Police stopped and questioned Michael Walsh for 45 minutes after they found him carrying protest signs and asking for directions to the Toronto Community Mobilization Network's (TCMN) protesters Convergence Space.

A marked cruiser and unmarked Budget rental van supported almost a dozen officers who surrounded Walsh on Bathurst St during rushhour Thursday, June 24.

Walsh says police told him they "do this all the time" - "go around in the community and ask questions", and that when one officer searching through Walsh's placards without consent found one stating "$1 Billion waste", the officer said "Well, I don't know that its a waste".

Walsh was carrying his travelers' packs and asking two street-involved men for directions when police intervened. The Movement Defence Committee, a volunteer group of legal experts working with TCMN to support G8/G20 protesters, says police have been targetting homeless and street-involved people in illegal detentions and searches leading up to the controvertial sumit that starts Saturday.

Says Walsh: "I feel actually quite badly for [street-involved] people who have those sorts of encounters with police on a regular basis and I'm actually quite concerned about what's coming next [...] civil liberties seem to be going out the window these days."