It has already been five years since the city of Toronto was submerged into the chaos known as the G20 summit. This convention of political leaders from 20 countries led to unlawful arrests, kettles conducted by authorities and a lot of waste of taxpayer money. All for what? So President Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper can have a photo-op with their counterparts?

A lot has happened since that unforgettable weekend, both for the city and for myself. Toronto has had two mayors; I’ve gotten married to a beautiful dame and moved to a new, better apartment.

As a reporter on the ground the entire weekend, I shan’t forget what transpired from the Eastern Avenue detention centres to the kettling on Spadina Avenue.

It was my first major assignment as a professional journalist at the time covering the event for Digital Journal. I was equipped with my two cameras, tape recorder, a flip phone and a bag full of food so I wouldn’t have to stop for anything. I will concede that I was overwhelmed and flummoxed because I was a rookie reporter trying to collect the best footage. I always look back on that weekend and think: “I could have done more.”

A Rundown of the Weekend

On the Saturday of the G20 summit, I woke up early and immediately headed downtown. The day started off pretty quiet but then as time went by protesters started to vandalize shops, demonstrators began to be detained by police and cars were smashed up and set on fire. It was incredible witness because hardly anything ever happens to this city. I later walked to Spadina Avenue, the infamous kettling spot. I was in it and it was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Although I got a lot of photos and videos, nothing really happened to me. The biggest confrontation for me was when I was standing on Queen Street eating my pretzels and this barrage of officers in riot gear aggressively pushed me against the wall and began to yell at me: “Get back! Get back now!” Again, more vandalism later occurred.

On the Sunday of the G20 summit, I headed to Eastern Avenue, where a major march and protest were going to take place in front of the detention centre. It was peaceful, we interviewed those exiting the jails and people were having a good time. However, undercover police entered the scene and started to arrest people, who were thrown into unmarked vans. Tear gas was thrown so people would be prompted to leave the area.

I left the scene prematurely so I missed the tear gas (unfortunately). I left the area because I had to start uploading the footage to Digital Journal’s CMS and begin writing my report – as a determined journalist I wanted to get the breaking news first. For the rest of the day, I took pictures of the damage and the aftermath. My partner at the time, Mrs. KJ Mullins, to my recollection, did the behind the scenes stuff and attended press conferences and spoke with Torontonians who abstained from the demonstrations. Her work was an asset to DJ.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s a time that I’ll never forget. The flames, the chaos and the governmental overreach will always be a sad time in our city’s history. With the bad comes the good: it helped launch my journalism career. For three years after that event, I covered election campaigns, interviewed public officials, attended press conferences and media events and a whole bunch of other things I will always relish and look back on with great pleasure.

I don’t do much on-the-scene stuff anymore because now I’m making more money doing freelance stuff and I’ve gotten used to eating. However, I sometimes on occasion envy on-the-ground reporters covering the stories of the day. Journalism is a great career to be in, as long as you’re content with not eating a couple of days a week!

I’m posting some videos and links to articles I did at the time:

Vandalism engulfs the city of Toronto during G20 Summit

Toronto on lockdown, vandalism rampant during G20 protest

G20 Detainee: We were put into cages, sat on concrete floor

Unmarked Toronto police make mass arrests at peaceful G20 rally

Naomi Klein to Toronto police force: ‘Do your goddamn jobs’

Last month, I mentioned how I was writing a new series for Career Addict “5 Global Business Headlines From Last Week.” We started last week and they’re starting to be published. Here are the first two thus far:

5 Global Business Headlines From Last Week (May 25 – May 31)

5 Biggest Business Headlines From Around the World From May 2015

I also landed a new writing gig at LearnBonds. Here, I write about business and finance news. My first two pieces were posted today. You can find articles written by me twice a day from Monday to Thursday. Here are the first two articles:

Amazon Inc. (AMZN) Enters PC Gaming Market, Seeks Game Developers

Yahoo (YHOO) Shutting Down Maps, Other Applications This Year

For those of you that don’t know, I’m a regular contributor to Career Addict. I write mostly about business and career matters.

As part of my writing duties, I run two series on the website; one weekly and one monthly.

The monthly one has to do with millennial data from the past 30 days, and the second one is about the five global business headlines that dominated the news in the last seven days. I just started the latter this week.

Here are links to the millennial data articles thus far:

January Millennial Data

February Millennial Data

March Millennial Data

April Millennial Data

May Millennial Data

Am I just getting old?

When I reported today over at B2BNN that Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion, I immediately had memories of the iconic “you’ve got mail” and the infancy days of the Internet. I’m just 27, but I still remember how big dial-up Internet and AOL were (you could buy 120 hours of Internet for $20). I remember AOL bought CompuServ, it purchased ICQ, it added Netscape to its arsenal and it merged with Time Warner, which was huge news in the world of business, tech and professional wrestling.

Since then, however, AOL hasn’t really been a dominant force in the tech landscape, at least not like Google, Apple or Facebook. For the average person, AOL is an irrelevant brand. It’s like MySpace to many of my peers.

Nevertheless, this news was big and will likely garner headlines throughout the rest of the week. Here is a bit of an excerpt from my latest news piece:

Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., announced Tuesday it will be acquiring AOL in a landmark $4.4 billion deal.

The all-cash deal will see Verizon pay $50 per share for AOL, which is 17 percent more than what its stock closed on Monday at $42.59.

The move will allow Verizon to become the largest provider of content and video for the web and mobile phones, while also boosting its digital advertising efforts. Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, said in a statement that the purchase will expand its wireless and over-the-top (OTT) video strategies.

With more than 130 million subscribers and 1.5 billion connected mobile devices, Verizon maintains an enormous network to create and distribute mobile content. Although it has in the past produced various entertainment content, like providing NFL games on mobile devices, this is the first time that Verizon has made any substantial acquisitions to expand these offerings.

I recently launched my Amazon author page. Here, I will be publishing and selling my books, short stories and plays.

At the moment, I have four stories up:

“A Feline Visitation”

“An Ending”

“Coffee & Sandwich Couple”

“Killing Miracles”

I am working on a new book, and once I am finished with it and it is published then I’ll publish a few more short stories as well as a book of plays.

If you’re interested in conducting an interview with me regarding my stories or to perform an author profile then you can certainly contact me at a_moran3@yahoo.ca.