Shocked

I'm not feeling so good today, and it's not just the sinus cold. I spent a lot of time on Twitter over the weekend following eyewitness feeds of what was going on in Toronto at the G20/G8 protests. First I was horrified at the disgusting things some of the extreme protesters were doing. But then, as Saturday night went on and Sunday wore away, it was the way the police were treating peaceful protesters and random bystanders that was most disturbing.

We know, every time there's a G20/G8 meeting that there are going to be rioting/vandalizing protesters. I feel so much sadness for the cities that are forced to host these meetings, because the lunatics show up just to destroy things and get an adrenaline rush out of yelling at people.

But then, even once they were shut down, the police just lost perspective, or maybe the people telling the police what to do lost perspective, and started detaining and arresting people just for being in their own neighborhoods.

We've seen it before, I know. But what really scares me most of all about the human rights abuses in Toronto this past weekend is that it's Canada.

At one point, the awesome Ann Douglas (author of the "The Mother of All" series) who tweets at @anndouglas tweeted "Remember how smug we all felt when Bush was in power in the US - how we said that could never happen in Canada? Yeah." and I realized that was exactly why it was freaking me out so much.

To me, it felt like our whole country was falling apart when George W Bush was President. (I know it feels that way for other Americans now that Barack Obama is President.) And especially having lived in NYC during 9/11, it just feels like we're always a short jump away from chaos. And like we really never know what's going to happen, because we're not an essentially civilized people. We're too polarized and angry and extreme.

But Canada seemed different. The Canadians I know are witty and intelligent and driven and self-deprecating and productive. And the whole country just seems more measured and civilized than the US is. Less prone to go off half-cocked about something that should really be people's private business, or start fights with other countries, or just stick their noses where they don't belong in general.

Canada was also this safe place we could go if the shit really hit the fan here in the US, because it was safe and reasonable there.

So on Saturday and yesterday when downtown Toronto was anything BUT safe and reasonable, for random Canadian citizens and visitors who were doing things like walking their dogs or meeting friends to go out and have a drink, everything fell apart. For the people who were detained and arrested and stripped of their rights, for sure, but also for everyone else, in Canada and in the US and in other countries.

Because if even Canada can descend into Lord of the Flies in a hot second, what hope is there for any of us?

Comments

[Ann Douglas]

Thank you for writing about this, Moxie. Your perspective is (as always) so wise.

[twitter.com/DoorbellQueen]

Yes. YES. That's it, exactly.

[Neil]

I think, more than anything, this weekend just proves that we Canadians are all just as capable as anyone else of feats of incredible stupidity, groupthink, and mob rule.

We may be hilarious, hard-working, endlessly apologetic, and so good looking it should be illegal, but underneath we, like anyone else in the world, are human.

This Torontoist post is a nearly perfect encapsulation of how I and many others here feel about the whole ridiculous mess. Everyone loses.

http://torontoist.com/2010/06/g20_dispatches_everyone_loses.php

(Even with all of this, don't let one weekend of buffonery stop you from moving here. We make a mean plate of poutine.)

[Marsha]

I think this showed, and past G8/20 demos have shown, that the police are not a neutral force, but politicized with their own agenda. I really don't think the Canadian police are any different than other police forces unfortunately.

There were, once again, folks there demonstrating with an agenda to destroy (generally known as black bloc people).

And alas, when the police let them destroy property so the police then have an excuse to arrest hundreds of people and justify the massive amounts of money spent--the most ever spent on security for a G8/20 meeting, it can look like this small group of protesters--it really is such a small group of people--are bigger than they really are and that's our media will focus on. It's frustrating beyond belief.

[Moxie]

Neil, that post was awesome.

I just wish the whole weekend had never happened, aside from my 5 viewings of The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

[Anonymous this time]

I felt the same way, but I also thought, you know, those police are used to dealing with Canadians, not the freakazoids who come out of the woodwork for stuff like this. (NOT that Canadians weren't among them, but point is: this is not normal Toronto rush hour behavior.) I still breathe deep and think of Canada when things start getting scary here in the US.

[Linda]

I am not sure what to think about the whole situation. I am embarresed about the handling of the situation, but the protestors pissed me off so badly that it's hard to be angry with the police.
I think most of the Torontonians I talked to, knew it would be bad and would avoid the whole downtown scene until it was over. So the fact that there were innocent bystanders down there is puzzling because it would seem that every rational person knew to stay away, that it was not safe and the police did not have good control. The downtown was pretty shut down and paralyzed from my understanding, but I have not watched all the reports that you have.

Canada is no different from any other country, there's just less people. I think for the most part Canadians appreciate peace and respect authority. And we take better care of the poor than most countries which makes the country safer, and that is ironic considering what the protestors are protesting.

The civil right violation is horrific and I realize a lot of innocent people got screwed, but aside from military presence how can a city even handle that?

The next summit should be convened over Skype.

[Dr. Confused]

I'm with Neil.

I'm Canadian; I've lived in Canada and the States and am now in Europe.

Canadians, like Americans and British and French and etc etc are mostly lovely people and I adore them. But one thing that many of them have in common that has really started to drive me nuts is a smugness about their country. There's this myth that Canadians are so much better than Americans, more polite, more reasonable, more moderate, just nicer people. And that our country is one of the good ones, out there doing wonderful things in the world. It blinds a lot of people to Canada's failings. Canada is just another messed-up country trying to make it's way in this messed-up world. Yes, we've done great things. We are also routinely called out by Amnesty International and the UN for our shoddy treatment of First Nations people. And we have violent elements, and we have some poor police policy, etc, etc.

Please don't make Canada into some kind of a fantasyland. You may like it better in some ways (the major thing is that the centre in Canada is significantly left of the centre in the US, so gay marriage is legal everywhere, abortion rights are guaranteed and pretty much not up for discussion, and universal healthcare is sacred) but it is populated and run by imperfect human beings.

[caramama]

Okay, okay. Canada can be just as screwed up as the US, even with the exceptionally good looking people...

Scandinavia/the Nordic Countries! That's where we should go if things get too bad here! ;-)

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