Financial discussion turns to public fiasco
Well, today's blog post is a shout-out to a special friend of mine. His name is Mike. He apparently feels bitter about me not updating my blog. Something about that being the only source of political information he gets. The poor man, he's ignorant! I'm a teacher. -pose-
And what better way to restart the blog then to commentate on G-20. G-20 was hosted in my homecity. It was also the first time that I've been in downtown Toronto by relying on transit, other then a quick hop from Union Station to the CN Tower for my New Years date with the love of my life. Kay, well, I can say that it was my first time alone. Diving into the belly of the beast that was the G-20 blockades.
Oooooooooooh boy.
Well, let's give a bit of back-history on the subject. The Group of Twenty, commonly known as the G-20, was created in 1999. The mission? "To bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy." (Thank you for this quote from the official G20 website.) Essentially, a bunch of world leaders, finance ministers and so on and so forth decided to group up and have a chit-chat about the global economy. I have to imagine that the financial crisis of the last year was a hot topic. Thanks to the G-20 website, I can provide a list of the participants. These include, but are not limited to:
* Argentina
* Australia
* Brazil
* Canada
* China
* France
* Germany
* India
* Indonesia
* Italy
* Japan
* Mexico
* Russia
* Saudi Arabia
* South Africa
* Republic of Korea
* Turkey
* United Kingdom
* United States of America
For those curious, the 20th "member" is the European Union, who is represented by the European Central Bank. Coincidentally as a thing of trivia, Canada was the chair from 1999 - 2001. Pretty cool from my perspective.
So the Summit was in Toronto from June 26-27, and the city was in chaos. Traditionally, protests were held in order to get people's voices heard. This ranged all the way from gay rights activists (although, what your sexual orientation has to do with the financial crisis I have no idea) to people protesting that the summit was disrupting day to day life in Toronto.
So this was not a surprise today when I saw a headline in the Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-on-the-g20-torontos-pain-the-worlds-gain/article1621752/
Harper on the G20: Toronto's pain, the world's gain
... thank you Harper for the martyrdom. You are, as always, an eloquent speaker.
I love some of the quotes in this article. Please note that this is not an attack on Gloria Galloway, who wrote this article beautifully, nor on Harper. It's just a couple of big quotes that came to mind.
"Despite the lock-down of the Canada’s largest city, the wanton destruction by vandals and the hundreds of arrests, Mr. Harper said he believes that “99.9 per cent of Torontonians were very pleased and honoured to have these leaders here and were very hospitable.”"
... hospitable? Perhaps, albeit we had the breath of security down our necks... yes I'd say incredibly hospitable! Who wouldn't be after, what was it...
"G20 arrests surpass 900, making Toronto site of largest mass arrests in Canadian history" -- Stephen Hui, Straight.com
"More than 900 arrests during G20 Summit" -- Don Peat, Toronto Sun
Thank you gentlemen, 900+ arrests. Though this doesn't even blink at the population of Toronto, certainly, I wouldn't exactly say that's 99.9%. That only means that .1% were openly hostile about it, along with thousands more not even caught.
One has to love how the media and the government play down incidents.
Transportation was a bugger, especially public transportation. I happen to love cab drivers in this city; I wish I could remember the name of the one I had to take to get to Pearson on Sunday, but he was very good and very nice.
But here's the lovely thing I don't get. Remember before how there were some who were protesting that the G-20 was too disruptive?
THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU HELP INSTIGATE A RIOT THAT DISRUPTED THE CITY EVEN MORE?!
Christ people, common sense.
I'm not against protesting. Far from it. Speak your mind; it's your right. Just remember that next time, you're not only disrupting the cause that your'e protesting against, you're also disrupting the common man. Keep your protests peaceful.
"Sunday was a calmer day than Saturday, when four police cars were set on fire as bands of militant protesters abandoned the peaceful main march and went on a rampage for hours."
That quote from the CBC filled me up with a little bit of alarm and a hint of shame. This was the biggest mass arrest in our history.
C'mon guys. Smarten up.
