A man raises a fist at Yonge and Dundas streets during a protest Friday that drew thousands of people, one of several planned this weekend.
Thousands take part in peaceful march against racism, police violence
Thousands of protesters marched peacefully through downtown Toronto on Friday afternoon, passing storefronts boarded up with plywood and chanting “Black lives matter,” “I can’t breathe” and “George Floyd, say his name.”
Some carried signs in honour of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Afro-Indigenous woman who died last month after falling from a High Park highrise while police were present. Her death is being investigated by Ontario’s civilian police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit.
At one point, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders took a knee and raised a fist alongside protesters on Yonge Street as they demanded justice for Black victims of police brutality. “My command and I met protesters today and we took a knee,” Saunders tweeted alongside photographs of the moment, perceived by some as an empty gesture amid a failure by police to address racial profiling and discrimination, including significantly higher rates of force used against Black people.
“We see you and we are listening. The Toronto police fully supports peaceful and safe protests this weekend and always. We have to all stay in this together to make change,” he said.
At a peaceful demonstration in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knelt with protesters on Parliament Hill in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds — the length of time a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck as Floyd pleaded that he could not breathe.
“We want to bring peace. We want to bring unity. We just want to express the changes that we want, but we want to do it in … the least aggressive way possible,” said Tremaine Nelson, a member of the March for Change group involved in organizing one of the afternoon demonstrations in Toronto.
The peaceful gatherings in Toronto and across Canada on Friday followed a week and a half of widespread protests in the U.S. sparked by a video of Floyd’s death on May 25. The officer who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and three other police officers involved in the incident are facing charges. All four were fired from the police force.
The event unleashed a torrent of anger over persistent antiBlack racism and police violence. Protests in solidarity have sprung up across the globe, many also citing local examples of systemic racism in policing.
In Toronto, protesters gathered at Yonge and Bloor and marched south along Yonge Street before eventually circling back to the starting point. Aerial views of the crowd show the marchers stretched along several city blocks, stopping at
Yonge-Dundas Square and Nathan Phillips Square to kneel together. During one pause, protesters sang Happy Birthday to Breonna Taylor, a paramedic who was shot dead by police inside her home in Kentucky in March. She would have turned 27 on Friday.
Police officers were present along the route of the demonstration but did not appear to interact with protesters.
Passing cars honked their support at the crowd, as did the operator of a crane at a nearby construction site. Each show of support elicited cheers from the crowd.
Though many stores along the route were boarded up and the Eaton Centre was closed, employees at the Tokyo Smoke cannabis dispensary and at Ali Baba’s Middle Eastern Cuisine handed out water bottles and supplies to marchers.
The Eaton Centre will be closed for the weekend and the TTC has said subway station entrances connected to the mall at both Dundas and Queen will be closed Friday through Sunday.
The protesters began dispersing in a torrential downpour around 2:45 p.m.
Earlier in the week, the event, which was being advertised under the hashtag #MarchForChange, drew suspicion online about its validity.
Black Lives Matter Toronto and Not Another Black Life, the Black rights group that organized last Saturday’s march in honour of Korchinski-Paquet, stated on their Instagram accounts that they were not affiliated with Friday’s demonstration. “We believe in Black people mourning, grieving, and protesting however works for them & hope everyone look out & care for each other,” Black Lives Matter Toronto tweeted. Nelson, from March for Change, acknowledged the controversy surrounding the protest, noting the group has tried to take criticism and learn from it. “We weren’t trying to make this an organization … This is a group of friends and family coming together and marching together,” he said.
Black Lives Matter Toronto and Not Another Black Life have also stated that they are not affiliated with any further protests planned this weekend.
Friday evening, a group of about 200 people gathered in Nathan Phillips Square for a candlelight vigil organized by Addis Wara from Etobicoke and her friend Andie Brown, from Scarborough.
“We need to stop and cry and mourn,” said Wara of the deaths of Korchinski-Paquet, Floyd and Taylor, as well as the hundreds of thousands worldwide who have died from COVID-19.
One impassioned speaker at the vigil drove in from Niagara Falls. “I’m tired. And I’m sick. And I’m sad … This has got to stop,” she said. “I want to leave a better world for my grandchildren.”
She said she was frustrated about being followed around in stores. “We are all just living. We have the same dreams, the same obligations. What is so wrong with my skin being dark?” she said, amid supportive cheers.
Lucille Danese and her 19year-old son, Isaiah Danese, came in from Brampton to participate in the afternoon march and stayed for the vigil.
“You need to show unity, everybody, all races joining together,” said Lucille. She held a sign with the words “March for change #justiceforfloyd.”
Her son, Isaiah, said people need to “stop the silence. Everybody needs to speak up and not keep quiet about racism.”
“I’m tired. And I’m sick. And I’m sad … This has got to stop. I want to leave a better world for my grandchildren.”
SPEAKER AT NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE VIGIL