Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Raptors Championship Parade and Rally #RealTalk

Episode Date: June 18, 2019

"There are no words. Today was one of the worst days of my life when it should have been one of the best, not just for the shootings, so many other fails by the City of Toronto and MLSE." That Tweet was sent by Brian this evening so I phoned him up to talk about it.

Welcome to episode 478 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, StickerU.com, and Capadia LLP CPAs. I'm Mike from torontomike.com, and this is a very special episode. My special guest is Brian Gerstein. He is the gentleman behind propertyinthesix.com, a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. But that's not why I'm going to talk to him on this episode. He happens to be a diehard Raptors fan

and was very, very, very excited about today's Toronto Raptors championship victory parade. So he went to Nathan Phillips Square for the rally. And as I learned from a tweet he sent this evening, it did not go particularly well. I'm naturally curious. So what happened, Brian?

So we basically had a phone call moments ago in which he shared his story. Now, just before we go to that phone call, just to share my side of the story, is that I did not go to Nathan Phillips Square. I biked along the waterfront trail after recording Hebsey on Sports, and I watched the parade from, I'd say,

it's just a little bit east of Strawn on Lakeshore, like literally standing on Lakeshore, and great vantage point, like right beside the parade. I was with Mark Hebbshire from Hebsey on Sports. He also biked there. And I had a fantastic experience taking in the parade, taking lots of pictures and videos, which I've shared on torontomike.com. And when the parade had passed, I felt like I got a good feel for the vibe of the city. And there were lots of big fans there, families. And it felt great.

And the weather was perfect. And I was just like so full of like, oh, I can feel this. This is amazing. And then I biked west on the waterfront trail. And I decided to watch the rally on TV. Of course, there was about, I don't know, three hours between like me getting home

and that, you know, rally starting at Nathan, I don't know, three hours between me getting home and that rally starting at Nathan Phillips Square. But that's a whole separate story. So I had a great experience, but I didn't go near Nathan Phillips Square. I stayed on the lakeshore. So let's talk to Brian. Hey, Mike. Hey, Brian. How are you doing?

Yeah, I'm chilling now. I'm all good. I'm just going to put it all behind me and like what I just read, which really made me feel better. Just think about Thursday. And I'm going to leave it at that. I want to hear everything so uh can you set the table like maybe spend like a couple of minutes just talking about your relationship with the raptors and then set us up for what you plan to do today and then tell us how it like went down yeah sure okay because like i went into a lot of details my wife like she gave me like in, so it's fresh in my mind.

Oh, pretend I'm your wife. Okay. I didn't take notes or anything. They just literally just poured out of me. So I hope I can make it pour out again. Okay. So, yeah. So just to start, yeah, I was looking forward to this.

I got my cap, got my Kawhi signature, got my shirt, even though it didn't fit, but I still wanted to rep the Raptors in the World Championship. So I checked the subway schedule out the next day because I wasn't certainly going to sleep over. I knew I had to take public transportation from Thornhill. So first train out was 5.36, and I was on it. Now she left at 5.39, but that was fine. So I got there at a good time.

I got, you know, I took a picture that I posted, you saw. It was in front of the screen. So I had a good, you know, great angle of viewing of that. And the stage was, you know, not far, too far away where I could at least get, you know, and I see the players, you know, and I can actually connect to them on that basis because that's the whole idea of going.

I want it to be close enough, go early enough. So at least I can get a chance to see the players and, you know, and I can actually connect to them on that basis. Cause that's the whole idea of going. I want it to be close enough, go early enough. So at least I can get a chance to see the players and, you know, not just watch a screen cause I may as well be at home. Okay. So I accomplished that on both fronts, you know, like when the players eventually did show up much later in a day, which I'll get to, which you're aware of. Um, I was able to get a glimpse of the players, you know, and see them, but that, that wasn't really the issue of the day. The issue of the day started shortly after my arrival, Mike. Okay, so what time is that, like 6.30 or something? No, earlier than that.

Earlier than that. I probably got there at, my guess is, probably how long a subway ride, there's like no subway traffic at all. I'd say probably 6.15, 6.20 or somewhere around there, I would imagine. Okay, so we got you at Nathan Phillips Square set up at 615 or something. Okay, good. Yeah. In that ballpark. Yeah.

All right. So yeah. Take me from there. Yeah. So I'm there. So we walk, walk right in, you know, there's no entry issues whatsoever, which, you know, I'll eventually get to and show that there really should have been some entry issues in terms of capacity levels. So I line up. I don't have to line up or anything. You just literally walk right in at that point.

