“I saw a cop put a bag over a girl’s head and hit her with a taser.”

“I saw a cop with a paintball gun shoot someone right in the face.”

“A cop jumped on some guy to arrest him. Then four people jumped on the cop and started beating the shit out of him to get him off. The cop somehow managed to pull out a handgun and he was waving it around yelling ‘Move! Move! Move!’ Everyone was like, ‘Holy shit he’s got a gun’ and they all started running away. That’s when I left.”

“The media left when the delegates left. That’s when the arrests and beatings really kicked in.”

“They arrested the dishwasher from the Mediterraneo. He came out on the street to see what was going on, and the cops arrested him. The cook from the Med came running out yelling, ‘You can’t arrest my dishwasher!'”

Rioting and mayhem at the G7 finance minister’s conference here in Halifax. I left the Parade Square yesterday before things got really violent, to go get ready for a rock show. Someone had put together this gig at the TKO last night for all the protesters from out-of-town and so on and A/V had been asked to play.

[“Oh hi Philip, how was your show last night? I wish I could’ve gone, but I was in jail. Oh hi Philip, how was your show? I really wanted to go, but I was lying on the pavement with blood running out of my ears.”]

The show was actually a lot of fun, with Thesis and Jesse Dangerously performing, along with Gary Flanagan and crust-punk legends System Shit. I had to leave right after my set to go to work. I wish I could’ve stayed. Highlight of A/V’s set for me was when Derrick Envision hopped onstage to join me on the chorus of “Target Breakdown of Halifax Cannons.” This is one of the oldest A/V songs and I never get tired of playing it. Last night I changed the lyrics so that it was about cops and pepper spray. In recorded form, it is a sordid tale of sex and violence and a Halifax pub crawl that passes through Hell, The Mokka, and The Planet.

~ A/V – target breakdown of halifax cannons [4MB mp3]

After the show, I accepted a drive back to the studio from Gary Flanagan, Canada’s new-wave gentleman. I chained my bike up outside the TKO and said to Gary, “Man, this is a pretty bad neighbourhood.” I thought of driving my bike two blocks over to my house, but I didn’t want to keep Gary waiting.

So after getting off work at the Marquee at 3:30am I walked back over to get my bicycle. As I came up Isleville Street, I heard a car alarm start up around the corner on Bilby. Not a good sign.

I turned onto Bilby, and there was definitely something sketchy going on further up the block. So I walked into the TKO parking lot to get my bike. And there it was… gone.