By Min Kang
Mayor David Miller has officially proclaimed July 12 to 18th Mad Pride Week.
“It’s throwing the word back in the face of the general public who think mad is a horrible kind of state to be in, so we throw it back into the face of society, just like gays throw queer back, and there are various groups in Mad Pride who take different positions on the whole matter. Some are psychiatrized, some are just ‘normal people’,” said Mel Starkman, a co-organizer of Mad Pride.
Borrowing from Gay Pride, Mad Pride attempts to reclaim terms that are used against them as a source of empowerment, giving the self-proclaimed mad community the opportunity to celebrate their own difference, and raise awareness of the obstacles that they face including the stigma attached to being in the psychiatric system
The Mad Pride organizing committee comprises of a group of psychiatric survivors and friends within the city including The Friendly Spike Theatre Band (TFSTB), an artist-run community theatre dedicated to encouraging theatrical expression for psychiatric and consumer survivors.
Heinz Klein, a co-organizer and technical director for Mad Pride explains that the psychiatric survivor community in Parkdale is strong because many survivor migrated to the area after deinstitutionalization.
“Parkdale in itself was really close to Queen Street and to the old Lakeshore hospital. So people gathered here together and they really created a life for themselves here. That’s why there is a high population of psychiatric survivors and others who have been affected by the mental health system in this area. There are certain services here that other parts of the city don’t have or only sporadically have, like the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC), created to accommodate people who have been pushed out of hospitals just simply to give them a place to hang out.”
Starkman added, “Basically it grows out of poverty. You know, when you are poor and you can’t cope with society you get into a situation where you’re strung out and more and more people are entering that stage in this failing economy, and more and more people are turning to the whole concept of madness to express themselves—they are angry they have to live in such a way that they are oppressed, and that’s a very dangerous way to live.”
Klein believes that Mad Pride Week is just the right outlet for channelling that expression.
“To celebrate Mad Pride and make it a weeklong event is actually using something which I call, ‘creative resilience’. That means we are overcoming the obstacles in the kind of creative way that claims for us the label mad as something positive, whereas everybody else is looking at that and says it’s something negative.”
The big event at this year’s festivities will undoubtedly be the “Bed Push,” on July 17, involving survivors in pyjamas pushing a gurney dressed like a bed with sheets covered in words of empowerment. Ruth explains that the bed push—originating in 2006 by Rufus May, a psychiatric survivor and activist in England—is a metaphor for Mad Pride.
“We push out of the medical model of understanding difference and into the community,” said Ruth Ruth, community theatre director with TFSTB. The Bed Push starts on the grounds of CAMH, down Queen West, into Parkdale and stops at PARC.
Though this may sound “crazy” to some, Klein observes that there are much crazier decisions going on in the world.
“We have over a hundred thousand homeless people living in the city, and yet the government wants to spend over a billion dollars to accommodate 20 people instead of spending only ten percent of this money to accommodate a hundred thousand of their own kind in this country. That is madness. And they call us mad. But what they are doing is madness.”
Every year The Friendly Spike Theatre Band develops a community based play. This year they will be staging, The Dega and the Delbasid, at 20 Westlodge Ave. on July 16 at 7 p.m. To find out more details of events happening on Mad Pride Week, click here.
G20 Security reaches a fever pitch. Tomasz Bugajski/Courtesy blogTO
Designated free speech areas, random police checks, razor-wired security fences, surveillance cameras, tear gas, sound cannons, rubber bullets, business closures, school closures, school bus cancellations, and trees ripped from the ground, are only a few of the provisions.
A fellow Toronto-based media outlet joked that soon the cops would start smashing bank windows so the protesters didn’t get to them first. That was before the banks boarded up their own windows.
That it is ludicrous to host such an event downtown, rather than in a more remote and easily secured area seems like such a no-brainer that we don’t want to dwell on this point. The notion of having a designated place for protests is contrary to the very idea of free speech, but hey, it’s only two days, right?
CSIS agents have allegedly been stopping by the homes and work places—yes, not all protesters need to “get a job”—of known activists trying to intimidate them into staying away from the demonstrations.
On June 18, one of our freelancers went to take photos of the security fence and was stopped by the police. They made him give them his ID, phone number, and address, and told him that if his pictures were going to “help the protesters” he’d be in trouble. But again, it’s just two days, right?
For two days, we can tell ourselves that we need protection from some vague enemy— anarchists hellbent on destruction, terrorist threats. While citizens being followed for expressing dissent, and police intimidation for snapping photos are hardly what we expect in a free democratic society, we can perhaps forgive this in the short term. But what about the long-term? The federal government has refused to compensate businesses and residents for any closures or damages that may result from the G20.
Then there is the larger question of why people calling themselves fiscal conservatives would spend over a billion dollars in security for a two-day summit (last year’s G20 in Pittsburgh cost $18 million) unless—as many have speculated—they are using it as an excuse to go on a military, police, and surveillance spending spree.
Police say that the 77 surveillance cameras they have put up will be taken down after the summit, but as journalist Jonathan Goldsbie pointed out in the National Post, police put up CCTV cameras along Yonge Street three years ago to monitor Caribana, promising they would come down after the festival. They are still there.
