6.28.2010

"conditions for detainees at 629 eastern ave are illegal, immoral and dangerous"

From Rabble:
Conditions for detainees at 629 Eastern Avenue are illegal, immoral and dangerous

We just got back to our computers and are frantically writing this message. It is 4:45 a.m. on Monday morning. We are the only people who seem to know the extent of this story. Coffee and adrenaline keeping us going. When we got to Queen and Spadina after leaving the Convergence Centre raid today, we had already been blocked off by police lines. It was pouring rain, and we could hear a confrontation taking place further down the street. The cops didn't care whether or not we were media -- in fact, we heard that media was forced to leave before we arrived. Police acted violently and with sheer disregard for the law, attacking peaceful protesters and civilians unrelated to the protest. Tired, frantic, and feeling defeated, we came home and posted the message before this one.

We then did the only thing left to do, and headed to 629 Eastern Avenue (the G20 Detention Centre, a converted film studio) where detainees from the demonstrations were being taken. We knew people were being released sporadically so we grabbed as many juice boxes and granola bars as we could afford and set off with medical supplies. Journalists were basically absent, showed up only to take a few seconds of video, or simply arrived far too late to be effective.

It is next to impossible to set the scene of what happened at the Detention Centre. Between the two of us we estimate that we spoke to over 120 people, most of whom were released between 9:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. Despite not knowing each other, the story they tell is the same....

[Editors' note: Roughly 900 people have now been arrested, according to police, after a weekend of mayhem on the streets of Toronto during the G20 Summit. This is now the largest-ever mass arrest in Canadian history. No word on how many charges have been laid. Compare it to this: 497 people were arrested during the ‘October Crisis and the war measures act' in 1970, which came before Canada had a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.]

Read it here.

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