There's a line already, not really a line, but it's a group of people that you just want to get the best angle to the stage and the screen. And it was more on the right-hand side of the screen. So if you picture the stage when everyone's in front of the stage, there are two screens, one to the left, like on the west side, and one on the right on the east side. So I was situated on the screen on the right or the left of the stage if you're looking out, let's say. And that was the stage that was just right, that side was right near where the shooting took place, which I found out later on. And it just happened right outside where I was, like literally right on the side street, like like, next street, right over, you know, where I walked in, okay, kind of, which kind of freaked me out, but that was a separate issue. So, yeah, so I just, like, I make friends with people around me, I start chatting them up, and we're, you know, we've lots of leg

room, we're able to, you know, stand in an orderly manner in terms of that, everyone's feeling good and great, and then, literally literally within it must have been like like literally minutes okay all of a sudden like more people start to come in and more and more and more and i just feel the line kind of compressing like just where we are like the space is just disappearing and you know you can't really claim space because you're not allowed bringing chairs right so some people were very smart they improvised they have these little kind of handheld chairs that they use. A few people do that around me and they can sit on it to make some space. But even then, when you do that, eventually you have to move it or

issues happen and it ends up not lasting too long to keep their space. But that was actually a good innovative idea. But the first thing that happened was shortly after we arrived and within, I guess, probably 15 minutes or half an hour, there was about literally maybe 10 feet in front of me, there was a lady that collapsed. And she, I guess, someone said she had an epileptic seizure. We didn't know, but she definitely fainted, you know, at minimum. So we were screaming for a medic right away. This is literally like 15 minutes after my arrival. So we're screaming like, medic, medic. Someone was calling 911. Call 911. Nobody called 911

because you figure you're right at the Nathan Phillips. There's medics everywhere, you think, right? No, that's not the case. What happened was that people were literally screaming medic, medic, medic and more people were picking up the cause. And finally, I'm not exaggerating, it was a good like 10 minutes, like easily, where someone comes to check it out. And they said, Oh, yeah, we need more help here. And then they have someone else come in. And they ended up taking her away. And I saw her when she leave, there was a fairly young woman. And she just was totally like groggy. And she had no color in her

face. So I'm not sure exactly, you exactly what happened, but they took her away. So that was incident number one where the response by EMS, which I heard, I saw after the fact on Twitter, they actually had one outside of the Nathanfield Square. I think it was maybe on Bay Street or somewhere. I forget what street it's on, but they had something outside, but not even within the confines of Nathanfield Square, which was absolutely insanity to me. Wow.

And then literally, I'm not kidding, Mike, like an hour later, probably, there was an exact same episode happen. Same spot, different people. Like, I'm not kidding, right in front of us. We were like, couldn't believe it. And this one was actually, you know, as well, like pretty serious. leave it. And this one was actually, you know, as well, like pretty serious. So EMS eventually came, but not before we were waving flagpoles at them to try and alert them and all that. And there's a guy on the rooftop that was like pointing and say, we see you, we're sending people. It took so long for them to come. It was crazy. And they had to literally allow people to get

space to get through. They were making an announcement by the PA announcement for someone to come in, you come in and allow people. And that happened repeatedly throughout the day there where they had issues where people were collapsing and because they let so many people in. And when I say so many people, I'm not exaggerating here. We're talking, picture me standing up. I have my sweatshirt on over my shirt

that I've got on the weekend. I literally could not take it off. People were trying to help people take their clothes off. They had to take off. They had to get help from their neighbors. We were literally squashed up against each other. You had no room whatsoever. I couldn't even stretch my legs.

I literally had to close. Crapping up throughout the day. It was just, and there was no room. They let nonstop people through the gates, Mike. They had no capacity limits. Can I ask you a question? I was wondering, like what if you have to go to the bathroom?

Oh, this is our story. Yeah, I held it in all day because I purposely knew that I would have an issue because I was going on my own. So I had a coffee, not even a large one, at Tim Hortons on the way and I brought two waters.

But the waters would disappear. My waters ran out at two o'clock, two of them, and I was pretty thirsty late in the day, but I had to suck it up. People did leave and if they came back, they would try and follow the same path. They came in so people would recognize you that you weren't bullshitting them. Right. So they would show you that that was the secret at the beginning. Later on, people didn't care. They were just like,

if they left, they would just come in and, you know, push our way through. And there were a lot of people that came in later that legitimately didn't have spots. They were just pushing their way through the line and saying that, oh, yeah, I'm here. I'm here for a friend, whatever. And whatever. You know, no one's going to get into a fight over it, you know, so to speak. Okay. So not to mention the crowding that happened throughout the day.

