A Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
It seems, all too sadly in this Canada these days, that we are addressing episode after episode of injustices committed against others –whether it be injustices committed to wildlife, or to our aboriginal peoples, or to our environment. Not to forget the injustices perpetrated against all of the rest by embezzlers appointed to the Senate.
John Pruyn being dragged away by police in riot gear – for sitting on the lawns of Queen’s Park listing to speakers at a G20 rally.
Then there is this one – plainly described in a report a few years back by Ontario’s official Ombudsman Andre Morin, and by countless civil liberty lawyers and groups as one of the most egregious assaults on citizens’ rights to gather in the spirit of frexpression in this country’s history.
This one unfolded five years ago this June in the streets of Toronto where, as one cop not wearing his usual badge, told a young person walking in the downtown area that “this is not Canada anymore” and where armies of police, dressed in Darth Vader gear, kettled thousands of people and arrested more than a thousand – locking them in makeshift cages for what turned out to be no reason.
Yes, there was a small band of anarchists running up and down Young Street in black ski masks, smashing store windows and burning police cars, but hardly a cop seemed to be there to arrest them.
Instead, those who swore to serve and protect us went out on the lawns of Queen’s Park where unarmed people like John and Sarah Pruyn were sitting on the grass listening to speakers at a peaceful rally, and threw them in armed wagons.
The story of the arrest and weekend long detainment of John Pruyn – a Revenue Canada employee who has since retired and Niagara resident who also owned and operated a Christmas Tree farm on the side – was first posted by Niagara At Large and soon made international headlines. An iconic photo of him, being dragged by police after an artificial leg was pulled off him, and while he an expensive pair of prescription glasses in his teach, also streamed its way around the world.
It was another shameful episode occurring under a Harper government that has shown its contempt, time and time again, when it comes to Canadians exercising their right to peaceful protest in a country that once prided itself in being a beacon for freedom and democracy.
The streets of Toronto during the June, 2010 G20 summit
This Monday June 8th, John and his daughter Sarah will begin a bike ride across Canada in a call for justice that still has not been carried out for everyone who had their civil rights so violently assaulted during that June weekend five years ago.
Here is a media release from Sarah Pruyn on this ride and Niagara At Large will continue to keep our readers posted on its cross-country status.
Meanwhile, contact your federal and provincial representatives and make it clear to them that this is Canada, and an episode like this, involving unjustified arrests and detaiments of citizens, should never be allowed to happen again.
A Media Release from Sarah Pruyn
Father and Daughter Starting G20 Justice Ride on June 8, 2015
Ridgeville, Ontario, Canada- During the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, Ontario, John Pruyn and his daughter, Sarah Pruyn, were wrongfully assaulted and detained in cages at a make-shift detention centre in the city.
John’s story is particularly harrowing as security forces ripped off his artificial leg, beat him and dragged him around until he bled. At the time John’s story made international headlines. All of this took place at Ontario’s Queen’s Park, an area federal government security forces sanctioned as a “designated protest zone”. Citizens were led to believe that assemblies and rallies that took place there during the G20 Summit would be respected by police.
Instead, John, who was never arrested or charged, was attacked, robbed, beaten and stuffed in a police wagon, brought to the detention centre and detained for about 28 hours. His money, walking sticks and prescription glasses were taken or stolen by security forces and never returned. His Charter and disability rights were stripped away.
Sarah was sitting with her father when she was dragged away by her hair and charged with obstruction of justice and breach of peace. She was detained at the centre for twenty-seven hours before she was released and her charges dropped. The overwhelming majority of those arrested also had their charges dropped.
The misuse of power by Harper’s security services was committed on a mass scale during the G20 Summit and later described by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Morin as “what can happen when civil rights are subverted to other government interests.” This has led many to believe that the violence was intentional and used to deter people from exercising their rights as citizens to participate in political rallies in the future.
To date there has been no apology from the federal government or inquiry into the events of the G20 Summit weekend.
This spring and summer John and Sarah Pruyn will be biking across Canada asking for an independent public inquiry at the federal level into the conduct of security forces at the G20. The start date is June 8 at Elizabeth May’s constituency office in Sidney BC and will end in St John’s Newfoundland. They will be stopping at MP offices and various police detachments along the way to invite them to sign the G20 Justice Petition.
The petition calls for an independent federal inquiry into the actions of the security forces during the G20 Summit, including:
The attacks, violent actions, kettling, arrests and detentions: at the designated demonstration site in Queen’s Park; at the Novotel on the Esplanade; at the University of Toronto; outside the Eastern Avenue Detention Centre; at Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue; and of people in Toronto who were not involved in the G20.
The treatment of people in the Eastern Avenue Detention Centre and the conditions in the centre.
The charging of people with “breach of peace”, “obstruction of justice” and “resisting arrest” in order to incarcerate hundreds of people at a time.
Undercover police offers acting as activists and/or protestors leading up to and during the summit.
Please do what is best for Charter, disability, human and civil rights, and sign the petition.
For more information on the petition and John and Sarah’s cross-Canada bike trek for justice contact John and Sarah Pruyn at g20justiceride@gmail.com .
Visit their website at g20justiceride.wordpress.com .
Follow them on – Instagram @g20justice .
For more information on this episode, click on the sites below –
(Niagara At Large now invites all of you who dare to share your real first and last name to contribute to the dialogue in the comment space below.)
Niagara At Large 
Dear Sarah and John,
I am so proud to know both of you.
Show everyone how hard (vegetarians) pump for human rights and social justice.
‘Petal Hard’
Love
Sue
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