the police lines or mass arrests, the events of that two-day summit remain very much alive.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and National Union of Public and General Employees began holding a three-day series of public hearings on Wednesday. Some 60 people are testifying about their experiences during the Toronto summit.

Each testimony offers a different tale, but the storytellers share at least one thing in common: For them, the impact of the G20 lingers. The Star talked to four people about how they continue living with those two days in June.

Lisa Walter, 42, artist, educator and freelance journalist

During the G20, Walter was working as an independent journalist. On the last day of the summit, she went to the Bay and Bloor Sts. area in search of two colleagues who had stopped answering their phones. Walter discovered they had been arrested, and was arrested herself, for allegedly breaching the peace. After being held at the Eastern Ave. detention centre for 13 hours, Walter was released without charge. She says that during her time in custody, she was denied access to a lawyer or phone call and was subjected to homophobic insults and slurs.

More than four months after the summit, what emotions or feelings remain?

It’s complicated. There are just a lot of disturbing memories and associations. Every time I go to Bay and Bloor (where the arrest took place), it’s distressing. And I have a lot more apprehension around police officers.

How did the G20 weekend change your attitude toward police?

I experience a lot of fear and anger when I see them. I tense up, I have an irrational fear . . . a police officer was directing traffic outside Roy Thomson Hall recently and I was just like, “Okay, I’m going to look at the ground and keep walking. He’s not there.”

What have you been doing to help yourself move past that weekend?

I was very fortunate. I had people to talk to, other journalists to talk to. I had lots of opportunities to tell my stories afterwards. Just having the opportunity to tell my story has been very therapeutic for me.

Robert Edgar, 53, IT professional

Edgar was neither arrested nor detained during the G20, but he was disturbed by what he observed that weekend, especially with respect to the immense police presence. On the day leading up to the summit, he had his knapsack searched by several officers in the downtown core; as a member of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Edgar also participated in the massive labour rally on June 26, where he happened to be wearing a black t-shirt — a “bad fashion choice,” he says, because he was stopped and questioned by police multiple times.

Do the events of the G20 remain present in your mind?

Oh yes. I don’t think about it every day — shortly after, for the first few months, I did. It lingers when I see a police presence anywhere; I no longer see them as people who are there to serve and protect anymore.

What was your attitude toward police officers prior to the G20?

Neutral . . . I didn’t see them as enemies or anything like that. I’ve always had positive experiences with them.

And how do you feel now when encountering police officers on the street?

Resentful. Not towards the individual but towards the institution. As individuals, they’re just, you know, everybody else, right? They’re people with a job. In large numbers like that, it’s something completely different.

What is the most significant thing you learned from the G20?

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You know, the realization that you’re free as long as you do what you’re told, when you’re told. That’s neither freedom nor democracy. We have the illusion of freedom and choice . . . it’s a totally new attitude (for me).

Terra Dafoe, 28, PhD psychology student at U of T; and Lucius Dechausay, 30, producer/editor with CBC

On the final day of the summit, the couple decided to walk around Toronto and check out what was happening in the city. After a couple of hours, they decided to head back to their home at King and Bathurst Sts., walking west along Queen St. When they reached Spadina Ave., Dafoe and Dechausay were swept up in what ultimately became a mass detention. They were held for hours in pouring rain, an experience Dafoe calls “terrifying.” Eventually, the police lines moved apart to allow some buses through and Dafoe, Dechausay and several others made a break for it and ran away.

How much does the G20 weekend remain on your mind these days?

Dafoe: You get reminders of it on a daily basis. We go through that intersection multiple times a week. You can’t pass through that intersection without thinking about it.

Dechausay: I think about it every day.

How has this experience changed the Queen and Spadina intersection for you?

Dafoe: It’s symbolic of a very traumatic memory and a very traumatic experience. When I go through it, I see it as the way it looked that day — which honestly looked like something out of a movie scene. It’s like a scene from a movie that we were a part of.

Dechausay: You start to see people you were ‘kettled’ with, because we all live in the area . . . we became quite close within that whole scenario because we had to, because we were pushed together, huddling in the rain . . . (We have) sort of an unspoken bond.

Did you suffer post-traumatic stress after this experience?

Dafoe: Afterwards, definitely . . . just being very uneasy everywhere you are. I feel really unsettled. I would feel really uncomfortable to be walking by myself at night and have a couple cops drive by. And that, to me, is really problematic.

Has this experience made you more or less inclined to protest in the future?

Dafoe: I definitely don’t support activism that is violent or guerrilla activism, but now I understand it better. Now I understand how infuriating things can be and how difficult it can be to get your message out there . . . Now, anything G20-related, I would want to be there, protesting and being as involved as I can. Prior to that (experience at Queen and Spadina), probably not.