There was one really scary incident with us. What happened was, and I'll tell you the announcement that came after that. There was like a lot of a sudden, like I literally was lifted off the ground. There was like everyone was pushed back, like by by two feet and it happened like boom like it was like literally like a tsunami that just pulled back like a wave yeah a wave and what happened was is that the people that got somebody like pushed back hard or like to get space like a whole bunch of people and then it was like a domino effect and everyone fell behind them literally and i literally fell off my i grabbed the guy in front of me on his shoulders to make sure that I didn't fall down as I was being pushed back.

And it was crazy. It was like, I mean, we were all just like, what the hell just happened? Okay. We all lost our spots and all that. And then later on, they made an announcement saying, look, we've lost the children in the crowd. You know, everyone has to be careful um in terms of that and especially those kids near the front they were worried actually and made sense that if it was pushing upwards like to the front that there was the fences okay at the front like the gates and you could have like especially kids that were up there and they would be like so dead they would not have a chance to help we were very

close today to having um an incident in like spain that you've seen or sometimes these soccer matches where you have the fences where people get squashed and there's nowhere to go and all that. And with the shooting, what happened today, we were very lucky there's no cell phone service. Because had there been a cell phone service and people would know there was a live actual shooting that happened that we heard actually, but we thought it was just fireworks. It was right near us. There were people setting up like fireworks or, you know, like lasers right near us. There were people setting up fireworks or lasers or whatever. There were people throughout the day not to do that, where we're going to remove you. But that's good that it happened, Mike, because

had they not done that, two things helped avoid an absolute disaster. It could have been like so many people trampled and some people were trampled outside when that happened. I heard in the news later on and read on Twitter. But inside Nathan Phillips Square itself, there could have been hundreds or God knows how many tens of deaths could have easily happened without even much difficulty at all.

Like we were that close to having that happen today. Wow. So, okay. So what you're saying is if you had self-service, you might have seen on Twitter or got a text or something that said there's a shooter. Yeah. And you guys would have panicked and fled. Yeah, we would have bolted.

We would have said we can't stay in here. They made no announcements at the beginning until Matt Devlin came on and said, look, we have a very dangerous situation. We never want to stay calm and to stay where you are. Okay. So what happened is if Matt Devlin had not said that and people would have all had access to social media,

but because the cell towers weren't working with so many people because we're so incompetent here um for that reason it actually probably saved a lot of lives potentially yeah that happened to me actually except i was able to tweet text i just couldn't tweet uh an image but this is another this is just me on the parade route but anyway you're right cell service went down i thought to myself actually i was with hebsey and i said if shit ever goes down in the city and there's something catastrophic happening, if we all think we can rely on these phones, we're, you know, we're stupid because those things are going to go.

So don't rely. Yeah. Okay. So let me, okay. So I'm watching the, uh, I'm watching the rally on television. So what I, now, okay. So you brought a couple of waters cause you're a smart guy, but maybe not smart enough cause you needed more.

Now it was a sunny warm day and you're exposed since six 15 or whatever you said. Yeah. I brought suntan lotion, which I fortunately was very smart. I applied it when I first got there because later on I took it out again and I was able to just, I had no room. I can only dab myself with it. Like I couldn't even reapply properly. That's how bad it was, Mike. I couldn't even put lotion on.

Did you, you got a red nose right now? How did you do? Did you? No, my nose was fine. I had my, I was fine. Now, okay. What about for water though? Was your only option to leave the grounds and go buy water?

Or were there any, like, was there any, was the city at all providing water or some kind of spraying with a hose or something was there anything like that no no no spraying the hose there were no water it was a there was maybe two times where they threw a couple of waters bottled waters kind of really dangerously into the crowd i have no idea i have no idea if that was ems or if that was just someone being you know nice in a way or whatever or having extra water because it seems kind of crazy that ems would do that i doubt i have no idea who did that but the crowd was yelling they were screaming we were screaming over and over you know like give us

water what was the line that the chant they were saying i said we want water we want water we need water like all these different chants for water were happening right and nobody replied so we knew that there was nothing coming. Okay. So in your opinion, they just overstuffed the square? Oh, completely. Oh yeah. Without a doubt. The capacity was way, way, way too dangerous. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. What they should have done, and not to mention the safety factor, Mike,

people are coming in with knapsacks, like no security whatsoever. Yes a sniffer dog you know up on the stage at one point there were a few snipers i saw some police up you know around like around not so much on rooftops but on the joining areas where they didn't allow people to kind of walk by but people were still walking through there which was crazy they kept throwing people away like the whole security was so poorly done you could just tell it was very Mickey Mouse. So yeah, somebody could have easily come in and just blown up and killed like 500 or a thousand people without any difficulty at all. I did not feel safe.

