Posted: Saturday, 26 June 2010

The Canadian Labour Congress abhors the behaviour of a small group of people who have committed vandalism and destroyed property in activities related to the G20 summit in Toronto.

The CLC, in conjunction with a number of other groups, including the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Council of Canadians, Greenpeace, Oxfam, and the Canadian Federation of Students, organized a peaceful demonstration in Toronto on Saturday which attracted 30,000 people. We cooperated with police in choosing the route and had hundreds of parade marshals to maintain order.

We were exercising a democratic right to tell G20 leaders that there can be no recovery from the economic crisis unless they place a priority on the creation of good jobs. We are urging the leaders not to move too quickly to austerity measures and warning them not to chop public services.

Our rally and march were entirely peaceful from start to finish. It appears that a small group of anarchists, who are unknown to us, became involved in some violent and destructive activities as the day progressed.

We condemn these actions and we will continue to exercise our democratic right to free expression in a peaceful manner at all times.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

Contact: Dennis Gruending, Communications, 613-878-6040