Toronto Community Mobilization Network needs your continuing support!

* - Toronto Community Mobilization Network needs your continuing support!
From: torontoblackcross@gmail.com
Hey all. 

Many of you have been asking how you can help people arrested/detained during the
G20 meetings in Toronto this past weekend.  We saw more than 900 people arrested -
the largest mass arrest in Canadian history - huge charter violations, human rights
abuses, police brutality, political repression, and outright lying on the part of
Toronto's police chief. 

For most, charges have been dropped, but some are facing serious charges and are
awaiting a bail hearing (July 6th).  These people are solid community organizers,
and many were arrested before Saturday's demonstrations (when the property damage
occurred, which it seems cops/courts are trying to avenge), some in
middle-of-the-night house raids.

If you're interested in learning more about what happened on the weekend, visit
http://g20.torontomobilize.org/ and http://2010.mediacoop.ca/

Below is the formal call for support - Since many (if not all) bail hearing are this
Tuesday, any immediate financial support is much appreciated.  But, of course, long
term support is necessary as well.  The call is also posted on our website:
torontoabc.wordpress.com

Please forward widely and consider donating - anything helps!

karen emily
Toronto ABC

______________

Apologies for cross-postings.  Please donate if you are able and forward this call
for continuing support and solidarity among your networks. (PDF version attached for
those who prefer to have a hard copy).



July 1, 2010
From June 25-27, elites from the world’s most powerful economies met in Huntsville
and Toronto to draft policies to further exploit the environment and people,
bolstering the systems that sustain colonialism, wars and displacement.
With global attention on Toronto, tens of thousands of people mobilized in a
historic weeklong convergence in opposition to these policies. Daily demonstrations
highlighted struggles for Indigenous sovereignty; environmental justice; migrant
justice; an end to war and occupation; community control over resources; gender
justice; and queer and disAbility rights.
Also unprecedented was the over $1.2 billion spent on security, the most in G20
summit history, which paid for a dizzying array of weaponry and nearly 20,000
police—plus a security fence that turned Toronto into a fortress to host a select
few and a police state to terrorize the rest of us.
Nearly 1,000 people, protesters and bystanders alike, were detained—the largest mass
arrests in Canadian history. They were held for long periods in makeshift cages in
deplorable conditions, most without timely access to legal counsel. Many had been
simply caught up in massive police sweeps of public areas.  There are also
documented cases of harassment and abuse of journalists as well as widespread racial
profiling.
Some are still in custody. Twenty face serious charges. These prisoners are
long-time community organizers. They were targeted for their unapologetically vocal
and defiant roles in resisting all forms of oppression and exploitation.
As the police and media try to divide us, the Toronto Community Mobilization Network
makes no distinction between “good protesters” and “bad protesters.” All deserve our
solidarity.
Now we must continue to mobilize and build greater solidarity among our communities.
An important part of this will be supporting our courageous allies still in
detention. We refuse to be intimidated by police repression and, with your help,
will continue to organize in our communities for the same reasons that brought us
together in the first place, now exacerbated under the austerity measures passed
during the G20 summit.
We need donations to support these efforts. You can support the detainees’ legal
costs and help alleviate some of the other costs of navigating the court system, and
help us keep organizing.
You can donate by cheque or PayPal (at g20.torontomobilize.org). Cheques can be made
payable to the Toronto Community Mobilization Network and can be mailed to:
360A Bloor Street West
PO Box 68557
Toronto, ON  M5S 1X0
Thank you for your help. Together we will create a just world that places people
and the environment before the profits of corporations and the political elite.

In solidarity,
Adrie Naylor and David Ball, for the Toronto Community Mobilization Network