Black Lives Matter protest shuts down Allen Road

Yesterday evening, a Black Lives Matter protest blocked a portion of the Allen Expressway. Over the past year, two black men were shot and killed by police and the group was honouring and seeking justice for both of them.

In September 2014, a Peel police officer shot Jermaine Carby at a traffic stop. Last week, Ontario's SIU said it would not be laying criminal charges against the officer. Earlier this month, on July 5, Toronto police shot and killed Andrew Loku in an apartment building on Gilbert Avenue.

According to a Toronto Star report, yesterday's protesters met at around 5 PM at the nearby Eglinton-Gilbert Parkette for a rally. They then marched towards the Allen where they blocked traffic for almost two hours.

Toronto's Desmond Cole spoke during the protest last night. He told the Star: "This is not about people being inconvenienced for one night on the highway. It's about almost 30 years of police brutality against one community. That's how people should view this."

Protest organizers were also calling attention to the disproportionate number of incarcerated black men in Canada as well as the recent arrest of Sandra Bland, a Texas woman who died in jail after being detained following a traffic stop.

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All photos by George Talusan in the blogTO Flickr pool.