At the East Village Coffee House on Dundas Street in July, former Fanshawe student Darius Mirshahi greets a growing pile of visitors. He's helping to host a coffee house aiming to raise money for friends who are still in jail as a result of the G20 protests.

A fitting setting as Mirshahi, a strong opposer of the G20 events, had a brush with the law not once but twice this past summer, all in the name of activism.

The first situation involved Mirshahi, 25, and 19-year-old Andrew Cadotte facing seven mischief charges for gluing posters with protests against the G20 on Canada Post mailboxes and hydro boxes near Dundas and Egerton streets in June.

That day, June 15, Mirshahi and Cadotte left the spot they were at and noticed two cop cars outside, which they thought was weird, said Mirshahi. So they proceeded onwards with the posters, then out of nowhere unmarked vans pulled up.

“They tried to make it look like it was a crime scene,” said Mirshahi of the police. The officers then questioned the two men about the groups they were with and why they were against the G20.

“We knew they were arresting us, (but) we didn't tell them anything,” he said. The two were brought to jail and processed. “They kept framing it in terms of graffiti.”

They were provided with no water, only coffee and Nutri-grain bars, which Mirshahi couldn't eat because he is vegan. They were held overnight in a cell.

Eventually, the Crown agreed to withdraw the seven charges providing the two completed a “direct accountability program,” which involved the clean-up of the areas where they put up posters with wheat paste.

“I thought it was bullshit,” he said of arrest and subsequent charges. “Just repression to tie us up in the system. The whole plan was to fuck with us.”

Mirshahi was “pissed” they denied him food and that they were both held overnight for just putting up posters. But he said he knew the charges would be dropped.

In the time after the event, the community expressed their support for the men.

“They were outraged that the police keep people in jail overnight for something like this,” said Mirshahi, adding that people are usually fined for putting up posters. But given the political nature of their posters, people began to debate whether they were really punished for the flyers or for the message. Cadotte could not be reached for comment.

“It got their (the community's) feathers up. It was a clear and obvious sign of free speech being eroded,” he said.

But the arrest did not deter Mirshahi from getting to Toronto for the actual summit. He and his friends were no strangers to arrests and other tactics by police. He knew people who had been visited by the G20 Integrated Security Unit, or had been befriended by individuals, only to find out they were cops working undercover.

“That's what they do for highlevel crime, the mafia,” he said.

His arrest happened on a Sunday morning, when he left the apartment he was staying at and was suddenly swarmed at his car. The police said he was being charged with conspiracy, he explained.

He had only been involved in protests and claims he did not participate in anything to do with conspiracy. Due to the charges, he has to live with his mom, can't own bandanas and can't associate with a list of people — some he knows, some he doesn't, he said. The case could take up to a year to resolve and Mirshahi intends to fight the charges and “make the best of the situation.”

Looking back at the G20 events, he has no support for individuals giving information to police to “frame certain people.” “No human beings were harmed. Except what the police did.

“(We) know they'll never have anything like that in Toronto again,” he said.