And just speaking about that scared the crap out of me when I realized the situation. But at that point I had no choice because I, if I, if I wanted to leave, that would be difficult to leave. Well, you're probably thinking about like the Boston marathon and stuff like that.

Oh yeah, absolutely. I said if this would happen, if there's any motivation by somebody to do that, this would have been the easiest score they would have ever had in their life. OK, any terrorist. Which is interesting because the prime minister was there, right? So you have the whatever we call his RCMP protectors or whatever. But I know there's a lot of snipers because he was there. Well, they're protecting, but keep in in mind they're protecting the stage area they're not

protecting the uh the crowd you know as much okay so just to summarize or is there any more or is that that that's a pretty big pile of uh like okay so the delay how did the delay affect you so you anticipated the uh the it would the rally would start at 12 30 right so you probably right 12 30 for an hour supposed to finish at 1 30 yeah and then you know it was disappointing just from like um like just from a span of the team and all that and why it came out when the players finally showed up because of the three plus hour delay um it was really bad because they had no energy you probably saw that when you were out watching if you're watching on tv and all that like like lowry was just like totally had nothing left in the tank you know i can't say i blame him but these guys were like you know they were outside they probably

had some heat you know issues with they were drinking champagne the whole time yeah drinking yeah and not drinking water okay exactly so they were drinking a little alcohol so these guys like were just totally gone i mean there's nothing's nothing left. And that's the thing that was disappointing for us. I don't want to be totally negative. I enjoyed the flyover when they did that. But when they did the flyover, they did it totally to appease the crowd. The crowd was getting so surly that they basically had to stop making announcements. They were coming out and saying, you know, be patient.

We're working our way up. And every time that happened, the crowd was just literally not reacting or booing or booing or you know that so they didn't want to entice the crowd in a more negative way so they actually gave us like nothing you know for a long time until the players threw it up yeah what did you do you just did you just like count the minutes or did you talk to your neighbors like what did you do to kill so many hours they didn't entertain people on the screen the screens were blank for so many hours so didn't entertain people on the screen the screens were blank for so many hours so much time they would show eventually when they had the parade on they would show bits and pieces of the interviews here and there they but they didn't have like like a

detailed video clips they could have put like 30 and 30 of the different games like in the morning like they they had so much like time they could have used to at least keep your mind occupied and you're right they didn't so there really were very few options and people were getting very antsy because of that because they weren't entertaining the people there. So from a PR standpoint, believe me, I told my wife all this and she couldn't believe it. She said, she works for a public relations company. They do major events and all that. And she said, I just cannot believe that this happened. The first thing that she said to me right away from what I told her is that what they should have done was actually do it like

the blue jays did and it's an excellent point when they had everyone end up like in the arena you know or like the rogers center let's say so had he done it properly if enough time they could have had it you know maybe just at the arena have a smaller version of the parade like there's got to be something you know where it's a little bit more contained, you know, and people aren't feeling what happened in Nathan's Hill Square. See, what I think, I think the organizers were not anticipating this many people. I think they just underestimated the turnout, which, you know, which is kind of dumb. You were on the late tour. You were with Pepsi. You were where exactly?

I was a little bit east of Strawn. Pretty close to Exhibition there. I had no solid plan. In fact, for a while, I thought I might go to Nathan Phillips Square. Then I thought I'd meet my wife who was at Bremner in York with her colleagues.

Then I realized actually, as I'm biking East on the waterfront trail and I get to straw and I realize the buck stops here. Like everybody was spilled into Martin Goodman trail. Like I wasn't going to be able to continue biking. So I just said, okay. And coincidentally Hebsey and I kind of bumped into each other there. Cause we left at different times.

We didn't bike together. We just kind of met there because I think he hit the same thing and then we just decided to like let's just lock up our bikes and we had a great like front row seats like we saw the parade close up but we both realized we were gonna have to go home and watch the rally on tv but the thing is so i saw this all and you saw my photos and videos and stuff and i enjoyed it and it was a great crowd a lot of like a lot of kids because a very kid-friendly part of the parade i think to if you're gonna bring young kids this would be where you'd go like strong and lakeshore and then uh basically uh i was able to bike home and then i was it was hours before uh this parade actually hit york street because my

wife was waiting for hours. So I'm at home watching on TV and I think it was a couple hours at least, maybe longer, before the parade actually made its way to York Street. So it definitely was in slow motion and delayed. I guess it was because of the crowds, I think.

