The gates at the entrance of Trinity Bellwoods Park on Queen Street West and Strachan Avenue in Toronto, a proposed site of a "free speech zone" during the G20 summit. Police have changed their mind after residents protested.LOUIE PALU/The Globe and Mail
Public outcry has prompted the police to cancel their plan to place a designated free speech zone in Queen Street West's popular Trinity Bellwoods Park during the G20 summit in Toronto on June 26 and 27.
The decision was announced Thursday by the G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit, who said they were responding to concerns from the community.
A new venue for the zone could be announced as early as Friday, said ISU spokesperson Meaghan Grey.
"We have to have one, we will have one," she said. "We have a couple of locations we're thinking of."
In Trinity Bellwoods Park, neighbourhood resident Laura Mac Con expressed relief at the change of venue.
"That's great news," she said. "It would have destroyed the park."
But a coalition of groups representing labour and social justice causes say they are still planning on marching to Trinity Bellwoods, unless police come up with a better plan.
Labour organizer Sid Ryan said his group has a permit to hold a protest in the park for the "People First! We Deserve Better G8 & G20 Public Rally and March."
The group is meeting at Queen's Park on June 26, and will march down University Avenue and across Queen Street to Trinity Bellwoods, where they expect to arrive around 2 p.m.
"We're not giving up our fundamental right to protest just because some people don't want us in a public park," he said. "Our rally will still be going on."
Mr. Ryan said the group had originally planned to conclude their event at Coronation Park, at Lake Shore Boulevard and Strachan Avenue, but the police requested they change their location because of concerns about closing Lakeshore.
"We worked with the police on selecting this location," Mr. Ryan said.
On Thursday, he wrote a letter to city officials saying his group would be willing to move their venue again if a suitable location could be found. But it would need to accommodate thousands of protesters, he said, and be reasonably close to the summit location.
City Councillor Adam Vaughan said he is relieved that Trinity Bellwoods will no longer host the designated free speech area, but said that similar venues will also raise concern.
Mr. Vaughan said more problems will arise as the federal government attempts to plan the summit from Ottawa.
"But they're intent on saying how the city works from the Prime Minister's Office. When quite clearly they haven't got a clue."