A War Zone For Sale – Canada’s New Global Image?

This week, Canada plays host to the most economically potent, politically powerful world leaders, as the country hosts both the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario, and the larger G20 Summit in Toronto, Ontario.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper says this is a time for the country to shine, to show us off on the world stage.

That may be true, as media from around the world will be following the antics of world leaders during both summits.

However, consider this, in order to host both these events, security measures so stringent have been put in place, the image these international media-types are getting isn’t the Canada that we’ve come to know and love – or the rest of the world for that matter.

Internationally, Canadians are thought of as being a peaceful lot. Overly polite, friendly, beer drinking hockey fans – that’s us.

Thousands of riot police on horseback, foot and in armoured vehicles, waving batons, armed with fully automatic weapons, while military helicopters hover overhead. Huge concrete barricades, and solid steel fences surround designated “security zones,” as supposedly peaceful Canadian citizens are thoroughly questioned by heavily armed police prior to entering or leaving these “security zones.”

That’s the image the media are seeing now – today – right this very moment, because all the above is going on right now in Huntsville and Toronto.

Statues and historic buildings have been boarded up to protect them from battle. Mailboxes, newspaper stands, even some trees have been removed, because the lame-ass security company – which isn’t even licensed to practice security in Ontario (they are from British Columbia) – says they can be used as weapons against police.

Peel and stick Plexiglas – I didn’t even know they made that stuff – has been applied to the first three stories of all windows on all buildings within specific security zones. Other buildings have been boarded up with planks of wood.

These are the images the media from around the world are getting of peaceful Canada.

Famous tourist attractions are being shut down. Toronto’s most internationally recognizable symbol – the CN Tower has been ordered closed by the police, for fear it could draw protesters or even terrorists.

Toronto’s Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays were scheduled to play a game here in Toronto this weekend – that’s been moved, again for security concerns.

Family-run mom and pop shops and restaurants – which really give Toronto it’s peaceful, multicultural spice – are allowed to be open, but as the concrete barricades separate them from the rest of the city, they won’t have any customers and stand to lose thousands of dollars.

Tourists are being warned not to come to Canada during the summits – the American State Department even issued a travel advisory for Toronto, advising American’s not to come here.

The international media is being shown a Canada which resembles a country in the midst of a civil war, where the totalitarian government dictates where its citizens can and can’t be by use of military law.

That’s not really Canada – honest. Unfortunately seeing is believing.

What’s to come?

If history repeats itself – as it unfortunately often does – thousands of angry people will rattle the cages setup around the security zone, throwing things, challenging the police, military and security persons on site.

Then the media will see a war zone, as riot police go in with their water cannons, tanks, and weapons, to quash the riot, all under the guise of protecting the peace.

Funny, how whenever the world’s most powerful leaders get together, the issues they came to discuss are always overshadowed in the media by the violent protests.

But then, everyone loves to see someone get shot by a water cannon – those images attract more readers and watchers, which in turn brings in more advertising dollars, which is why the media from around the world will be wined and dined, but still focus on the violence on the street, rather than the stuffy suits and ties in the boardrooms.

Yes Prime Minister Stephen Harper, by playing host to the G8 and G20 Summits, the world will see Canada front and center. But it isn’t the Canada you wanted them to see now, is it?

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G20/G8 Security Gone Too Far – To Remove Trees for Security

Living in Canada’s largest city is getting harder and harder these days.

Oh sure, Toronto, Canada is one of the most metropolitan cities in the world, and it shows. We have it all, from grocery stores open 24-hours-per-day, seven-days-a-week, restaurants serving up the cuisine from just about every corner of the globe, sporting stadiums for all the major events, lush green spaces, filled with – hey! Where’d the trees go?

The security company contracted out by the Government of Canada to provide security services during the G20 and G8 world leader summits in Toronto are now requesting trees be uprooted in the designated security zones, as they pose a security risk.

So far, they have had garbage cans, mailboxes, bicycle locking posts, and newspaper boxes removed, all while installing concrete barricades, ten-foot-high steel fences – did we mention the military snipers on the roof tops?

Businesses are being forced to close in the immediate areas surrounding the high security area – banks, theatres, restaurants, night clubs, even the Canadian headquarters of some big multinational corporations are all going to be shut down thanks to the added security.

And today, the security company announced that trees – yes TREES rooted in the ground – pose a security risk, because they could be uprooted and used against police.

Aside from the environmental concerns – the security company assures us they will have seedlings replanted after the event – just how ridiculously further must we go, to protect a handful of people for a mere 48-hours?

With all the security – estimates have put the cost to Canadian taxpayers at about $1 billion CDN just for the security alone – must they dig up harmless trees?

What’s next, declaring the air a potential threat, so they create an airtight dome spanning several city blocks, and higher than the highest skyscrapers?
Enough is more than enough.

With a billion dollars spent on security, if the heavily armed military, police and special forces personal on the ground can’t fight off an attacker digging up a tree, then we certainly aren’t getting our billion dollars-worth.

Let us stop to ponder this for just a second. Thousands of highly trained police, in armoured vehicles, with bullet-proof vests, armed to the teeth with high powered, armour piercing weapons, tear gas – did we mention the snipers on the roof -- versus some hippy with a tree branch. Gee, I wonder who’s going to win that battle? If the hippy wins, we have definitely been over billed for security services – I want a refund!