Just too many people. You're right, because from what I saw, the footage just on the video screen, there were people that were literally crossing between the buses when they were going through. The cops couldn't control the people. There were so many people. It took so much effort just to move the people away in front of the buses even. So, yeah, I understand the misrepresentation of estimating the crowd

in terms of that, but how can you be that far off? What is it, 1.5 to 2 million, they said? What did they expect? This is like the first major world, like an NBA championship is huge. Outside of soccer, it's the biggest sport. Toronto's such a star city for a major sport win. What did they expect on a beautiful day?

And you know what? People like to say, how come we had to do this on a Monday when people have to work? Why couldn't we do it on a Sunday? I heard this from a number of people. The answer is, I believe, that if you do it on a Saturday or Sunday, you get twice as many people coming out for this thing. It's just too many people for security and for the cops and to do this thing. It almost has to be on a weekday just so that not everybody can attend. You know what I mean? If anything, to have less kids is a lot safer, at least at Nathan Phillips.

That's for sure we know. Yeah, actually, my daughter, my 14-year-old went there with her girlfriends after they did a morning exam, and I actually saw the crowd on TV, and I actually got nervous at home, and I actually texted her, just said, can you please call me? And eventually she calls me, and I actually said to her, I'm glad you're there to experience that, but I wish you weren't there. Like I had a moment where I didn't like that many people in such a small area. Like I didn't feel safe watching it on TV. I want to ask you some more about, so you don't know there's a shooter until Matt,

I guess Matt Devlin never says there's a shooter, right? He just says there's an incident or something? The situation has been taken care of and we're safe and all that, but he never says specifically what happened, no. I thought, for what it's worth, I thought Matt Devlin did a great job with that. Oh, he did, yeah. He controlled the crowd, absolutely. He did a very good job. Obviously, he's in the era of the police and they're advising what to say, but he delivered it beautifully.

So nobody panicked because Matty D said to chill the F out. far more important what he did for his play-by-play because I can't even imagine if word would have spread in the crowd that there's a live shooter or a shooting just happened and the people start, because it doesn't really matter. They had the guy from CP24. You know the guy who used to work for the police?

Yeah, Cam Woolley. Not Cam Woolley. He's the other guy that does murder cases. He's on CP24 all the time. He's like a shorter guy. I forget his name, but he's on all the time. So when I stopped off for after for a piece of pizza and some water to hydrate, he was on. And he brought up a point. He said, look, if, you know, like when you get a crowd like this, like anything can happen, like any time.

And literally you can't control it. And, you know, it's so out of control that, you know, the police are helpless, you know, in terms of that. Like I mentioned earlier when we first started speaking. And I could have totally seen, you know, that happening in terms of like a stampede out and, you know, people tripping and like getting no air. There was no air to begin with as it was, you know, in the area. It was so compressed. I literally was only smelling people's deodorant and their aftershave. Like I couldn't even care.

It got so bad. I literally had to turn around and just get a wisp, you know, because there were like smaller people behind me, you know, to do that. Brian, you're lucky, man, because you're right. You're that compressed and that many people in that small space. You're right. A little bit of panic, like a little bit of a rush where people are like, oh God, there's a shooter.

We got to get out. And it would crush dozens and dozens of people. It's the most horrific thing. Even thinking about it now and imagining it, I feel like we... Bad pun here, I shouldn't use this expression, but we dodged a bullet, so to speak. No, it's not a bad pun at all. It's very true, because I guarantee you, Mike, that this will never happen again.

The city will not allow this to happen again. They can't help but not recognize what happened and what was averted today by sheer luck more than anything else. Yeah. Hopefully they have like a, a post-mortem or whatever. And, uh,

what can we do better next time? Because it sounds like they got caught and, and I'm surprised a little bit because yes, we have the pride parade and we have the, the Caribbean festival, which both attract monster crowds, like huge crowds. It's not like we've never had a parade maybe this is different i guess because there's a uh like like you said

it's confined you're you're in you're in it's like you're in a like a cage it's like you're in a uh steel match like a wrestling match or usc match or whatever like that's how i felt right and you don't suffer from any claustrophobia or anything like that. You were real good. No, I don't actually. I was quite good about that. I don't. It was just, just being very uncomfortable. And because I couldn't stretch my legs or this and that, and I'm, you know, I'm not so young, I'm 54. So turning 55 shortly. So, you know, because of that, I was definitely probably the oldest person that I saw in that whole entire area. Maybe there's one other guy who was there. I think he left actually, who was maybe older than me.

