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The G20 superseded the G33 that replaced the G22. The year 1975 inaugurated the G6 comprised of America, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Japan. Adding Canada in 1976 made it the G7, then G8 by including Russia in 1997, the EU also included, but it doesn't host or chair.
On June 26 and 27, 2010, G20 officials met inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada. Thousands of protestors filled city streets outside, Reuters reporting over 600 arrested, many in a so-called "free speech zone," police spokeswoman Michelle Murphy calling it "quite a messy protest" on Saturday, continuing on Sunday, accusing "masked anarchists" of smashing store and bank windows, then torching two or more police cars.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said "Free speech is a principle of our democracy, but thugs (provocateurs he dispatched) that prompted violence earlier today represent in no way, shape or form the Canadian way of life," he and his government have been systematically destroying in league with Washington.
Against peaceful activists were more than six KM of barriers topped with concertina wire, thousands of newly installed surveillance cameras, patrolling helicopters, the Canadian Armed Forces at undisclosed locations, and over 7,000 police, plain clothes officers, mounted patrols, snipers on rooftops, US Navy Seals (trained killers), about 1,000 private security guards, and planted ("Black Bloc") provocateurs. More on them below.
Police, acting as hooligans, used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, bean bag guns, batons, and other intimidations, a security operation costing Canada a reported $1.2 billion, the Harper government's communications director, Dimitri Soudas, calling protestors "a bunch of thugs who pretend to have a difference of opinions and instead choose violence in order to express" them, adding that police were "ensuring these thugs don't rampage across the city and create even more damage."
In fact, protestors were peaceful, but not police, independent reports saying they exhibited extreme brutality, including against journalists (men and women), beating and punching them, injuring others, and arresting hundreds, some before the summit convened to intimidate others.
Protest organizer, Niki Thorne, reported that 20 police raided her house and arrested four people, saying:
"Police forcibly detained and cuffed a number of people, and refused to allow those in the house to call for legal advice. Without showing warrants, asking consent, or giving notice, (they) did an illegal cursory search of some of the people on the premises as well as the house itself."
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