What a Day: Duelling Protests

Well, that certainly was a day. Started off by going to the Market to get groceries for the week. About ½ of my regular buys were on sale! Score! I had a lot of stuff this time, so I jumped in a cab on the way home. This is where the day started to get interesting. The cab driver recognized me from about a year ago (no offense, but I didn’t recognize him).

I got home, got my groceries put away, grabbed my camera gear and headed out for the planned protest. Well, I get out to King and Bay before the protest gets there to scope out a few spots to shoot from…and I see something happening up at Old City Hall a block away. I couldn’t tell what it was from my location, so I moved up. A different protest was going on there, one for Syria. So, I shot there for a little bit. Got ‘pissed’ at a group of cops behind me when a beautiful motorcycle went by and they didn’t make any noise to alert me to it! Then we laughed.

Then, the protest that I was there for came by, so literally, I was shooting two protests in one. I left with the Occupy Toronto protest and shot them down Bay to King, where they gathered in the open space in front of CIBC.

In the midst of all of this, I had found a bankcard on the ground and, after checking with a couple of people in the area, decided to call the number on the card. After being on hold for about 5 minutes, got through and was told to destroy the card, and a phone call was being placed to the owner to alert him to the lost card.

So, I make it into the little square and start shooting. After about 10 or 15 minutes, I see a sign, with a name and a date on it. This is where they day really got ‘weird’…or for me…I guess normal. The name was a friend of mine; the date was the date of her death. It was a mutual friend with the sign, though we had never met until that day. To say the least, it was unique and surreal.

So I’m on my way home and TOO MUCH INFORMATION: I had to go to the bathroom. And I needed milk. So, I stopped at the lobby of my condo to use the washroom, and then popped back out for milk at the convenience store around the corner. Had I not stopped for the break, I would have missed Dan Dicks in the store, who I had just seen at King and Bay for the protest.

What a weird day it’s been. On top of ALL of this, protestors are starting to recognize me now! It’s an odd feeling…

More photos will be uploaded to Flickr.