So part of it is also maybe my age because I'm not as adaptable as others. Maybe that's a good point. Because when I watch the, everybody at Jurassic Park, when we're watching these playoff games, I always say to my wife, I say, that's a young man's sport, like a young, young man or woman's sport. Like I'm, you've got about nine years on me but i uh feel like uh i'm too old to go to jurassic park but if i were like 20 years younger i think that's where i'd be like you know what i mean yeah no i totally hear you absolutely because like your body is just a lot able to

absorb you know those elements i guess you know i mean physically i'm strong enough to maintain and all that and i held up okay you know i was fine in terms of that. But it was just, it was like the furthest thing from an enjoyable, memorable experience that I could possibly imagine. Well, that's too bad. That's why it's so disappointing. Because this day was so, it meant so much to me, you know. And, you know, I could have enjoyed it from my home on a couch and would have been, you know, none the wiser. And I wish that's what happened. But I can't go back in time.

No, no. If hindsight be 2028, but knowing what you know now, I would recommend to you actually to follow my plan here. I like my plan in hindsight. Now that I realize what was going on at Nathan Phillips Square, I like the fact I got really close to everybody. I saw Serge Ibaka,

and I saw them all right in front of me, and I got a feel for the crowd, and everyone cheering, and Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, and he's polishing the trophy and everything with his Mighty Mouse jersey. And I feel like I got a good, and then I didn't have to deal with the issues that you would get if you went to Nathan Phillips Court. Right.

So, okay. So again, you don't know there's a shooting and then the Matty Devlin, he makes his announcement and now you know there's something, but I'm assuming you still don't know what the shooting, you don't know there's a shooting. And then the Matty Devlin, he makes his announcement. And now you know there's something, but I'm assuming you still don't know it's a shooting. You just know something's up. I knew there was a shooting right away because when he mentioned the announcement, I didn't have any access to the internet. But the guy next to me had it on the network. And I said, like, what happened? And he said to me, he said, yeah, there's a shooting that just happened right here.

So he told me. So we saw it on Twitter. And Messenger was working on and off. It's the only thing that happened. I asked my wife and she told me that it was a shooting that happened right where you are. So she knew about it. So, yeah, so people kind of knew about it. But most of the people didn't have easy access to.

I had no Twitter all day. Twitter never worked at all. I'm accepting the first arrive. And, yeah, that's the reason so and you think like once uh someone learns there's an act like a shooter there that it would spread like broken telephone through the masses like it would just sort of you know and then that's and that's where the panic sets in and i'm glad that uh we you're very lucky but it did happen where the shooting itself happened i saw there in cp24 when i was having my slice of pizza they actually had some footage of it and you could see when it happened and like the shooting actually happened. I saw it there in CP24 when I was having my slice of pizza. They actually had some footage of it, and you could see when it happened, and the shooting

actually happened, and people were running away like crazy, and they were leaving all their stuff behind and trying to get the hell out of there. And there were some people that were trampled. This one lady said that she had her leg bandaged up, and she was trampled trying to rescue her kid, so her son. So I'm sorry, Brian. I'm sorry. First of all, I'm happy for you and for me and for the rest of this city that we won the NBA championship. Like, the Raptors are champs.

Has that sunk in yet? Yeah, that's been taken away from us. That still exists, yes. And you still got the hat and the T-shirt, even though the shirt's too big on you? Yeah, that's right. You'll have to put on a few more, put back on those pounds

and maybe help it fill up but and and you had a bad experience today but it sounds like it even if it was a good rally that's in my opinion that's way too long to be like exposed like that in a in a what do you call a sardine can like that's just to me that oh yeah it's in it's in it really is i i hate to use this word but it's true it's, it really is. I, I, I hate to use this word, but it's true. It's really inhumane. And I mean, if I wanted, you know, I have no means of comparison, you know, I mean, I would, I don't even, I probably shouldn't even say how I felt, you know, cause it's not a good analogy. I won't use it. Actually,

I better not use it. But, um, we were very, you may guess where I'm going with that, but we were really squished to the point that it would just was beyond a comfort factor. Did you consider leaving? Like, at any point did you say, I'm going to just call this? When I wanted to leave and I thought about leaving, when there's people that left, they said, oh, they're like two hours away from the parade in terms of that. I really weighed it very strongly at that point of following them.

