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The 5 most important videos from the G20 Summit in Toronto

Graham F. Scott

By far the most significant video of the weekend was this one, shot by Meghann Millard from her third floor office on Queen St. West, in which the protesters sing the national anthem, and are then charged by a line of police in riot gear. This video received an extra boost when no less than Roger Ebert—who knows a little something about the power of imagery—tweeted the video, saying “Sometimes one video can summarize the whole story.”

Ryan Walker of Torontoist captured the same event from ground level:

In a separate incident on Sunday, outside the detention centre, Global TV recorded this scene, in which an officer fires what appears to be a tear-gas pellet into a loud but peaceful demonstration, striking a young woman:

riot police shooting tear gas canister

Late on Sunday, Toronto Police Services Superintendent Jeff McGuire held a press conference outside police headquarters to talk about police activities on Sunday, including an incident in which hundreds of individuals—some protesters but also many journalists, bystanders, and tourists—were boxed in by a police cordon at the corner of Queen and Spadina for hours in torrential rain. McGuire defends police actions, but is unconvincing and evasive, invokes vague “threats” that he cannot enumerate, and repeats the same talking points ad nauseam. While it’s not in the linked video, during the Q&A McGuire was asked whether the statement constituted an apology to those people; he responded with: “I cannot apologize to them and I won’t.

Supt. Jeff McGuire of Toronto Police Services

Then, of course, there was the video of choice for large media outlets, the burning police car. These are the images that many outside Canada will see in relation to this weekend’s events—if they see any news coverage of it at all:

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