The G20 summit took place July 25-27 in downtown Toronto. For three days the city experienced huge inconveniences, mass arrests, and violent anarchists clashing with riot police. Some of the drama took place right on campus.
In this closing coverage, we present a chronology of how the G20 affected the campus, with new facts, reflections, and afterthoughts from the university community.
Campus closure and residence relocations
After the official G20 protest site was changed from Trinity Bellwoods Park to Queen’s Park, university administration decided to close St. George campus for safety reasons.
U of T spokesperson Laurie Stephens said that after hearing of the protest zone’s relocation, the Principals, Deans, Academic Directors and Chairs (PDAD&C) committee discussed the change at a May 20 meeting and decided on the closure.
A May 25 memorandum announced that campus buildings, including residences, would be closed from 6 p.m. on Wednesday June 23 to Sunday June 27 because “the protest site [had] been moved to the doorstep of the St. George campus.”
“[U of T feared] police would be unable or unwilling to distinguish between students going to exams at that time and protesters,” said ASSU president Gavin Nowlan. “They envisaged a nightmare where police [would] go after U of T students.”
Nowlan said the administration noted the previous G20 summit in Pittsburgh, where “students were targeted for being on campus, and really nothing else.”
“It wasn’t exactly a strategy which showed a lot of confidence in the police ability to restrain themselves,” said Nowlan.
As of Monday June 21, all events were cancelled and vehicles were barred from Hart House Circle and King’s College Circle. Weddings at the Trinity College chapel were rescheduled, as were exams, with no guaranteed special consideration for personal commitments scheduled during the exam period.
In an open letter, student groups and labour unions condemned the closure, calling it a reactionary impediment to academic life. Both UTSU and GSU stayed open during the closure; APUS and ASSU’s offices, both located in the Sidney Smith building, were closed, but operated by e-mail.
The constituent college residences were evacuated for the duration of the closure. Other residences, such as Graduate House, remained open.
“Apparently graduate students are more capable of making decisions about their lives,” said UTSU president Adam Awad, noting that the residence is right beside the closed New College dorms. “So that was a bit patronizing.”
A total of 1,256 tenants living in residence were given the option of accepting $125.00 — the average cost of a four-night stay in residence — or relocating to either 89 Chestnut or satellite campus residences for the duration of the four-night closure. In the summer, U of T residences house summer students as well as visiting and language-exchange students.
Two-thirds of tenants, 794 in total, took the cash, while the remaining 462 were relocated and received room, meals, and transportation to and from their relocation.
Most tenants relocated to 89 Chestnut were given TTC tokens, while some groups of three received subsidized cab rides. Additional shuttle buses to and from UTM were scheduled, and students relocating to UTM did not have to pay for shuttle tickets.
Starting at the Wednesday evening closure, 24-hour security coverage was established for six consecutive days. An additional 20 security staff were hired from U of T’s contracted security company, Reilly’s Security Services, and campus police worked overtime. Although the cost of additional security has not been calculated, Stephen said that “an estimate of $100,000 is probably reasonable”.
During the closure, certain buildings, such as Sussex Clubhouse, required identification on a submitted guest-list for entrance. Plain-clothes officers were seen entering and exiting campus police headquarters. The Munk School of Global Affairs remained open throughout the closure, where the G8 Research Group met to publish reports.
“It’s interesting to see how other universities facilitate […] dissent against international organizations in a way this university hasn’t,” said Awad, referencing the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in which Université Laval housed protestors.
“On the whole, we were surprised by the amount of co-operation between senior administration and the police throughout the whole process.”
A protest was held on the first day of the closure, where about thirty people denounced the closure and the Munk School exception, calling the university a “bunker for global capitalism”.
Robarts camera rumours
Rumours had been swirling around campus that a security camera was posted on Robarts by the police for the summit. Photos were posted in online anti-surveillance groups, and UTSU executive director Angela Regnier spoke about the camera at a CFS-O conference in August.
Stephens said that campus police had no knowledge of a camera on Robarts and did not install any cameras for use by police forces.
“The camera was actually installed for the purpose of monitoring the progress of the Rotman School of Management expansion project taking place across the street,” said communications librarian Margaret Wall. “The camera is owned and operated by the company managing the expansion project.”
Wall said the camera was installed as the project began in the spring and will remain until its completion in 2012. It can be viewed online.
Empty Residences?
On the Thursday before the G20, The Varsity spotted people entering and exiting the Morrison Hall residence at University College. All on-campus residences were, ostensibly, already closed for security reasons.
After learning The Varsity had images of people in residence buildings, admin confirmed that university staff and Campus Police were being housed on campus.
