Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 20:01:07 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: AUT: Report on the "Riot at Queen's Park"  -- Ontario


please forward...

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from: Neil Fettes <benn-AT-idirect.com>

As the media and political storm continues to rage
after the events at Queen's Park on June 15, the most
common accusation seems to be that the Ontario
Coalition Against Poverty is a violent anarchist (the
current favourite media pejorative) collection of
professional agitators who were determined to incite a
riot. In a sense OCAP was damned if it did and damned
if it didn't. A 'peaceful' demonstration where
demonstrators march, speak and go home produces  a
12-second news clip and slips silently into the
collective unconscious.  Mike Harris, after he was
first elected as Premier in 1995, said that every
blade of grass in front of Queen's Park, the
Ontario legislature,  would have to be trampled before
he would listen to demonstrators.  Instead of going
"quietly into that good night" anger at the
callous policies of the Ontario government, who have
not-so-politely asked the poor and downtrodden in this
society if they wouldn't mind going and dying
somewhere else, boiled over when the police decided to
move people away. 

The demonstration was scheduled to begin at 12:00 at
Allen Gardens, about a mile east of the legislature.
Allen Gardens has been the site of a number of anti-
poverty rallies and last summer was the site of OCAP's
famous safe park, which ended with a predawn raid
filmed by CITY-TV, whom the police had apparently
informed.  Of the post riot coverage, CITY appeared to
be the least sympathetic to the crowd, thus aiming at
preserving their information pipeline. I arrived at
11:30 and  already  150 people had gathered to join
the action. People came from Quebec, Sudbury, Hamilton
and other places; unions such as the Canadian Union of
Postal Workers and the Canadian Auto Workers were
present.  People ate and listened to speeches. All the
while the crowd grew. By the time it began its march
along Carleton and College streets the crowd had
swelled to about 1,000 people.   

At 2:00 the crowd reached Queen's Park. As the crowd
entered the park, barricades and riot police were
waiting for them.  OCAP organisers asked the crowd to
wait while a delegation approached the legislature to
ask whether of not they would be allowed to address
the legislature. To no-one's surprise they were turned
down; apparently, the privilege of addressing the
"people's representatives" was reserved for heads of
foreign states.  When the delegation returned the
crowd surged toward the barricades the police had
earlier erected. There was pushing, and shoving and
the barricades were pushed aside. For what seemed like
an eternity there was a stand off, but then the
mounted police, present at Allen Gardens and always in
the background, came riding through.  A cop with a
riot shield and a club is one thing; a person can step
back and at least try to run. A man on a horse
swinging at people with a stick is an entirely
different matter: As people tried to get out of the
way, people were pushed, people fell, people were
trampled, people were beaten by riot cops with shields
and batons. And people got angry. 

At this point people did begin to grab whatever they
could and try to use them as weapons. Yes, paving
stones were torn up and thrown at the police, but when
people are first being charged by club wielding riot
cops and then by police on horses they tend to react 
instinctively to defend themselves. Nevertheless, it
was readily apparent that  despite the anger and
outrage of the crowd, they were retreating. People had
been injured and people needed help. Yet the cops
seemed unwilling to allow the crowd to back away.
Again
and again the men on horses rode through the crowd
swinging wildly. Riot police with sticks and pepper
spray continued to push people  backward. I twice
dodged behind trees to escape mounted policemen. The
police even chose to ride through areas where an
impromptu first aid centre had been set-up; CBC TV
aired a clip of street nurse Cathy Crowe pleading on a
cell phone for ambulances to come to help people. 
They refused saying it was too dangerous. As the crowd
was forced off the legislature grounds, the decision
was made to return to Allan Gardens. At this point the
police assault ceased, although the cops followed the
demonstrators back to Allen Gardens where the rally
eventually dispersed.  A friend of mine saw undercover
cops caucusing to discuss which people they were going
to arrest. 

The media spin was predictable. "Molotov cocktails 
thrown at the Legislature" ; "The Riot at Queen's
Park." The predictable condemnations "thugs", "bums"
"paid agitators" were rife. The 'real' homeless
weren't there said one commentator. OCAP was there to
cause a riot said another. It's hard to know what to
make of make of criticisms that the 'real' homeless
were not there. Anyone who had gone to Allen Gardens
and marched
would know whether or not the homeless were there. 
Yet if there were fewer homeless present than some
armchair critics would have liked perhaps it is
because many of Toronto's homeless have already
experienced the kind of violence that was meted out to
the protesters and were unwilling to risk it again. Of
course if OCAP had planned to instigate a riot, it is
likely that they  have been better prepared than
having to rely on the materials present at Queen's
Park. Anyone who thinks that so-called "professional
trouble makers" plan to take on the riot squad with a
few paint bombs should have their heads examined.  

In the media and police accounts much has been made of
the decision of some demonstrators to wear goggles to
the event as proof of their willingness to seek a
confrontation. It is true that some people were
wearing goggles. I am unable to confirm  how many were
prescription lenses or how many of those people were
planning to go for a swim after the event, but given
the high incidence of pepper spray use by the police, 
it is a wonder people do not wear protective goggles
whenever they leave home. Just about the only time
people can gather in numbers without being sprayed is
if they  pay for the privilege such as at a sporting
event or a rock concert. For the record I took an
umbrella with me to the demonstration because I
thought it might rain - perhaps that umbrella could be
considered an offensive weapon by some. 

The point is not to advocate or condemn. The fact is
that violence is being done to the homeless, to the
poor, to working people in this province by the
current representatives of this economic system, just
as by previous ones. The current government is  a
government that boasts of its unwillingness to
listen. This government has supporters who can appear
on a  discussion programme on CBC just hours after the
events at Queen's Park and deny that there is any
connection between cuts in social assistance, the
killing of affordable housing scenes and a rise in
crime and poverty. Instead the government insists
people have to improve themselves.  In the last weeks
in Ontario a major scandal involving contaminated
water has broken out in small-town Ontario. As many as
thirteen people, possibly more, have died. Yet over
the last seven months as many as twenty-two homeless
people have died on the streets of Toronto. In
Walkerton the Harris government, while desperately
trying to find a scapegoat, has pledged compensation,
yet for the homeless Harris responds his polices will
not change. The Walkerton tragedy cannot be
understated, but in essence the response of Harris and
his cronies has been to say their deaths  ARE more
tragic than the deaths on the streets of Toronto. As
the cuts continue to inflict greater and greater
hardship, the incidence of these events will increase.
The chickens will come home to roost. 

====commie00

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