One year later, and still the question stands. What answers we have offer an incomplete image of an event that spanned the largest city in Canada, and directly affected the businesses, homes, and lives of thousands of people in and around Toronto at that time.

The constructed space between those ‘for’ and those ‘against’ the g20 summit left little room for understanding; and the violence, looting, vandalism, and indiscriminate arrests that ultimately occurred only increased the anger and strong emotions on all sides.

In response Ouboum is publishing a collection of articles and artwork from passers-by, politicians, police, protesters — people, whose experiences will paint a more accurate picture of the summit.

This publication responds to the concern that only a handful of perspectives on the g20 have been given due consideration in public discourse, and that these few were presented only in opposition to one another. The narrative that remains is one of protestors and proponents – suggesting that anyone else would have remained quietly at home, away from the site of the event.

But the site of the event was downtown Toronto – home to some 2.5 million people whose experiences may not conform to the language of the media. The purpose of this publication is to document the wide range of perspectives held by participants on all sides of the g20 by providing a space where people can tell their own stories on their own terms and in their own language.

Ouboum is a Toronto-based collective of independent writers, artists and publishers inviting individuals, groups and organizations to share their experience of the g20 for publication in a forthcoming journal of social discourse. They are now accepting for publication any form of written, photographic or artistic representation of the individual’s experience of the 2010 g20 summit in Toronto.

For more information please visit www.ouboum.ca