Ontario-Quebec organizer Mark Calzavara reports that more than 1000 people are at the G20:REDUX rally this afternoon, marking one year since the protests against the G20 summit in Toronto last June. Board member Roy Brady and Toronto chapter activists are at the rally.
A media release issued this hour states, “G20:REDUX was organized by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Ontario Federation of Labour, Canadian Federation of Students, Council of Canadians, Greenpeace, Now Magazine, Rabble.ca and many endorsing organizations. The family-friendly event featured passionate speeches and musical performances to mark the one-year anniversary of the Toronto G20 and to renew the call for an independent public inquiry into G20 security.”
“Today’s festive rally at Queen’s Park demonstrated that Toronto’s activist spirit has not been suppressed. Speakers (including Brigette DePape and Sid Ryan) and performers celebrated their fundamental freedoms and spoke out against the police use of excessive force in an area that, last year, had been approved by the police as a ‘designated protest zone’ hours before they stormed peaceful protesters.
The Toronto reports, “A number of groups got together to organize the commemorative weekend’s events, including the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Council of Canadians and Ontario Federation of Labour.”
The Globe and Mail adds, “Hundreds of people marked the one-year anniversary of the G20 summit and its mass arrests by rallying at the Ontario legislature and marching through city streets… Civil rights activists, student groups and labour leaders renewed their call for both a public inquiry into police actions at last year’s summit and for the resignation of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. The speakers noted that Saturday’s rally was held at the same site where a year earlier, police had moved in on protesters at what had been designated as a safe protest site. …An inquiry is needed not for retribution but to get at the truth of police actions at the summit and hold police and politicians accountable, speakers from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Federation of Students and Council of Canadians said.”
