I’ve been in Toronto for quite a long stretch.  Normally I spend about half of my year in Los Angeles, and the rest of the year split between my home in Toronto, and traveling the world.  With much thought, it has made sense for me to stay in Toronto for the duration I have, though recently I’ve found myself missing LA LA Land… now more than ever!  I never really thought I would miss Los Angeles.  Sure, I miss my friends in Cali, and the fun industry parties but LA in general? Not so much.

Well, a few things have been happening in Toronto recently that remind me of Los Angeles.  Things that, on my list of things I’d expect to see & experience here, were basically unlikely to happen.  A major earthquake, and unbelievable protests turned into violent riots after provocation from police.  More on that, but first lets talk about the earthquake.

The first major earthquake that I experienced was in Los Angeles, two years ago during a shoot I was doing for Brazzers.  In fact, looking back at the records, I believe it was the 5.5 quake that happened on July 29, 2008.  The location was this gorgeous house dubbed  ’The Captain and Tennille House.’  It’s a lovely house set on the top of a small mountain that takes a good 5 minutes drive to get to the top of.  In addition the house itself is on stilts.  There’s a gorgeous view of the valley from all angles, and it was a phenomenally gorgeous day.  Everyone had already finished with hair & makeup, and we were just beginning to take the stills when the house began to moan and creak.  To me, having grown up in southern Ontario, Canada, where we get an unusually large number of thunderstorms, it just felt like the winds were picking up at the beginning of a storm.   The photographer (who, forgive me, I forget his name) knew immediately and started freaking out, thinking the house was going to come down and he didn’t know where to jump to get out of the way!  This confused the fuck out of me, because I was still under the assumption that it was winds.  Top of a mountain: not unreasonable, right?  Anyway, just about as quickly as it started, it was over.  I’d experienced my first major earthquake and didn’t even know it!

Well, this past week, on June 23, a fairly major earthquake hit Toronto, the epicenter of the quake being right on the Ontario-Quebec border, and officially measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale (I noticed today this had changed, as the initial reports measured it at 5.5).  It happened at around 1:30pm, and since I had just had an especially late night, I was still asleep when it began.  Framed photos on the shelf in my bedroom crashed to the floor and the noise of it woke me up.  I actually thought that one of my roommates had just opened a door causing the air pressure in the condo to change, causing the photos to fall (not unheard of), but I was alone in my bedroom and the door was shut and so were the windows.  I sat up in bed and felt the bed shaking back and forth, and thought I was just imagining things from being still mostly asleep, but I stood up and the floor was shaking too!

Confused more than anything, I went out into the living room to find one my roommates to see what was going on, and at that point the shaking stopped.  One of them was awake and though unconcerned, neither of us really knew what had happened.  (It’s not unusual for random construction throughout the building to cause vibrations to our suite.)  We realized what it was when friends began texting us to see if we felt the earthquake too.  Twitter was a buzz with tons of people talking about the earthquake nearly instantly after it happened, and not long after that the ‘official’ report went up on the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) website.  A 5.5 quake had hit right along the border between Ontario and Quebec, and vibrations were being felt across Quebec, Ontario and even some of the north-east United States.   As far as I know, the extent of the damage from the quake is summarized below…

Now moving along, I just want to say that I do my best to stay out of politics.  It’s not because I don’t understand, or because I don’t care, but rather because the more I learn, the more angry I get – and I’m not usually one to get angry.  There’s just something so infuriating about the obvious stupidity that most politicians display in their decidedly ’good’ decisions and actions.  Then there’s the futility of knowing that no matter who you vote for the government always gets in!

Anyway, this past weekend Toronto was host to the G20 Summit, and along with the delegates, hundreds of police officers were brought in to maintain the peace and keep the protesters under control.  The budget for this enhanced security was more than a billion.  Yes, I said billion!  Along with the extra cops the police acquired 4 LRAD weapons, though their official statement called them ‘communication devices’.  LRAD stands for Long Range Acoustic Device, and it’s designed as a crowd control device.  Its output up to 155 db, focused at a distance, is sufficient to produce permanent ear damage and temporarily disrupt vision.  Scary stuff.

Over the course of the weekend far too many of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms were taken away from us.  Police were using retractable batons, tear gas, pepper spray and even rubber bullets on the crowds.  I saw footage of a guy getting shot with a rubber bullet at point-blank range: how can that be necessary? People were being detained forcibly without being informed promptly (or at all!) of the reasons therefor; some were subject to unlawful strip searches; they were denied the ability to retain council… the list goes on.  It’s sickening.  Now before you start thinking that the protesters must have been doing something wrong for this to happen… watch this:

Pretty sickening, isn’t it?  Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end every time I see it.  What’s worse, is that the police seemed to be following the ‘Miami Model’ down to the last detail.  The Miami Model, summed up very briefly, is a list of things that police do to provoke protesters so that they can retaliate with greater force.  Watch this:

There were 4 or 5 police cars set on fire, yet strangely they seemed to be abandoned, and the fire department wasn’t called in either.  They appeared to be set ablaze and left to burn so the media could get a good long look at them, and so that they could be justification for the police to attack the protesters and take away more rights and freedoms.  There are many articles showing these riot instigators dressed all in black, yet wearing police issued combat boots, and shiny police belts… It’s pretty undeniable and very disturbing.

It all makes me very angry.  I’m embarrassed that when people think of Toronto and Canada this is going to be one of the things they remember.   When an elderly man is pushed to the ground by police who wont let him return to his own home, when cameras are taken by the police thereby removing freedom of press, when a group of people singing the national anthem sit down in peaceful protest are met by charging riot cops beating them with metal batons and shooting them with rubber bullets…

…well, it just makes me so angry I could cry.

Oh, Canada.  What have you done? =(

~ Violet

The following photos are courtesy of Johnny Soporno

Tags: black bloc, canada, G20, G20 Summit, miami model, police, protest, Riot, toronto

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