Monday, June 28, 2010

Toronto G20 – Man run down by police horse

A man is run down by a police horse at the G20 protests in Toronto on June 26, 2010.

I was not there as part of the protests. I was just there to take photos and video. But what I saw at Queen’s Park that day left me very unsettled.

Queen’s Park was the officially designated protest zone. I did not see any violence from the protesters, nor from the police. The police were standing calmly, forming a wall blocking protesters from moving south on University Ave. However, at about 7:00pm, the police decided to push the protesters out of the park.

The wall of officers, assisted by mounted police, moved forward, pushing the protesters back (eventually all the way to Bloor Street). A few people who did not move back fast enough were struck and/or arrested. After several arrests, a few members of the crowd became violent, and I saw a couple of rocks being thrown. Nevertheless, the vast majority of the crowd was non-violent and complied with police orders to move back. This video was captured at 7:28pm at Queen’s Park South during the push.

The mounted officers were from the Toronto and Montreal police forces. After being knocked down, the man was nearly stepped on. He was able to get up and walk away, so hopefully he was not badly hurt.



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