I went to see what the commotion was all about...
...and to be honest it was a very sad show for the security forces. I went around 8 pm, and saw a fairly minimal number of protesters. The ration of cops to civilians was almost 1 to 1, and most of the people milling around were either gawkers such as myself of people looking for trouble. On two different occasions, I saw the security forces act in an extremley unprofessional manner.
1. Around 51st division, the cops formed a barrier 40 men wide and 4 rows deep, taking up the entire street. The banged their shields, yelled a few "hu ha's", chanted their meathead macho-man shouts and started marching into the crowd. The crowds would step back, 30-40 meters, untill the cops would cease their advance. Then they would go back, and then repeat.
2. At bloor and devonshire, right next to the UofT Varsity centre, the same thing happened but with mounted officers instead. They would push the crowd up to bloor, and then retreat. The crowd would walk maybe 5-10 meters down on devonshire, only to be pushed back to bloor again.
I overheard some of the cops talking about how dissapointing it all was, that they'd come down here expecting some action and it was all very boring instead. All in all it was a really pathetic, useless show for both sides, especially since the role of securty forces is to de-escalate tense situations. Instead they really got on peoples' nerves and it was quite amazing to see the kind of multiplying effect that a crowd can have on peoples' tensions.
I wish the next time our dear prime minister decides to pull of a circus like this one that he stick it in his beloved Alberta and see how well that goes over. All this will do is portray Toronto in a terrible light and justify the jumbo-budget for the whole debacle