It’s a Follow-Up Post
I’m eating my words all right. What happened over the weekend still doesn’t seem in step with reality, but for a different reason now. Why? Why why why? The videos show people running up to windows, taking three swings with a baseball bat and then retreating into a crowd. Another clip shows someone trying to launch a newspaper box through a window. Really?
This isn’t practical, it doesn’t get out the right message. The message we hear isn’t “save the whales” or “feed the starving” or anything useful. Those messages just become footnotes, and the real protesters have a lot to be upset about. This weekend, the medium was the message, and was ugly.
Showdown
A week or two ago we were told not to come to work during G20 summit: the shop and most of the campus would be closed those days due to our close proximity to the protests scheduled at Queen’s Park. This seemed strange at first. Protests in Toronto are regular enough after all, and if organized well, usually peaceful. Granted, something polarizing like the G20 is probably going to draw a larger crowd, but surely–
I’m not sure that the over-the-top security measures are really in step with reality. Maybe a month from now I’ll be eating those words, but right now it looks like they’re expecting a city-wide riot. What’s more terrifying: the idea of local law enforcement gearing up for a small war, or the possibility that it might all be necessary? Or maybe it’s self-perpetuating, I don’t know. The rhetoric from Star and Globe commenters is wearing thin too, though this is true for most stories (conspiracy theorists are particularly well-represented on G20 stories).
Above all the noise of dissenting opinions, I just hope the G20 passes uneventfully. Peaceful protests are one of those things that make Canada great; the right to yell through a megaphone without fear of arrest or martial law is something not all nations enjoy. I think it loses some of its relevance though once you see people being carried away on stretchers; does the us versus them mentality begin to upstage the actual issues? It’s not a rhetorical question, I really don’t know.
