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Who the 'F' asked for this?Hey Torontonians! The G8 and G20 Summit Security is going to cost a bundle--over $1 Billion and Toronto is getting a big slice to convert the Downtown Core into a trashy, top security, no-man's land. But read on, that's not the real problem.<< Previous | Next >>Even though you as a Torontonian may not have ever committed a violent crime and never vandalized private or public property, $122 million will be spent to patrol and monitor YOU; diminish your right to free speech; degrade your privacy; and toss you into an improvised detention camp if in the name of security, the police or a private security guard takes a dislike to YOU. And if you don't go register for a police checkpoint security pass, you're going nowhere in the Downtown core between 24 and 27 June even if you are one of the bank tower presidents or the Joe, coffee shop owner in an insurance building. In order to receive an ID card, submit your name, photo ID's, as well as your home and business addresses to police NOW. In any event, be prepared to go through intense sniffing, patting-down and lots of questions if you are near the "security zone". Be careful what you say at a checkpoint because an old movie studio on Eastern Avenue is being set up as a temporary mass jail for protesters and people they don't like. If you are the Royal York's janitor on your way to work, you simply don't want to be misidentified as a protester and sent to stinky Eastern Avenue's Detention Camp. Remember that jokes about bombs are def out! You'll be up on Eastern Avenue before you can say "medium double-double and a double-chocolate". Oh and don't bring doughnuts to a checkpoint. With the big brass in town, Metro's Finest must pretend that DOUGHNUTS ARE OFFICIALLY NOT POLICE FOOD. (Things should be back to normal on Monday and they'll need proper feeding after all this.) If you are angry at Mayor Miller, this is not a good time to shout profanities or complaints. WHISPER. For your own good. STFU! Sure, our air is polluted and the sewers stink. I know homelessness is at a new astronomical high and the middle-class dissolved into a new working-poor class which includes YOU. But if you or anyone gets noisy in your protest of the G20 GANG, a new-fangled Sound Weapon will be deployed in your face. Ouch! You won't be able to out-shout these weapons no matter what you have to say; and everybody will be rendered deaf anyway. Yikes! Two perimeters of concrete barriers and chain-link fencing are installed three metres tall around Toronto's Downtown core. Once complete, the barrier will stretch 3.5 kilometres, encompassing an area of the downtown core that contains the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where G-20 world leaders will meet June 26-27. Nice try, Police Chief Blair. (He says he's on our side and so far, he seems to be on our side.) Locking up those politicians in that no-mans-land demarkation 'Zone' (once the Downtown Core) until they fix our world may have sounded like a good idea, but those bastards all have their own armies. You can't win. The northern portion of the security fence will run along Wellington Street West, while the southern portion will run along Lake Shore Boulevard West. The western portion zigzags southward along Windsor Street and Blue Jays Way. The eastern portion runs along Bay Street, east along Front Street West and then south on York Street. During the summit, police will place checkpoints around the G20 security zone. "We know that the traffic impact is going to be significant," Toronto Police Sgt Tim Burrows has warned us. That translates to mean that traffic will be normal-Toronto-construction-season-impasse with additional shut downs on sections of major routes, including the Gardiner Expressway, the Don Valley Parkway, Highways 401 and 427, starting Thursday, June 24 through to Sunday June 27. Anyone travelling the major highways to the airport to get a flight over this particular weekend is a fool and they ARE probably dangerous, at least dangerous to themselves, and should be detained even if they are not a dangerous terrorist. And just to keep the politicians out of earshot of noisy complainers, officially-approved (haha hah) demonstrations were supposed to be allowed only two kilometres away at Trinity Bellwoods Park but that idea failed partially as some labour groups refused to gather there and mostly because neighbours legitimately complained that the pollution of tear gas and smoke grenades would render the beautiful park unusable for a long time ahead. So Toronto Police will now corral protesters in the new “designated speech area” at Queen’s Park North. Tear-gas grenades, shields, batons, guns, sound cannons and all sorts of new gadgets will be in the hands of as many as 24,000 security troops from two dozen countries but mostly Toronto, OPP, RCMP, GTA, FBI, NSA, Secret Service, "police"; Canadian Forces troops (and a small contingent of U.S. Forces accompanying the U.S. President) plus Vancouver and Toronto security guard company troops in very high numbers. The Danger To Toronto's InhabitantsI have a home in Toronto & I truly believe the G-20 threat is real. But Toronto's residents will suffer because of what's inside the fence, not outside. Some annoyance will come from officials & officious jerks who'll exploit the event like sketchy tow truck drivers getting richer as people's cars get towed sooner, more often, etc. We can cope with that if we must. What goes around, comes around. (I have heard a gory story about a sleazy tow driver who one day unwittingly ordered soup from the waitress whose car he towed while she fumbled for change. I don't know how the hell she secretly urinated in that soup but that's how the story goes.) You may have thought you heard military aircraft overhead last month. You did. This is a war and we are at ground zero for a while. (Remember, duck and cover.) The North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) conducted exercises on May 6-7 across the Greater Toronto Area using CF-18 Hornet Fighter/Bomber, CH-124 Sea Kings and CH-146 Griffon helicopters at low altitudes. You can't find a mail box? Canada Post announced that it will be removing any post boxes in the security zone. Apparently some nuclear bombs are so small they could fit in a post box. The same is true of many other nasties. The mail can wait. Cellphone users along Highway 427, Highway 409 and the Gardiner Expressway will be jammed part of the time while G20 delegates are travelling. No biggie: we are not supposed to be using the phone while driving anyway. All the garbage containers have disappeared. Hence, trash is everywhere. The Toronto Police feared that garbage cans could be used as trash weapons and the City has removed them, all. Garbage is now tossed everywhere and we'll be cleaning up lawns and driveways and our work places from trash when this is over. So be it. Traffic will jam residential streets as motorists scramble for alternate routes around blocked roads. Angry, frustrated GTA motorists will hurt more Toronto cyclists & pedestrians & call us stupid for walking around in our own city. What else is new? Prices for simple things downtown will skyrocket. What real Torontonian buys that shit anyway? It's for tourists. Let the protesters pay. Downtown services will not all be available as companies in a significant portion of the core will be crippled due to some 40,000 employees staying home for security fears (HEY! Rent season six of 'Desperate Housewives'. It's awesome). Imagine no Union Station! No Art Gallery of Ontario. Closed from June 24 to June 27. It's a good weekend to leave town anyway. Public transportation will be severely curtailed. Walk. (Dodge the GTA maniacs in their lost Beamers.) Graffiti is popping up everywhere. None of it makes any sense nor is it pretty like the typical Toronto Art Graffiti. Now those bastards need to be arrested, tear-gassed, shot, detained and sound cannoned. Really. That shit is hard to wash off! TO TOP IT ALL OFF we could be attacked by terrorists, says the media.Tell Police Chief Blair thanks for the $mega-buck fence but if he really is on our side, and really wants to serve & protect, then don't let those politicians come here. THAT GANG hurts us the most. The G20 is a GANG of politicians coming to Toronto
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