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Some Enchanted G20 Evening
“Two, four, six, eight, we don’t want a police state!”
“What do we want? Public inquiry! When do we want it? Now!”
Another day, another round of protest chants. As they did on Monday, Torontonians once again took to downtown streets, this time to rally for a public inquiry concerning actions at the G20. Organized by Canadians Advocating Political Participation, the event consisted of a march from Queen’s Park to Dundas Street to Bay Street to police headquarters and back, bookended by (largely inaudible) speeches in front of the Ontario legislature.
And it was fine. It was dandy. They came, they saw, they chanted. It’s important that protests and rallies haven’t stopped. It’s important that Torontonians are working to keep the issues raised by the G20 in the public eye. But while voices last night were clear and refrains dutifully repeated, bruises inflicted by police batons were starting to yellow, and everyone seemed just a little bit more spent than they were on Monday. Save a brief time when police lines stayed firm at the corner of Bay and College, leading a minority of protesters to linger there a little longer and yell a little more aggressively, the march, with some one thousand people, was strong but staid.
Things move quickly in this city: subway wait times and attention spans are both kept short. When it comes to dealing with the aftermath of the G20, Toronto’s taste for rallies and protests may reach its threshold sooner rather than later. Outrage—or at least its public expression—will have some kind of expiration date. This is not to say that public gatherings will not continue to have their place, but in the coming weeks and months, Torontonians are going to need to turn increasingly to other, less sexy forms of action in order to vocalize their feelings. Sometime soon, we are going to need something more sophisticated than protest chants if we want to be heard.