Toronto City Council Silencing Activists

The 420 rally, Apr. 20, was started by three guys with a megaphone, some posters and social media. Our circle of friends has grown immensely over the past five years. As has our rally. Toronto Hash Mob is not a formal organization of any kind. We don’t have meetings. We don’t have a mission statement. What we do have is a strong desire to end prohibition and mix bag of skills at achieving our goals.
Even people you political disagree with have a right to freedom of speech and to be seen and heard.
As a public space Yonge and Dundas Square offers prime real estate for protesting. Many of the locations community groups protest at are excellent for their political meaning, but when it comes to reaching people with their message the areas are barren. One example of this is University Avenue U.S. Consulate. The venue has plenty political meaning for a host of activism, but if you want to get your message out to the public it’s an empty area. We’ve protested many, many times to Free Marc Emery, on the weekend when there’s even less foot traffic. Only cars zipping by are reading our homemade posters.
I’d rather be at Yonge and Dundas Square.  It’s the perfect place to hold a rally to inform the public about your cause. However, there’s some hitches an activists faces. Including sound problems if their rally is successful.
Firstly is the application. A protest can happen in the square without filling out the application. We agree on that, but  it isn’t overly clear on your website. A protest is not a festival nor an event. The words have dramatically different meanings. However, a good protest is peaceful, fun and informative. Maybe that’s the confusion.
We are a protest, yet for me to use this speaker, microphone and power generator to allow protesters at the edge of the square to hear us I some how become an event. As you can see it’s not a massive sound system. Nothing like Iggy and the Stooges last summer, which was a fantastic event. I doubt this little speaker can reach the Yonge and Dundas side walk. I’m certain though it’s much better than our megaphones.
All we want is for participants to see and hear our message, but the application to use amplified sound doesn’t apply to me whatsoever. Instead I advised square management of our intention to use amplified sound. I read the Good Neighbor Policy. I think when people read sound system they have visions of speakers the size of my sleight frame. People have bigger speakers in their home than the one I’m asking to use. I’ve come here seeking permission to plug in our rally by using this small little setup so we can be heard.
Currently we have less than 1000 people on FaceBook attending Apr. 20, but something tells me the square will be a sea of protesters like last year. Where does our attendance come from? Two sources. We do media interviews, television and radio day of, and from the 62,000 people walking by and the 55,000 vehicles.
The World Health Organization 2007 world drug report estitmates 16% of Canadians inhale marijuana. Even a modest 10% applied to one of those numbers would give us a potential audience of 6,200 people wanting to hear what we have to say. I’d argue there’s 10,000 people coming through the square almost daily in possession of a small amount of cannabis or under the influence of marijuana and no one knows the better.
On Apr. 20 people out themselves in our city’s most noted public space. Almost all by smoking marijuana at 4:20 p.m. They proudly tell the world I smoke marijuana. If marijuana was legal an annual festival in Yonge and Dundas Square to celebrate the end of prohibition on Apr. 20 with city approval would be appropriate.
Instead we have one of the largest political rallies in our city. I’ve attended plenty of different political rallies, many organized by respected political orgs, but three guys and megaphone tend to out draw them.  Again our resources are social media, media, and 1000 posters.
With this sound system a much larger audience will be able to hear us. It’s important we engage the audience, we’ve lined up fellow activists and added some humor with professional comedians. These people are our friends. We have activist routines and speeches.
I understand not setting up other infrastructure like tents and tables as that is festival or event ish. But a sound system besides engaging protesters is necessary safety precaution at this point for our rally. We anticipate over 5000 plus people peaceful protesting. A city councilor could sponsor our rally, but I’d have to fill out the application which makes me very uncomfortable. Seeking permission I could be turned down or be successful for several years then be turned down at a later date.
Without this setup we will not be heard.
I can only point out the problem, the application doesn’t apply to us, we need this small amplified sound setup.
Thank you.