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Post by Ginnie on May 27, 2010 16:31:29 GMT -4
The G-20 Conference is in nearby Toronto on June 26 and 27. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_G-20_Toronto_summitThis two day conference is going to cost us taxpayers 1.1 BILLION dollars! 933 million of that is spent on security - the rest (about $160) covers food, infrastructure etc. The Phillies were supposed to play here but will be changing to Philadelphia. This was supposed to be Roy Hallidays first visit to Toronto since he was traded at the end of last year. I guess that doesn't seem that important except to baseball fans. The Gardiner Expressway and Lakeshore Blvd. will be shut down for two days. I don't know how many of you have tried to get around Toronto, but it can be a real mess - I can't even imagine what it will be like on those days! There will be many detours besides this and other restrictions during those dates. According to its website, the G20 " is the premier forum for our international economic development that promotes open and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability."www.g20.org/about_what_is_g20.aspxI can't believe it is going to cost a billion dollars - I guess us Canadians are so well off we can afford it... They were going to hold it in nearby Huntsville, but " The town was later deemed insufficient to provide hospitality for the large number of G-20 world leaders and protesters, and thus, the G-20 summit was later finalized to take place in Toronto."
Why couldn't they rent a secluded resort somewhere where security costs could be vastly reduce? Or maybe build a small village way up in the North for them? Even that would be cheaper. A lot of the security costs is due to the amount of demonstrations expected to occur. They have specific protest areas and holding areas (for detained and arrested protesters ). I wonder how many protesters will be there protesting the cost of this damned thing!
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Post by PhantomWolf on May 27, 2010 22:20:23 GMT -4
Why couldn't they rent a secluded resort somewhere where security costs could be vastly reduce? Or maybe build a small village way up in the North for them? Even that would be cheaper. A lot of the security costs is due to the amount of demonstrations expected to occur. They have specific protest areas and holding areas (for detained and arrested protesters ). I wonder how many protesters will be there protesting the cost of this damned thing! Just hire a Cruise Liner and sail them out into the middle of the Atlantic or Pacific and then surround it with an Aircraft Carrier group as protection. No protesters and it'd be far cheaper.
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Post by LunarOrbit on May 28, 2010 0:34:23 GMT -4
I hope those protesters (who claim to be fighting for the poor) realize that their violent track record is the reason the Canadian government is wasting a billion dollars (that in theory could have been spent to feed and shelter many homeless people). The only thing their destructive, anarchistic, anti-government protests will accomplish is more unnecessary government spending.
I like it.
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Post by Ginnie on May 28, 2010 12:31:25 GMT -4
I hope those protesters (who claim to be fighting for the poor) realize that their violent track record is the reason the Canadian government is wasting a billion dollars (that in theory could have been spent to feed and shelter many homeless people). The only thing their destructive, anarchistic, anti-government protests will accomplish is more unnecessary government spending. I like it. I don't really mind the protesters that much - I mean its a "free country" here and we have that right. I would guess that most of the security issues are terrorist related, not the protesters. I just hope the protesters buy lots of stuff to offset the economic impact. I like the Cruise Liner idea too - better yet, why not have them meet on the aircraft carrier itself? I'm guessing that the accommodations wouldn't be up to the minister's standards...
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Post by LunarOrbit on May 28, 2010 16:33:52 GMT -4
I don't really mind the protesters that much - I mean its a "free country" here and we have that right. I don't mind most of the protesters... the ones who yell and chant and wave signs at news cameras are fine. But there are way too many people who only "protest" in the form of smashing windows of small businesses, and destroying police cars, etc. They complain about government spending and then force the government to spend more money cleaning up their mess. Those protesters don't have a message, they are just anarchists who like to destroy other people's property. The biggest problem is that each PM or President brings a huge team of minions with them, so I don't think a single cruise ship could accommodate everyone.
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Post by Ginnie on May 28, 2010 17:44:38 GMT -4
I don't really mind the protesters that much - I mean its a "free country" here and we have that right. I don't mind most of the protesters... the ones who yell and chant and wave signs at news cameras are fine. But there are way too many people who only "protest" in the form of smashing windows of small businesses, and destroying police cars, etc. They complain about government spending and then force the government to spend more money cleaning up their mess. Those protesters don't have a message, they are just anarchists who like to destroy other people's property. The biggest problem is that each PM or President brings a huge team of minions with them, so I don't think a single cruise ship could accommodate everyone. The delegates from each country will range from 10 to well over 100. Why do they need 100 people in their entourage? Perhaps I don't logistics and requirements of personnel too well but it seems awfully bloated and wasteful.
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Post by laurel on Jun 4, 2010 14:42:25 GMT -4
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Post by Ginnie on Jun 4, 2010 15:42:18 GMT -4
I can just imagine what it will be like, Laurel. Toronto is hard to get around in the best of times.
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Post by LunarOrbit on Jun 4, 2010 17:05:19 GMT -4
Seems like a good time for people to work from home, if they can.
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Post by Ginnie on Jun 26, 2010 21:55:06 GMT -4
Today.... 103 people arrested... Police cars set on fire... 20,000 security force (not all at the same time)
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Post by laurel on Jun 26, 2010 22:23:51 GMT -4
I saw the CTV coverage. Total chaos. I was involved in a protest in Toronto about ten years ago and it was a tense situation, but thankfully there were no fires!
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Post by LunarOrbit on Jun 26, 2010 23:46:23 GMT -4
I don't mind most of the protesters... the ones who yell and chant and wave signs at news cameras are fine. But there are way too many people who only "protest" in the form of smashing windows of small businesses, and destroying police cars, etc. Smashing windows... check! Destroying police cars... check! I know if I wanted to protest the government the first thing I would do is destroy a Tim Hortons and a Swiss Chalet. I was reading some comments on Twitter and some people were actually comparing Canada to Iran and China, which belittles how much Iranians and the Chinese suffer at the hands of their government. Canadian "protesters" might get arrested, but they don't mysteriously vanish or end up in slave labour camps. I think some people protest out of boredom. They should try living in Iran for a while to remind them of how good we have it here in Canada.
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Post by laurel on Jun 27, 2010 13:41:06 GMT -4
Although the Black Block members are obviously criminals, I do think the police sometimes get too heavy-handed with protesters, like at the 1997 APEC Summit or the 2000 meeting of the OAS in Windsor. They arrested a CTV producer yesterday, and I doubt that he had been setting police cars on fire. But yeah, comparing Canada to Iran and China is offensive.
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Post by archer17 on Jun 27, 2010 14:04:03 GMT -4
We had the G20 here in Pittsburgh last fall and, all in all, things went better than expected with regard to the protests. City size and the fact that the protesters were relegated to the outskirts of the downtown business district with points of entry confined to several easily "defensible" streets kept anarchists from disrupting the meeting or trashing downtown Pittsburgh. IIRC Pittsburgh's G20 was the first instance where a "sound cannon" was used to disperse crowds. Anyway, even though things didn't 'hit the fan' as in other G20 venues, the Pittsburgh police were termed 'stormtroopers' among other things so hearing the whining about heavy-handed tactics north of the border doesn't surprise me.
FWIW, I consider these summits a waste of time and if they are considered mandatory for some reason that escapes me then they should have these meetings on a ocean liner in the middle of an ocean somewhere instead of disrupting the routine of whatever "lucky" city is selected for these hot-air photo ops.
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Post by Ginnie on Jun 27, 2010 15:51:58 GMT -4
Cost of Pittsburgh G20 security - $18,000,000 Cost of Toronto G20 security - $1,000,000,000
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