SOURCE MATERIAL:
http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-on-the-g20-torontos-pain-the-worlds-gain/article1621752/
http://www.torontosun.com/news/g20/2010/06/28/14542356.html
http://www.straight.com/article-331305/vancouver/g20-arrests-surpass-900-making-toronto-site-largest-mass-arrests-canadian-history
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/28/g20-toronto-fence.html
And what better way to restart the blog then to commentate on G-20. G-20 was hosted in my homecity. It was also the first time that I've been in downtown Toronto by relying on transit, other then a quick hop from Union Station to the CN Tower for my New Years date with the love of my life. Kay, well, I can say that it was my first time alone. Diving into the belly of the beast that was the G-20 blockades.
Oooooooooooh boy.
Well, let's give a bit of back-history on the subject. The Group of Twenty, commonly known as the G-20, was created in 1999. The mission? "To bring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy." (Thank you for this quote from the official G20 website.) Essentially, a bunch of world leaders, finance ministers and so on and so forth decided to group up and have a chit-chat about the global economy. I have to imagine that the financial crisis of the last year was a hot topic. Thanks to the G-20 website, I can provide a list of the participants. These include, but are not limited to:
* Argentina
* Australia
* Brazil
* Canada
* China
* France
* Germany
* India
* Indonesia
* Italy
* Japan
* Mexico
* Russia
* Saudi Arabia
* South Africa
* Republic of Korea
* Turkey
* United Kingdom
* United States of America
For those curious, the 20th "member" is the European Union, who is represented by the European Central Bank. Coincidentally as a thing of trivia, Canada was the chair from 1999 - 2001. Pretty cool from my perspective.
So the Summit was in Toronto from June 26-27, and the city was in chaos. Traditionally, protests were held in order to get people's voices heard. This ranged all the way from gay rights activists (although, what your sexual orientation has to do with the financial crisis I have no idea) to people protesting that the summit was disrupting day to day life in Toronto.
So this was not a surprise today when I saw a headline in the Globe and Mail.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-on-the-g20-torontos-pain-the-worlds-gain/article1621752/
Harper on the G20: Toronto's pain, the world's gain
... thank you Harper for the martyrdom. You are, as always, an eloquent speaker.
I love some of the quotes in this article. Please note that this is not an attack on Gloria Galloway, who wrote this article beautifully, nor on Harper. It's just a couple of big quotes that came to mind.
"Despite the lock-down of the Canada’s largest city, the wanton destruction by vandals and the hundreds of arrests, Mr. Harper said he believes that “99.9 per cent of Torontonians were very pleased and honoured to have these leaders here and were very hospitable.”"
... hospitable? Perhaps, albeit we had the breath of security down our necks... yes I'd say incredibly hospitable! Who wouldn't be after, what was it...
"G20 arrests surpass 900, making Toronto site of largest mass arrests in Canadian history" -- Stephen Hui, Straight.com
"More than 900 arrests during G20 Summit" -- Don Peat, Toronto Sun
Thank you gentlemen, 900+ arrests. Though this doesn't even blink at the population of Toronto, certainly, I wouldn't exactly say that's 99.9%. That only means that .1% were openly hostile about it, along with thousands more not even caught.
One has to love how the media and the government play down incidents.
Transportation was a bugger, especially public transportation. I happen to love cab drivers in this city; I wish I could remember the name of the one I had to take to get to Pearson on Sunday, but he was very good and very nice.
But here's the lovely thing I don't get. Remember before how there were some who were protesting that the G-20 was too disruptive?
THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU HELP INSTIGATE A RIOT THAT DISRUPTED THE CITY EVEN MORE?!
Christ people, common sense.
I'm not against protesting. Far from it. Speak your mind; it's your right. Just remember that next time, you're not only disrupting the cause that your'e protesting against, you're also disrupting the common man. Keep your protests peaceful.
"Sunday was a calmer day than Saturday, when four police cars were set on fire as bands of militant protesters abandoned the peaceful main march and went on a rampage for hours."
That quote from the CBC filled me up with a little bit of alarm and a hint of shame. This was the biggest mass arrest in our history.
C'mon guys. Smarten up.
SOURCE MATERIAL:
http://www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspx
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-on-the-g20-torontos-pain-the-worlds-gain/article1621752/
http://www.torontosun.com/news/g20/2010/06/28/14542356.html
http://www.straight.com/article-331305/vancouver/g20-arrests-surpass-900-making-toronto-site-largest-mass-arrests-canadian-history
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/06/28/g20-toronto-fence.html