Almost a year has passed since the G20 meeting was held in Toronto and the media has begun reflecting on what happened and why. Like much of the G20 coverage to date, this reflection 
back one year later has been focused on the negative events. While most of my memories of that weekend would fall under the negative category I’m going to focus this post on the handful of things that I witnessed that weekend that after a year of my own reflection stand out and remind me that despite all that happened that weekend communities in Toronto could react positively to an adverse situation.
The NOT Burning Police Cars
While the cars I’m referring to at Queen and Spadina were eventually burned, they sat abandoned on Queen Street for almost 5 hours not being burned. It wasn’t a case of the Black Bloc sweeping in, forcing out the drivers and torching the vehicles. There was a huge gap in time where the cars sat surrounded and defended by regular Torontonians. There were so many people not interested in the destruction and so many cameras recording everything that happened that damage to them remained mostly cosmetic when I saw them. It was hours after I saw them that they were eventually burned. The story of the abandoned cars came out in much more detail in the months following the G20 but that weekend it was the dramatic images of police cars burning that caught the media’s attention. As a result the burning cars got the coverage rather than the hours that the cars sat wide open without a police officer in sight. I think in that scenario it was only a matter of time until one of the many people that were downtown bent on destruction would set the cars ablaze and the length of time it took for it to happen is shocking, in a good way.
Spontaneous Pedestrian Days
The G20 drove cars out of downtown Tor
onto, in many cases literally. Other than the vans for the riot cops, the streets were dominated by pedestrians and cyclists. It was my first and perhaps will be my only time where I could wonder through the downtown core without the main obstacle being cars. While it was hard to not focus on the many other alterations to the urban landscape brought on by the G20, the pedestrian dominated Queen and Yonge Streets gave me moments to enjoy being in the company of other Torontonians that did not vacate the city because of the G20 and instead embraced the opportunity to walk their streets and interact with their community.
Bike Bloc
The destruction
and violence of Saturday prompted an already planned bicycle based protest calling itself the Bike Bloc (not to be confused with the Black Bloc) to embrace peaceful protest. After a bumpy start as police figured out how to escort the group (and in a few case learned how to ride their shiny new G20 bikes) the protest did a couple of circuits around downtown before heading to the temporary jail. Anyone who attempted to cover their face or do anything else out of line with the intentions of the protest was berated by others or asked to leave. It remained a peaceful protest through self-regulation. It was only during a stop at the temporary jail that things started to turn negative. The police tactic of kettling the group was used and otherwise calm and peaceful individuals panicked looking for a way to leave. Despite the reputation of police that weekend, I was able to talk one into giving us the opportunity to leave since many of us came with peaceful intentions. That was my only one-on-one interaction with a police officer that weekend and he acted just as I would have expected a reasonable person and responsible police officer should act. So many police officers and at times the entire force have been villainized related to the G20 (in many cases with good reason). Regular or even positive interactions with the police didn’t make the press even though they did happen. While I am in no way condoning everything the police did that weekend, it also doesn’t reflect what really happened if the media only focuses on the negative interactions.
There are countless other stories of the G20 that will be retold in the coming weeks. And many of them will focus on the negative events and unanswered questions. I think these are important conversations to continue. With this post I want to add a bit of perspective that there were moments during an overwhelming awful weekend where positive interactions reflected the Toronto I know and love.
Bike Bloc