To that, many people might say ‘So what? The cameras are in public, as long as you’re not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.’ We don’t agree, and neither does the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, who called CCTV cameras an inherent violation of privacy.
Whether you plan on marching on the streets with placards, camping out in your apartment, or taking off to the cottage to avoid the whole mess, we ask all residents to pay attention to what happens afterward. This is our community, and we shouldn’t let outside interests dictate its direction.
A map of the security zones for the upcoming G20 summit, June 25-27. Courtesy G20 Integrated Security Unit
By Jacob Arnfield
At a price of $1 billion dollars, with international financial leaders, media, police, and protestors all congregating downtown, the G20 will be an event unlike any other the city has ever seen.
In case some of the disparate accounts have left you confused, here are some details for how the summit will alter the downtown core during the June 25 to 27 weekend.
The Integrated Security Unit (ISU) policing three separate zones will organize security. A separate entity from the federal government, the ISU brings together the RCMP, Toronto Police Services, Peel Regional Police, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Canadian Coast Guard.
The Security for the G20 summit will include three separate zones.
The most secure zone—the red zone—includes the interior of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC, 255 Front St. W.) and some hotels where the delegates are staying. This zone will be patrolled by RCMP and can only be accessed after going through an intensive accreditation process.
According to George Tucker, a member of the community relations division of ISU, the inner perimeter “won’t have a very big impact on people and the business in the downtown core.”
TPS will patrol a secondary perimeter, which will be fenced. That zone will be accessible by anyone unless the ISU receives notice of a security threat. If that occurs, the gates in the fence will be closed and the outer perimeter will become inaccessible. If you work or live within the perimeter you can voluntarily register with security to receive a pass for the zone. This is intended as an “express pass,” because those without passes will be stopped at the fence and asked questions by police.
The ISU anticipates that a line will form and the registration card will allow holders to bypass that line. Registration will not require the background check process that accreditation does. The information stored for the registration is intended to be discarded after the summit concludes.
The majority of the space between Wellington Street and Lake Shore Boulevard, Bay Street and Blue Jays Way will be inside the fenced perimeter. For full details, see the included map.
After the summit, the ISU estimates a week will be required to remove the fence.
The third zone, —a traffic control area—will be bounded by Yonge Street, Spadina Avenue, King Street, and Lake Ontario. There will be no fence to designate this area, but police will be stationed at major intersections.
It has been reported that all mailboxes, bike rings, and other street furniture will be removed from the traffic control zone for the summit. Seventy-seven new security cameras are being installed in the area for the summit. The cameras will be removed after the summit ends, but it has been reported that police will keep them to be redeployed for future use.
The arrivals and departures for “Internationally Protected People” before and after the summit are likely to cause significant traffic disturbances. Many of the dignitaries who receive this designation will, according to Tucker, be attending the G8 summit in Huntsville and not the G20, which will be visited mainly by international finance ministers and bank managers. However, all traffic will be shut down for the passage of the motorcades of any internationally protected person, including the subway lines underneath. These motorcades are likely to entangle not only the downtown core, but the highways leading from the MTCC to the airport. Additionally, the G8 takes place on June 25 and 26, and it’s likely some of the most prominent international leaders will visit the G20 on June 27.
Tomasz Bugajski/Courtesy blogTO
Recent reports estimate the total cost for security for the G8 and G20 summits have greatly exceeded their initial $179 million dollar budget, soaring to $833 million, with room in the budget for an additional $100 million.
Local councillors asked the federal government to post a bond that would cover property damages caused by the G20, but their request was denied, and local businesses and residents will need to collect through their own insurance for all third party damages.
There are a number of other prominent areas that will be affected by the summit.
Obvious sites near the MTCC will be closed. The CN Tower will not be open and Toronto Blue Jays moved their weekend series out of the Rogers Centre. The Direct Energy Centre (100 Princes’ Blvd.) will be the home of the International Media Centre for the roughly 5,000 journalists expected to attend. Kensington Market’s Pedestrian Sundays was denied a permit for June 27 due to concerns it could become a rallying point for demonstrators.
Queen’s Park will be the site for the Designated Speech Area (DSA). The DSA is legally mandated by the Supreme Court of Canada to give a site where demonstrators can be seen and heard by the summit’s participants.
A stage with cameras and audio will be erected. Those feeds will be displayed within the MTCC so that demonstrations can be viewed within the summit.
Trinity Bellwoods Park was originally announced as the home of the DSA, but due to public concerns, the ISU chose to move the area to Queen’s Park.
The move to Queen’s Park was not without consequences. It has been reported that upon hearing of the new location, U of T has decided to close the St. George campus from June 23 until the end of the summit because of its proximity to the DSA. This includes relocating those who live in residences on campus for the four days.
Dozens of demonstrations are planned beginning as early as June 18, but the bulk of them are scheduled to take place on the days of the summit.
If you plan to attend demonstrations that weekend, a new concern are the four long-range acoustical devices—more commonly referred to as sound guns or sound cannons—that Toronto police recently purchased for the summit. These cannons can cause significant pain and even hearing damage, and the Council of Canadians will be giving away earplugs to combat its effects.