But I said, fuck, I've been here since like 6.15 or whatever time. And it's like one o'clock now, you know, and all that. Like, do i really want to like throw away the seven hours i did that you know like that's why it would just piss me up more like by not by leaving even with all this insanity around me and then missing it so i know that feeling like you're like you're kind of almost like a stubborn like okay i bought the ticket i'm gonna watch the show yeah i hear you yeah because if I did that, it would be like, you're even a bigger idiot

for leaving at that point. Like, I would kick myself for that. So that's why I stuck it out. And at least, was there any joy during the rally? Like, for example, Kawhi made fun of his laugh. Was there any,

did any of that sort of, or at that point, you were so defeated? My brain was so blocked. I had so many tall people in front of me that were putting out their cameras and all that. I barely saw a thing like so I didn't even hear a lot of the stuff and all that. So even that was very unfortunately, it wasn't really a positive

experience either. I got a few glimpses of the players on the stage. Like I said, yes, you're there. I can see you in the distance. But that was about it. And where the Larry O'Brien trophy was and all that, we were blocked off, like where their speakers were actually speaking from. It was like the angle wasn't good also from where we were. So that wasn't great. So no, I didn't really get much pleasure out of that. The best part, the only thing I really enjoyed the whole day

was the crowd when they were doing like the one more year, like there's a lot of chants from the crowd. There's a lot of camaraderie from us. Like with all the lines we were saying, like around the Raptors, you know, when they were introducing this and that, the crowd. There's a lot of camaraderie from us. With all the lines we were saying around the Raptors when they were introducing this and that. The crowd was the real winner. The crowd to suck it up, to put up with all that, to show up in those numbers, they were the real stars. Toronto should be very proud. Forget about a few of these yahoos that packed the heat and showed up like that and did that shooting. That's unfortunately a sad part of

society. But 99.99% of the people were very well behaved. And I am very proud Torontonian for that reason. So. Does Kawhi stay or does he go? I don't know. Lowry's pushing him for five years, man. I don't know. I don't think he's even looked at it yet. I'm being completely, I know how this guy is. I can read him like a book. I really can. And when he said, no, no, no, no, he doesn't, he really hasn't even looked or thought about anything yet about it. He's so focused on the next task. The next task for him is the parade.

Only when he literally goes back to his home in San Diego and then he chills out and has a few days off and then I'll say, okay, let's take a look at it. Then he brings his uncle in his family and his agent, and then he'll take a look at it's take a look at it. Then he brings his uncle in, his family, and his agent, and then he'll take a look at it. He hasn't even looked at it yet. So don't kid yourself. He hasn't. He's not even thought about it or whatever else.

He's so focused, this guy, that until it comes up, it doesn't come up for him, you know? So that's why. Well, thanks for doing this, Brian. I saw your tweet. You tagged me on it, so I definitely saw your tweet, and I was like... Yeah, I thought you'd be interested in it, because obviously I saw your tweet. You tagged me on it. I definitely saw your tweet. I thought you'd be interested in it because obviously you have a good relationship,

known each other for years, of course, and all that. You would be able to get out of me what needed to be said. I like real talk. I need to know because it's easy to gloss over this and say, everything wonderful except for those gangbangers there for that one little thing. Everything was wonderful. The city United,

uh, I can really like motherhood and apple pie this thing, but I think you who were there in the eye of the storm and has, and is a diehard rap biggest, you know, your Raptors devotee on Twitter. So, uh,

I think it's important. We, we get some, uh, reality checks while our heads are in the clouds. I mean, I don't, I, I said in a tweet to you like MLSC, I don't think MLSC is at fault. I think I want to take that back

because I realized after talking to my wife and talking to you about it, that this was really all the city and it's their job to run this event. Okay? And the city really, really screwed up royally. And not to mention like the politicians i didn't even talk to you about that but trudeau spoke he should never have spoken do you want to

be there fine ford he got booed whatever i don't really care about that ford didn't speak because he knew he'd just be booed yeah he didn't speak but but what the hell are like uh trudeau's in an election year and all that like like this is like tory's the only guy who legitimately i was happy to take his picture and post that and And you know, it's his city. He's able to speak and all that. He's the only politician that should have had the mic. That was just, I found that just totally distasteful.

What about Drake? Is he allowed to speak? Drake can speak. I heard after my wife said he was going to sing, but because of the shooting and the mood and everything, he decided not to sing. He was actually going to do something. Which I think was a good call actually.

Cause I heard that he was going to hit, he dropped a guy. He was going to do a performance and I think was a good call, actually. I heard that he dropped a guy who was going to do a performance and then everything got cut short after that whole... I think security-wise, I think that was a smart move to kind of... Actually, you know, it's funny because I think because of security, the players were kind of whisked in and whisked out. I think they really wanted to get people out of there quick.

