I was at the rally today and was in the thick of some of the violence inflicted by the pigs. I was fine, though I was punched at one point and a cop almost broke my camera; others suffered much worst. I wasn't there when it first happened but someone from CUPE 3903 posted this account:

"oronto Police Attack Peaceful Protesters, Tues January 27, 2009

Today at 15:38

I am writing this to share with you what really happened at the CUPE 3903 protest against back-to-work legislation at the Ministry of Labour and Queen's Park today. Most major news networks are referring to the events of today as "protesters clash with police" or "one arrested at CUPE 3903 demonstration", and so on.

The organizers of the protest began by getting all of the necessary permits to have the rally, and did notify the city and the police in accordance with the law. We began the rally at the Ministry of Labour, and upon completion we marched down University Avenue to our final destination, Queen's Park. During the protest we listened to speeches, yelled chants, and sang songs amidst journalist-provocateurs which we responded to by yelling our chants even louder, or ignoring all together.

When we were marching down University Avenue the police kept screaming at us to get off the road, when our permit proved that we had a legal right to be there! We only stayed on the side of the street designated to us, and refrained from stepping onto any private property because we wanted our demonstration to be peaceful! After screaming at us, some police officers started to shove some of the marshalls. When one girl yelled at a police officer for shoving her, he responded by yelling "Stop resisting you stupid bitch!" and hit her in the face with his baton. Bleeding, she was dragged by two male officers to the police station. Police officers then arrested four other protesters, two of which I saw being held on the ground, their faces being crushed into concrete and piles of sharp ice and gravel. One protester's forehead was bleeding from being forced down into the ice. As he was lifted up and put into the back of the police car the officer yelled to the crowd that the protesters were armed!! The police officer had confiscated his CUPE flag, so was the officer referring to a large pink flag being a lethal weapon? Ridiculous! While the police were forcibly restraining the protesters, we circled the police, shouting "LET THEM GO! LET THEM GO! POLICE BRUTALITY! POLICE BRUTALITY!' A group of us then sat in front of the police car that was holding the protester who had a bloody forehead as a means of peaceful resistance against police brutality. The police then felt a need to call in backup of at least 10 more police cars, plus a troop of cops on horses to intimidate us. From my understanding a good portion of these events were caught on film on video tape, and it is my hope that we have enough evidence to help our colleagues who were unjustly injured and arrested today.

When we tried to continue the march to Queen's Park, the police blocked the road with their cruisers, not allowing us to pass. This happened in front of a hospital and they then had the audacity to accuse us of obstructing emergency vehicles when it was their cruisers that were blocking the road!! Finally the police unblocked the road so that we could pass and continue on with our rally.

We did make it to Queen's Park to finish the rally, and were met with support from CUPE Ontario who are going to pay the lawyer fees for those who were abused by uniformed police officers, and the NDP caucus who have been the only party in Ontario to fight against back-to-work legislation. We did find out that that McGuinty is supposed to be calling York administration back to the bargaining table today, in a last ditch effort to end the strike without back-to-work legislation!!

It is my hope that those who were injured by the police today video tape their injuries and send the pictures to the media, put them of facebook, and put them on youtube to show the public how Toronto police are guilty of brutality!"

Apparently, passerbys agreed. A number of construction workers joined in at the impromptu rally outside 52nd division and here's a quote from one of the articles:

"One person was grabbed and thrown to the ground," said Ted Myerscough, a research project co-ordinator, who was looking down from the ninth floor of his work building on University Avenue. "I was just outraged."