THE FENCE

There is a fence around the heart of the city. In front of the fence are thousands of uniformed men, all of them armed. They are not looking inside the fence, they are staring outwards .. at you. If you approach the fence, out of curiosity, the men will approach you, demand your ID. They will search you. You cannot refuse them. If you do, you'll be arrested

While you are being arrested your image will be recorded by one of dozens of hidden security cams. Your image will be sent to rooms filled with more men, some of them uniformed, some of them in plain clothes. It will be stored in data banks, all over the world. You won't know where that image is sent. You don't have the right to ask

If you are arrested at the fence, you won't go to one of the police precincts in the city. You will be sent to a special "detention centre". There you will be held and you will be questioned. You may not even know who exactly is questioning you

If you approach the fence in numbers you may be greeted by water cannons, or sound cannons, designed to immobilize you.

While you are being assaulted, you will be watched by dozens of helicopters flying above the city, many of them unmarked. Surely, they will have cams too

If you are injured for your curiosity, you won't be taken to one of the city's hospitals. You will be taken to one of several emergency health centres, trauma centres, created for this purpose, to deal with people injured for being in the middle of the city

This is not fiction. It is not a dystopia, it is not a post apocolyptic vision. This is this week. This is my city. This is happening now. A beautiful, sunny warm day and downtown Toronto is virtually deserted. Except for the men with the guns

Who stand by the fence .