One of the things that happens, during events at which protests will take place, such as the G20 in Toronto, is the designation of protest or “speech” areas. What seems to happen is that any non-peaceful action turns into an excuse to take away the freedom to assemble. Take Queen’s Park, for example, on Sat Jun 26 10…
Queen’s Park houses parliamentary buildings and was designated as an assembly/speech area. When protests elsewhere in the city got ugly, in places not necessarily designated as such, the authorities didn’t move to quell unrest in those places first. Instead, they cleared out the actual designated protest areas.
What good is the right to public assembly for protest if the authorities can take that right away on their whim?