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G20 protesters try to take over downtown property
Jayme Poisson
About 100 protesters attempted to occupy an Esso gas station and convenience store at Dundas St. and Jarvis St. Monday afternoon as they protested the G20 summit.
The demonstrators, members of a Guelph-Ontario based group called Sense of Security, occupied the gas station and convenience store for about 10 minutes before about 50 Toronto police, many of them on bikes, surrounded the station and forced them to leave.
“Corporations like Esso have caused irreparable damage all over the world,” said Julian Ichim, an organizer for the group. “There is a lack of housing. This is our housing now.”
Group occupies Esso gas station and convenience store for 10 minutes
After police forced the group to leave the Esso site, the demonstrators continued on its way toward Yonge St. The demonstrators had planned to walk south on Sherbourne St. but were redirected by police at Dundas St. As the group marched, they chanted: “G20, G8. They few. We, many.”
The demonstration began in Allan Gardens earlier in the afternoon as protestors vowed to take a “piece of property” in downtown Toronto to protest the G20 meetings, which begin in Toronto on June 25. As they began their march, they chanted: “Stop the war on the poor,” and “Make the G20 pay.”
The demonstrators are critical of the upcoming meeting of world leaders for abandoning the poor.
Toronto police attempted to prevent them from walking down Sherbourne St. but the group insisted it be allowed to march, chanting: “Let us walk, Let us walk.”
“The G20 is about bailing out the rich,” the group told the Star. “It forgets about the poor — that there are cuts in welfare, housing. People are going hungry.”
Ichim told media in an impromptu scrum that the group is “prepared to go as far as they need to, but it really comes down to how far the police are prepared to go.”
Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/826478--g20-protesters-try-to-take-over-downtown-property