July 2nd, 2010: The other day I mentioned Toronto police chief Bill Blair, and I know to a lot of people outside of Toronto it's PRETTY IRRELEVANT, but I thought the story was so crazy it was worth sharing. Anyway, the story has gotten even more surreal! After the G20, and as a way to justify the one billion Canadians spent on security, the police had a press conference showing all the weapons they confiscated from protesters. Fair enough, right? "This is what we protected you from".
Only it turns out that the biggest weapon there, a crossbow, was taken from somewhere else in an unrelated incident, and a bunch of the others (foam arrows and shields and chainmail) were taken from the costume of a LIVE-ACTION ROLEPLAYER who wasn't even at the G20. Blair even singled out the LARPer's foam arrows and told the media they were "designed to be dipped in flammable liquid and set ablaze".
These are costume arrows with pool noodles and socks on the end, taken from a guy who wasn't even at the G20. He was on his way here.
Toronto police chief Bill Blair, ladies and gentlemen.
(If you're interested, the always-great Torontist has collected the 14 essential G20 videos. There's some scary and some inspiring moments there, check them out!) One year ago today: earlier versions of this comic had her team up with that self-interested aquatic vertebrate, the selFISH, but then i thought "wait what the heck am i doing" – Ryan