Toronto G20 meeting

FrankS

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I'm wondering, are photographers in the Toronto area:

a) planning to get out among the protestors
b) planning on getting the heck out of Toronto if possible, or
c) not planning on changing their routine in response to this event?
 
Well... I've managed to schedule a trip to Toronto completely unaware of the G20 meeting and I'll be around from 24-30th, at a friend's place that is 1 block from the restriction zone.. So I assume it'd be option C :)
 
(B)..Getting the heck out of TO is my game Frank.

Harper slid one to Toronto for not getting too many votes from the area.
If they wanted super security they could have held the meeting on Baffin Island and not inconvenience the people of Toronto at a rip off cost of 1.1 billion dollars for three days.
Some corporations and their cronies are making a killing at the tax payer's expense, this is better than the multitude of money losing olympic venues excuse to raid the cookie jar.
 
I'm working from home this whole week.
I could, if I wanted to, go in to work.
Right now, based on early reports from co-workers who are in the office, things are pretty quiet. Lots and lots and lots of cops; not as many working citizens, even less auto traffic and only 200 people actually did any sort of "protest" today.
It's only Monday. . .

Personally, I'd rather not go down there to "cover" any protest lest I get pepper sprayed, tear gassed or something worse.

Not because I fear for my safety but I love my Leicas too much to put them in harms way... ;)

Cheers,
Dave
 
c) ignore them, they will go away
now you are talking. Personally it bothers me when adolescents and drunkards, protest and riot over issues they know nothing about and photographers faun over them like the are rock stars. kinda of sickening.
Ok I feel better.
 
now you are talking. Personally it bothers me when adolescents and drunkards, protest and riot over issues they know nothing about and photographers faun over them like the are rock stars. kinda of sickening.
Ok I feel better.

nothing bothers me more than when folks think the only people protesting at g8/g20 meetings are drunkards and adolescents. there will be Zaptista's from Mexico, possibly a big political name from south america, the 24th will see the National Aboriginal day of action across Canada, there will be organized retiree groups protesting pension security, labor groups protesting the sell of of manufacturing interest... the list goes on.

the only reason drunks and adolescents are the face of the protests is because you are feeding your brain with the likes of Fox news,MSNBC and The (insert whatever name you please here) Observer. There are loads of alternative media sites and outlets that work very hard to bring you deeper and more important stories than bricks through windows and they are largely ignored. sometimes working for free to get it out there. in Canada our secret service has been threatening local civil rights groups (Canadians) and 1 billion dollars has been spent to protect all the fat cats from what exactly? in Canadian dollars a billion is a lot.

dig a little deeper and you will soon see the "smash it up" crowd is over represented on the front page of the paper. please don't mistake what i have to say as an attack or rude.
 
sorry Akiva, upon reflection that seems a little harsh towards you and that wasn't my intention. we might have even been agreeing.
 
I'll be out of town as I'm not keen on being OCAP'd by the police here in the city.

These summits should be held outside of cities, on a controlled resort of some sort if they are so worried about security... What possible benefit does holding this here have for the people of Toronto?
 
The police love it!

The police love it!

Platoons of cops from Montreal and other cities and the RCMP are all over downtown. Despite that, someone fired a few shots from a black BMW just outside the security zone around 3:15 a.m. and they didn't catch him.

It's a total disruption of the downtown area. Reminds me of Bucharest when Nixon and de Gaulle visited there in 1969. (I was covering it.)

Reading the news photographers' boards, I see that many of them are being challenged by police but so far no incidents. The photogs seem more worried about the protesters.

This should have been held on an armed forces base -- Trenton or Camp Borden and not in the middle of the city.

The security costs are topping one biillion $$$! Much of it overtime for the cops. I hope they at least spend it in the city.

I am staying far away after Thursday.
 
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