Heavy police presence in Parkdale

Officers leave after raiding headquarters of Mobilization Network

The Toronto Community Mobilization Network gathered a group of media to tell them they believed police action during the G20 was unacceptable. Within a half hour of that press conference, at the Parkdale Branch of the Toronto Public Library, police swarmed in and overtook the network’s Convergence Centre, just down the street.

Aruna Boodram, with the Toronto Community Mobilization Network explained, just before the police overtook the centre, the Convergence Centre, on Noble Street near Queen Street and Dufferin Avenue, was a place for people from Parkdale, surrounding areas and demonstrators from out of town, to get together, have a free meal and support each other.

“We also have a medic team working out of there and legal support,” Boodram said. “Right now we are under a lot of police scrutiny and police intimidations and the convergence space had served as a place for people to come together and feel like they have some sense of community at a time when we are all feeling on edge,” she said.

The convergence space had served a free dinner each night at 7 p.m. and Boodram said that meal was also offered to people in the community who were looking for a meal.

“We have had lots of Parkdale community members from the area come and enjoy food with us,” Boodram said.

The food was donated from the community, including a lot of baked goods brought to the centre by area residents.

“We have also tried to buy some food and some people who grow their own food have brought it in,” she said. “We have tried to support the local growers.”

For two weeks, she said, the demonstrators had a space where they could come together and were able to organize safely.

“Parkdale is a great community and we really appreciate the people around here and the reason we ended up really liking the area is because a lot of the people in the Parkdale area understand what we are doing and are down with our movement,” Boodram said.

Many in the community showed that support by lining the south side of Queen Street across from the convergence centre, while police went about their business there. A large crowd, of what appeared not to be protesters but Parkdale residents who happened upon the situation, chanted “Get out of Parkdale” and “Who’s street? Our street!”

Police officers in riot gear and on bicycles arrived mid-afternoon Sunday to raid the Convergence Centre, the headquarters of the Toronto Community Mobilization Network.

In a short time, court services vans arrived and were loaded with people who had been arrested, while scenes of people pressing themselves up against a wall at the Parkdale Community Legal Services building (at 1266 Queen St. W.) could be seen.

According to reports, several of those arrested were questioned and quickly released.

Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo happened upon the raid while returning from a downtown prayer vigil. She was asking police to quickly defuse the situation before protesters from downtown made their way to Parkdale, where the majority of people on the streets where Parkdale residents.

At approximately 6:30 p.m. police started to leave Parkdale to cheers, residents ringing their bicycle bells, and chants of “Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye”.

Police were heading to the more volatile area of Queen St. W. and Spadina Avenue, where protesters where being blocked from proceeding west along Queen Street to Parkdale.

At the press conference the Toronto Community Mobilization Network organized for 3 p.m. outside the Parkdale Branch of the Toronto Public Library Maryam Adrangi, an organizer and spokesperson with the group, addressed the media about what she called police brutality.

“Everywhere they meet, they are met with resistance,” Adrangi said. “We have seen this time and again, they are met with resistance because of the violence they are inflicting on people around the world every single day.”

She said police had come into the community and used force and brutality against the community members from Toronto and elsewhere.

“They have been circling demonstrators, we have seen plain cloths cops snatch several demonstrators who are supporting their peers coming out of jail,” Adrangi said. “This is not acceptable when we are already resisting the G8 and G20 violence, the violence that comes from their structures and policies.”

Ryan White from the Movement Defense Committee, which worked with the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, said they has helped more than 500 people who have been imprisoned.

“Legal observers have seen shocking events of police brutality,” White said. He added that protesters who are taken into custody are not given timely access to lawyers and have had to wait up to 14 hours to make a phone call and were held for up to eight hours without water.

“We are asking people to phone your MPs and phone your MPPs, phone groups in the area, anyone you can think of and say, ‘Look, we need to take a stand, we need to ensure people have their right to protest.’”

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