A friend and I decided to go down to Queen and Spadina and see if the protests were still going on.  It was around 6pm on Sunday when we arrived at the intersection to find a similar scene as had come to be expected over the past two days: dozens if not hundreds of riot police forming lines across the street and a group of protesters standing around not really doing much.  I would later discover that a large number of the people at the intersection at that time had no intention of taking part in any protest and were simply caught in the middle of a mob.  

What happened next also wasn't such a terrible surprise.  The police had the southern, eastern and western ends of the intersection blocked off, leaving only the north for the protesters to move.  A fourth line of police coming down Spadina from the north began to form.  It quickly became clear to the 200-300 people in the crowd, including myself and my friend, that there was no possible way to leave at this point.  A row of maybe 5 streetcars, which had gone out of service, then began to back up (away from the intersection) to make way for a solid line of riot police, which continued to beat their shields as they marched forward.  Within about 5-10 minutes we only had about 20 meters of space between the two police lines.  That number would soon be cut in half as the northern line slowly pushed us farther in.  

The scene inside the crowd was at first hectic and rather tense.  People were red-faced shouting "where are we supposed to go?  you've blocked us in?"  Others, like myself, were becoming increasingly nervous that we would become the riot police's proverbial fish in the bucket.  In short, it came to a point where we were all expecting either rubber bullets, tear gas, beatings or some combination.  We were all shouting "peaceful protest!  we are peaceful!" one man suggested that we all put our hands in the air to indicate we had no weapons and were will to cooperate.  This only seemed to make the situation more tense as that same man who had been trying to calm people down in order to prevent any violence from occurring, was (about 15 minutes later) one of the first of several dozen to get arrested.  Every 5 minutes or so the police would enter the crowd and arrest people at random.  

Then the torrential downpour hit and we spent the next 2-3 hours standing in the rain.  Some had umbrellas, others huddled under their protest banners.  Unfortunately I was in short sleeves (others were actually shirtless) without an umbrella.  The police did and said nothing.  Some officers did talk to individuals about what was going on, but this only added to the confusion.  Some told us we were all criminals and that we had breached the peace and were all going to be arrest, others said that we'd all get processed and only some of us would be arrested.  Several chartered TTC buses as well as a few coach buses showed up after sunset and sat there idle.  

We stood in the rain for some time with absolutely no indication as to what would be down with us, why this was happening, what they were doing or anything.  The lack of communication from the police to the protesters was shocking and was a major contributor to the absurdity of the whole situation.  Finally, toward the end of the ordeal, one officer (without a megaphone) attempted to shout out to us that we would all be put on the aforementioned buses and dealt with individually, and that we'd all get out of the rain and be dry.  This never happened.  We stood for about 15 or 30 more minutes before they finally said something to us (which I couldn't hear do to their lack of amplified audio equipment) which translated into the northern line of riot police breaking formation and allowing us to leave like herded cattle.  

Most of us could barely walk due to the cold and stiffness of our muscles and joints.  Standing in the rain and wind huddled up with strangers for 3 and a half hours will do that apparently.  In the end, we were never offered much explanation as to why we had been unlawfully held on a public street for so long in adverse weather conditions.  Police Chief Bill Blair would later argue that we were given three warnings to leave the area before they closed us in.  This is likely the most brazen lie I have ever witnessed the construction of.  We were NEVER warned, asked or told to leave.  We were never instructed or given any indication of what was required of us other than "move back."  Again, the lack of communication or care for the rights of citizens of Canada was both ridiculous and disgusting.  Shame.