Hi all,
I apologize if this is a re-post.
On June 25th, 2010, a Deaf man named Emomotimi Azorbo was arrested at a G20 protest here in Toronto. He was an observer, and not involved in the protest. He was walking across the street to buy a bottle of water and was told to stop by the police, and he did not hear the command. He was then tackled to the ground and arrested. His friends were trying to tell the police he is Deaf, but this was ignored.
He was brought to a special G20 detention centre, where he was then held overnight without access to qualified interpreters. The police only provided a "member interpreter" meaning a police officer without any official training and only minimal fluency in ASL. The arrest happened around 4:30pm and it was not until the next morning at 9:00am that qualified interpreters were allowed into the facility.
All night protesters stayed outside the facility, calling for police to allow an interpreter in. There was an interpreter involved in the protest willing to provide services to allow for an interview. Ontario Interpreting Services had interpreters ready to provide services for this exact situation and this was denied.
At 2pm today I went to the bail hearing where the charges were described as three counts of assaulting a police officer and 1 count of resisting arrest. He was released on bail, with restrictions included not being allowed to enter the downtown core the remainder of the G20 summit.
This evening, I went downtown to go to a Deaf social happening. I live very close to the protests happing right now. I got to Queens park and Wellesley. There were people moving freely all through the park. At Queens park and Wellesley there was a line of police. There were people on the other side of the line of police and all I wanted to do was go east on Wellesley. I typed out "I am going East on Wellesley to a social held by the Ontario Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. Can I do this?" I had ID out.
I approached them and they refused to read it. I started signing what I had written and gesturing that I'm Deaf. They pointed away from them and one of them said very clearly "she's playing the sign language game. She can hear. Don't play into it".
I grew up oral and I'm a good lip reader and I caught it all. Hearing people were asking questions and getting answers. I was not a protestor, at that time, I was just going downtown.
There is blatent disregard for human rights and obviouse audim happening within the justice system. Where are our rights?
I apologize if this is a re-post.
On June 25th, 2010, a Deaf man named Emomotimi Azorbo was arrested at a G20 protest here in Toronto. He was an observer, and not involved in the protest. He was walking across the street to buy a bottle of water and was told to stop by the police, and he did not hear the command. He was then tackled to the ground and arrested. His friends were trying to tell the police he is Deaf, but this was ignored.
He was brought to a special G20 detention centre, where he was then held overnight without access to qualified interpreters. The police only provided a "member interpreter" meaning a police officer without any official training and only minimal fluency in ASL. The arrest happened around 4:30pm and it was not until the next morning at 9:00am that qualified interpreters were allowed into the facility.
All night protesters stayed outside the facility, calling for police to allow an interpreter in. There was an interpreter involved in the protest willing to provide services to allow for an interview. Ontario Interpreting Services had interpreters ready to provide services for this exact situation and this was denied.
At 2pm today I went to the bail hearing where the charges were described as three counts of assaulting a police officer and 1 count of resisting arrest. He was released on bail, with restrictions included not being allowed to enter the downtown core the remainder of the G20 summit.
This evening, I went downtown to go to a Deaf social happening. I live very close to the protests happing right now. I got to Queens park and Wellesley. There were people moving freely all through the park. At Queens park and Wellesley there was a line of police. There were people on the other side of the line of police and all I wanted to do was go east on Wellesley. I typed out "I am going East on Wellesley to a social held by the Ontario Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf. Can I do this?" I had ID out.
I approached them and they refused to read it. I started signing what I had written and gesturing that I'm Deaf. They pointed away from them and one of them said very clearly "she's playing the sign language game. She can hear. Don't play into it".
I grew up oral and I'm a good lip reader and I caught it all. Hearing people were asking questions and getting answers. I was not a protestor, at that time, I was just going downtown.
There is blatent disregard for human rights and obviouse audim happening within the justice system. Where are our rights?