Well, at least for those of us that live in the suburbs, we’ll have a taste of downtown closer to home. Apparently sex trade workers – in non-politically correct lingo “hookers” – have told one media outlet they will be moving their – ahem “services” – north to the suburbs during the G20 and G8 summits, to avoid all the security hassles.

What an eye-opening relief that will be to parents taking their kids to daycare.
“Daddy, what did that woman mean when she asked if you wanted a good time?”

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Sometimes Being the Host Sucks

Canada is playing host this year to both the G8 and the G20 Summits – where the world’s eight and twenty most powerful leaders meet to discuss global issues.

One would think it a great honor to be the host country for such an event.
It is, in that it will once again put Canada front and center on the world stage – just like when we hosted the 2010 Olympic Winter Games this past February.

However, security concerns taint the pleasure of the local host – unless you are a VIP.

Security organizers have already begun dividing up Canada’s largest city – Toronto – into color coded security grids, based on the proximity the area is to where the world leaders will be.

If you live or work in one of the high security areas, you have to undergo a background security check – if you fail it, you may not be allowed in the area where you live or work during the summit.

Imagine being told to go away from the place you’ve lived or worked for over a decade without any incidents, simply because some government rubber-stamper found out that you or your family might pose a risk to the summit?

Granted, there are risks, there are groups already boasting of their protests of the events. And wherever there are protesters in great numbers, there are bound to be a few nut cases that go too far – like the people who toss pies at politicians. Though I must say, it was hilarious to watch an angry journalist throw his shoe at former American President George Bush – too bad he missed.

Even if you have been granted the great honor of being able to go to your home in the high security area, if you run to the local store and forget your security papers, you’ll probably be taken down by police at gun point.

A simple mistake – all your life you’ve been able to run to the corner store without anything proving who you are, but those security papers mean you’re clean – safe – someone who poses no risk to anyone.

Like most peaceful Canadians.

Welcome to Canada, show me your papers or we’ll lock you up. So much for living in a peaceful country – and security will be everywhere, even the air.

Over the next few days, Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet Fighter Jets, and other military aircraft will be seen over the skies of Toronto and Muskoka (cottage country just north of Toronto), as the North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) run through security drills.

Makes living and working in the host city seem like a war zone.

The G8 Summit takes place in Muskoka on June 25 and 26 and the G20 is being held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on June 26 and 27.

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G-20, G8, G-Whiz Does Anyone Get Anything Done?

This week, eight of the most powerful world leaders are trading barbs in Italy, as the G8 gathers in the European country, drinking fine wines, eating the best Italian cuisine, and having their photos snapped as they shake hands, smile, and make nice-nice.

As if putting eight high ranking politicians into one room isn’t enough, let us not forget about the G-20, which is a grouping of the world’s twenty economic powerhouses’ financial ministers and central bank governors.

Lots of “G’s” but do these organizations, representing the richest, most prosperous, and most powerful countries on the planet, actually make a difference?

Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper has shown publicly just how important these summits are – he almost missed the group photo opportun

Image by Gobierno Federal via Flickr

ity earlier this week, having to rush in among jokes from the other leaders about his whereabouts.

Today, Prime Minister Harper indicated how old-school and irrelevant the G8 may have become.

“Some people say that the G8 is not a representative body in the modern world,” he said during the closing remarks of this year’s summit. “It is not representative of the power, it is not representative of the economic realities of the modern world, it’s not an appropriate forum for global governance. I agree with that, I don’t think those of us who continue to support the importance of the G8 suggest that it is a body of global governance.”

So why bother wasting jet fuel for these meetings?

Prime Minister Harper hinted that the G8 may soon be the G9, G10, or maybe even the G20 (minus the hyphen of the financial G-20), as other countries – including ones in the developing world -- have been invited to participate in the next G8 summit, which will be held next year in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.

Inclusiveness is always better than exclusiveness, but the more people sitting around the conference table, the harder it will be to pass motions, make policies and effect change upon the world.

Image by gabemac via Flickr

That’s always been the problem with the United Nations (UN). Although the UN means well, with 192 member countries, each with their own delegation of representatives, each with its own country’s best interests at the top of the agenda, UN meetings turn into endless debates, which often pass motions so watered down to please as many member states as possible, that it renders their policies ineffective.

Though one can even question the value of just having eight world leaders locked in room talking shop.

Thanks to technological improvements, and changes in the global economy, we have lived in a constantly shrinking global village. But even the most open-minded world leader will always put his or her own country’s interests ahead of the group – what matters to most politicians is pleasing those who have the power to vote them in – or out – of office.

During this past week’s G8 Summit, debate raged on over climate change, democracy in Iran, and the economy, but did anything really get done?
Will the world suddenly be a better place, thanks to this week’s series of meetings, debates, and discussions?

Originally created in 1974 to tackle the on-going oil crisis which begun a year earlier, the G8 even defines itself as an informal forum, so it doesn’t have the same structure as the UN. There isn’t a permanent secretariat, official offices, or even a president. The president of the group rotates through the member countries, starting with each New Year on January 1.

Perhaps the G8 is too informal – over the years, they have created policies to reduce global poverty, find a cure for AIDS, limit the amounts of carbon produced by member nations to eliminate acid rain, and most recently work towards better environmental practices to limit climate change.

However, criticism of the G8 has found that there action – or in some cases lack of action – have contributed to extreme poverty in Africa and many third-world countries, increases in global warming due to carbon dioxide emission rates, and limiting research and medicines for AIDS patients due to strict policies on medicine patents.

In the end, the G8 really is nothing more than a meeting of the minds. But those minds can impact our world in far reaching ways.

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