Civil Disobedience

Want to know what happens when you turn 5 (or more) bus loads of people, angry at the government, on to the street with banners?

Civil Disobedience

Or in this particular case blocking the traffic along Bloor St, one of the busiest, in Toronto for 2 minutes.

According to organizers the protest was simple show Harper and the people of Toronto that closing the safe injection site in Vancouver would kill people.

The people of Toronto weren't so thrilled with the concept. For 2 minutes there were nothing but car horns, but the obscenities were kept to a minimum.

"Hey man, why you honking," a pedestrian yelled at a driver, "You ain't going nowhere." She looked at those blocking traffic and laughed.

Those who participated felt that the people were actually fairly receptive.

"I thought there would have been more anger," said Bonnie Devlin, and AIDS 2006 conference participant, "I think it went pretty well."

Police stationed at the corner of Church and Bloor agreed.

"I didn't see any problems, it was peaceful," said PC Kerr of the Toronto Police Service.

The people of the "Campaign for insite" wanted to "send a message to Prime Minister Harper: no one deserves to die just because they struggle with addiction," said the leaflets they handed out.

There is increased concern now because at the beginning of September the exemption and funding of Vancouver's Safe Injection Site will run out and it this point it looks like the PM will not be renewing any of it.