I think you're right. It's just too many people. You're right. Like a kettle there or whatever. Like a pen or whatever like you you've just got too many bodies in a pen it's a recipe for disaster and should should have gone down and like uh you know heaven forbid there'd be a tragedy and deaths and stuff it would be pretty easy to look at it and say something to the effect of what did you think was going to happen you know what i mean like i was like with the people who drove to work downtown

today and they you know couldn't get home for hours it's like what did you think was going to happen. You know what I mean? Like I was like with the people who drove to work downtown today and they, you know, couldn't get home for hours. It's like, what did you think was going to happen when you drove downtown with a Raptor parade going on? Anyways, Brian, man, I'm going to see you on June 27th, right? Yeah. Yeah. I will definitely be there. I use a little write up on this summer. I obviously will,

but you'll throw in some stuff that I had experience. You'll throw it in there. But this right now, this conversation now? What? Yeah, no, I'm saying, yeah, like I talked about, I like people to know, like to get it out in the public domain, you know? Oh, no, I recorded this call. Oh, good, good. Oh, you didn't know it?

Okay, yeah, I know. I thought you knew that. I should have... Yeah, no, I knew you were recording. No, I didn't know if you were doing it just to write an article, like one of your blogs, or to actually use the whole thing. Oh, no, I'm too lazy for that. This is going to literally unedit it. I'm going to put this entire... Oh, cool. Okay, yeah. You sounded good. I don't even have to edit a stitch of this, so it was wonderful.

Okay. I do have your Jerry Howarth book, so I'll try to remember to bring that on June 27th. Yeah, let's do that. I do have your Jerry Howarth book, so I'll try to remember to bring that on June 27th. Yeah, do that. And, yep, that's TMLX3. And, my friend, when you had that slice of pizza in that water, was that the best meal of your life? I would think it's like you survived war or something. I would think that would feel pretty good. Yeah, no.

When I got out of there, Mike, I literally couldn't even walk. I had to sit down, and legs were like atrophied. Like I literally could not move. I sat down as soon as I could. And I took baby steps like I was an 85 year old man. No, I did. I had no blood flow going. Literally, I literally could not move.

You literally were like a sardine in there. You were caught inside that can and you could not move so yeah it was impossible so yeah i was very happy when the day ended it reminds me a little bit about a little bit about uh i used to go to these like edge fests and they were these day-long like they'd be 12 hours of different bands and you have little breaks between so it's not quite the same thing but yeah when the headlining bands came on there would be that you described it as a tsunami and i remember that feeling like let's say it's pearl jam or I'm at Pearl Jam, let's say in Molson Park in Barrie, which is like a dust bowl. And you're so tightly packed. And I still remember a bunch

of people would sort of rush to the front all at once. And it would literally like an undertow, it would take you and you'd be, it was, it felt extremely dangerous. Like I still remember that sensation. And I was with my wife at the time. I would like have to put my arms like almost like to protect her because she would be going down and then get trampled. Like it was really scary. So I kind of get that feeling of the tsunami wave of people when too many people are in a tight spot.

Yeah, it was really, I was lifted up and it was like just the loss of my, I had no control over the situation. I went, that's the only thing that scared me. I didn't have any claustrophobia and all that. I'm fine with that. But that's the only thing that really scared me for that second, because I like, what the hell is going on here?

Like, why am I being lifted up out of the air like that? Like, it was crazy. All right, brother, I'm going to get this, share this with the masses.

So we all get a little, uh, real talk about what happened at the Raptors parade. I'd love to hear other people that were there, their experiences, where they were standing and, and what, how their day went. I'd love to hear other people that were there, their experiences, where they were standing and how their day went. I'd love to hear the comments. Yeah,

for sure. Hopefully we get some. So people listening to our voices right now, please leave a comment and tell us if you were at Nathan Phillips Square, tell us what you experienced, if you felt what Brian felt or tell us what you felt. And Brian, thanks for doing this brother.

Go get some rest and watch that TV and chill out. You survived. Okay, thanks, Mike. All right, buddy. Bye-bye. Bye. And that brings us to the end of our 478th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Brian is at Raptors Devotee. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at Fast Time WJR. Sticker U is at Sticker U. And Capadia LLP is at Cappadia LLP. See you all next time when my special

guests are the gents who sing this song Lowest of the Low. I want to take a streetcar downtown Read Andrew Miller and wander around And drink some Guinness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been? Because everything...