Police trap G20 protesters at Queen and Spadina
Queen and Spadina was one of the epicenters of G20 activity today in Toronto. Jonas Naimark who was there and took the above photo writes:
The last day of the G20, protesters ended up at Queen and Spadina. Soon after stopping the crowd police boxed them in and began grabbing them out 1 by 1 to arrest people. They were standing there peacefully, many people weren't even protesting they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm not sure what the police's plan was. Shortly after this pic was taken it started to poor rain. Many of these people were forced to wait for four hours in the rain in restraints.
Update: the last of the 600 or so people detained at the intersection have now been released.
People released from police custody say they were given no explanation why they were suddenly freed. They'd been told they had been disturbing the peace.
They said there were about 600 people originally detained at the intersection. The ones set free were in the final group waiting to be processed. They said it was just luck that they were allowed to go. They were stunned to be arrested.
They say there was no violence at Queen and Spadina. They say they were walking through the intersection and the majority of people detained were not part of the demonstration.
"We were just walking around with friends," said Sam Wisnicki, 22, of Toronto, who just graduated from the University of Western Ontario where she was studying political science and peace studies.
"Nothing was really happening," Wisnicki said. "Everything was peaceful."
The detainees say they were confused and frightened. They were also very cold - they shivered in their soaking wet T-shirts for four hours.
"We were surrounded," Wisnicki said. "We were told to get down and were rounded up like cattle."
She said she, along with two friends from Western, was meeting friends for dinner and stumbled on the protest and decided to walk with it for a couple of blocks.
"I can't believe I'm in Canada. My charter rights have been trampled. My human rights have been trampled. It's shameful."
Some of the people shivering in the rain with her were tourists.
