This body of work represents a cross section of the people arrested and charged in Canada’s largest mass arrest at the 2010 G-20 Summit in Toronto. These photographs were taken outside of the first court appearance for all the individuals charged during the summit. These portraits and stories are a record of the aftermath of the summit.
Made up of world leaders representing the majority of international trade, the stated goal of the Summit was to connect politicians, allowing them to openly discuss economic policies and concepts to socially advance the world we live in.
The well-documented police brutality, violence, civil disorder and the states response to it challenged all the democratic freedoms that Canadians have traditionally been known for. Over the course of two days Toronto descended into a police state. The politically privileged opportunistically seized the moment to deploy the police as agents of the state to violently establish their control on the city as they imposed their idea of order.
This is a portrait series chronicling the individuals that were part of Canada’s largest mass arrest at the G-20 summit in the summer of 2010 in Toronto. Ironically resembling police arrest photos, the portraits are mixed with written accounts of the subject’s experiences. Giving a different voice to the series, the handwriting becomes portraits on their own. The statements tell a story different from the official police record largely reported by Toronto’s media.
