The media in and around Toronto are in full hand-wringing mode over the weekend's "violence" and "rioting" and "anarchy" and "chaos" there. They -and their audiences -should all take a deep breath.
Two police cars were burned, some store windows broken, sports shoes stolen, trash cans overturned. No deaths, a few minor injuries. Montreal can match that after a first-round playoff game.
This is, in fairness, no laughing matter. A few mindlessly angry "black bloc" anarchists did their best to raise hell, but in general failed, mainly because of an overpowering police presence.
But we saw no police over-reaction. It was stupid for the Ontario cabinet furtively to authorize extraordinary police powers, and we're glad the Canadian Civil Liberties Association will challenge the decision, though it has now expired. But police comported themselves well, as far as we could tell. They did arrest 900, but almost all were released without charge. A Toronto columnist quoted one arrested protester heard on CBC Radio complaining that she'd been given only inferior "bread with a piece of cheese, which proves to me I live in a fascist police state." Oh yes? What would she call Iran, then? Another complained that there was no vegan food in jail.
This fuss in Toronto was no riot. In Thailand, 82 died in riots this spring. The Seattle WTO protest of 1999 had 40,000 demonstrators. Detroit's 1967 race riot left 43 dead and perhaps 2,000 buildings burned down. Our own "Richard riot" of 1955 injured more policemen that this little Toronto shindig.
Happy the country that can throw the word "riot" around so loosely.