Awad said UTSU had heard reports that people were going being housed in residences, but was told by admin that no one would be.
In total, 39 police were housed in Woodsworth and 34 staff — mostly tradespeople who responded to repair calls (including the Sunday floods) — occupied Morrison Hall. None of the rooms occupied were ones students had been ordered to leave.
Faculty and/or residence officials had some locks changed during the summit “to enable better control of access,” said Stephens, “to limit the numbers of doors that people could use”.
E-mails from The Varsity to residence officials were not answered. The cost of student relocations remains uncalculated.
Saturday Campus Chaos
University administration had at least one senior member of the administration on campus for the duration of the G20. The area was mostly peaceful until Saturday night.
Around 7 p.m., baton-wielding riot police evacuated the “free speech zone” at Queen’s Park in 50-metre running jolts. Within an hour, the crowd of over a thousand, including women with strollers, was funnelled onto Hoskin Avenue.
The group split at Devonshire Place, with roughly equal numbers fleeing west and north. Police rapidly advanced and several individuals fell as the large packs squeezed into the narrow streets.
Roughly one hundred people heading westbound were then driven across St. George Street, still an active intersection with live traffic, onto Harbord Street. Police then retreated.
After the incident, Awad said both UTSU and university administration knew protesters might be forced onto campus if Queen’s Park were evacuated.
“When we had met with the provost, they told us that they were in discussions with the police,” said Awad, referring to a meeting in mid-June. He claims UTSU had warned of the potential evacuation of Queen’s Park at a June 18 meeting at the U of T Art Centre.
“We did not have any advance notice [but] discussed the possibility that any overflow would be directed onto campus,” said Stephens.
Sunday GSU Raid
Police conducted a major raid on the Graduate Students’ Union building on Bancroft Avenue early Sunday morning. Police were also present and making arrests as far north as Bloor Street West.
The GSU voted to house protestors in its facilities at an executive meeting. The Toronto Community Mobilization Network billeted approximately 70 people – no full count exists – from outside Toronto in its gym, including student unions and left-leaning political groups from British Columbia and Quebec. Guests were encouraged but not obligated to sign a liability waiver.
“We don’t know exactly” who was there, said GSU spokesman Anton Neschadim.
Everyone in the building was arrested, and the raid took place under a vague search warrant on the grounds of “unlawful assembly.” The warrant, which was only produced the day after the raid, was dated for 4:30 p.m., hours after the raid took place.
Those arrested were marched one-by-one to police buses, and police seized black clothing, containers of vinegar, bricks, wooden stakes, and other “weapons of opportunity”. Neschadim said these were supplies GSU normally stores, such as t-shirts and stakes for protest signs. He added that no seized evidence, including the waivers, has been returned, and that objects such as bricks could have been collected outside the building.
Two GSU executives were charged with mischief over $5,000 and held for over 48 hours: external commissioner Daniel Vandervoort and another member whose identity The Varsity could not confirm at time of publication. Those arrested at the G20 appeared in court on August 23. Some arrested in the GSU with charges remaining are to return to court on October 14. There is a publication ban on the proceedings.
In a Globe and Mail article, a spokeswoman for the Quebec-based Anti-Capitalist Convergence said about 50 members were arrested at the GSU raid.
Neschadim said university administration and campus police administrators were notified the protestors would be billeted. A statement on the GSU website says volunteers supervised the guests and that safety guidelines were enforced. It also says Toronto police visited the building the day before and left peacefully.
Attempted UTSU raid
Shortly after the GSU raid, the UTSU building was almost raided as well.
“I was in a cab, coming to campus, when I received a phone call to say that the Integrated Security police were at UTSU, wanting to gain entry,” wrote provost Cheryl Misak in an e-mail to UTSU immediately after the incident. Misak said she ran from the cab to UTSU, where she found “a large number of police in full gear and preparation, surrounding the building.
“They were in the midst of arranging for an assessment so that they could gain entry. They did not know whether there was anyone in the building and wanted to be assured that it was empty.”
Misak called Campus Police operations manager Sam D’Angelo and said she decided to speak with him to defuse the situation.
“We entered the building with Sam’s key; triggered the alarm; called out in the foyer to see whether anyone responded; reset the alarm; and re-locked the building. Sam and I did not go further into the building than the reception area. I believe that this took well under a minute. At no point did the Integrated Security police enter. We assured them that the building was empty and they left immediately.”
Awad said the incident was “out of the blue.”
“The provost e-mail was the first time we’d heard of it. It’s interesting that the police would be raiding students union in general.”
With files from Andrew Rusk and Natalie Sequeira
