G20

      The more I hear about the G20 in Toronto, the more unreal it seems. I was astonished at the reality of the corruption of society and the power that the police have over us. What happened to this 'freedom of speech' idea that was once something we as a country could be so proud of. Somewhere along the way, freedom of speech has turned into 'freedom to do whatever the government wants you to do'.

      Freedom to believe whatever you want, and to have your own opinions was always something that I thought I was so lucky to have living in Canada. Watching videos of the G20, I was astounded by the actions of police officers in regard to people who were protesting peacefully. I find it hard to believe that the policemen had reason to act the way that they did after watching videos on the G20. For example, an older man who was on crutches and had a fake leg was sitting peacefully with his daughter, yet somehow the police saw him as a threat and thought he was dangerous enough to uproot him aggressively and proceed to rip his fake leg right off of him.

      How would you feel, having done nothing wrong, yet still being treated like a criminal? The happenings at the G20 only further instill in me a lack of respect for our government and the laws we are supposed to follow. The G20 is a good example of corruption of our leaders and abuse of power. It scares me that any of us could be accused of anything at any given time, and learning more about the G20 made me want to stay as far away from the law as I can.

      Furthermore, the thing that I think may be the worst about the G20, was the fact that our hard earned tax payers dollars went to the maximum security detail that was in place. There is absolutely no need for the amount of policemen, weaponry, and money that went in to all of that. It was a peaceful event until the police got involved, and it would have remained peaceful had they allowed people to act on their right of freedom. I feel like our money was completely wasted on this event, and there are so many other ways that money could have been spent more productively than that.

       I can honestly say I was shocked by what I learned through researching and learning about the G20 and actions of police officers, and the respect I once had for them is diminishing. I do however realize that this was a selected few police officers, and do not believe that all of them are like this. I have to hope that elsewhere there are people in authority that are fighting for our right of freedom, and I hope that after this disturbing event there will be a realization that our rights shouldn't be taken away like that.