What's Up in Toronto???

[Deleted]

I heard on NPR this morning that's there's some major demonstrating/unrest going on around the SUMMIT being held in Toronto? Do we have a correspondent,ahem,perhaps who can fill us in,give us an inside scoop??

[bixaorellana]

I saw that clip, but couldn't figure out what exactly they are protesting.

Maybe our correspondent is sitting in the back of a Black Maria, even as I type!

[fumobici]

I was flipping back and forth between CTV and CBC watching the coverage. I think it's just the usual anti-globalization/anarchist/bored rich kids thing that inevitably accompanies these summit meetings. I've no idea why any city would want to host one of these or why they are even held in cities instead of easier to secure places. The whole thing is incredibly idiotic.

[bjd]

I talked to my sister who lives in London, Ontario earlier today. She told me about the damage and the demonstrations, as well as that people were lined up on the sidewalks with kids and dogs watching the destruction.

I agree totally with Fumobici -- why on earth do they hold these things in cities, particularly large ones, where they shut everything down for security reasons. Not only does it prevent people from going about their daily lives, but costs a fortune. Can't they just videoconference?

[bixaorellana]

I can understand the motivation for meeting in person, as it would help the various leaders learn to read each other, plus might create helpful rapport.

What I don't understand is holding it in cities, for the reasons named above, nor why the security risks have to be exacerbated by all the publicity.

[imec]

Bunch o' f'n idiots - Rex sums it up nicely...

Rex Murphy protests the Black Bloc

* June 27, 2010 9:51 PM | Comments6Recommend16
* By Rex Murphy

Rex Murphy Point of View

June 27, 2010

No decent, civilized city - and Toronto is both - should be held hostage by the actions of a set of ferociously insolent thugs and vandals.

Which is what happened here yesterday afternoon, and in fits and starts last night and early morning. A band of black-masked, malicious, and potentially dangerous ne'er-do-wells did their radical best to get a racket going: torched a couple of police cars, did their petty "let's smash the windows" trick, insulted the police, intimidated spectators, and tried to order the press around.

The world has seen this knob of losers and self-nominated 'anarchists' before; they gave themselves the comic-book brand "Black Bloc" long ago, and they have been the noisome tail to the dog of every high order world meeting for well over a decade. There was even a flash of them smacking downtown windows at the recent Olympics, you'll recall, until everyone turned on them for their vandalism and cowardice, and they vanished.

People also remember the havoc, damage and ugliness they kicked up in Seattle; remember, too, Genoa, Madrid, and Quebec City. It was always too much to hope that Toronto would be spared their attention.

For this set of malcontents - they're not protesters - protesters have moral standing - the deliberations of heads of government in a time of crisis is merely a background stage on which to engage in violent and arrogant abuse of the idea of civic action. They degrade protest.

Don't buy their muddled mendacious rhetoric either. They care as much about the general well-being of the rest of us as the stone or brick in their hand, or that hammer cares for the well-being of the Starbucks window.

Some people are saying that Toronto shouldn't have hosted the summit because this crowd would cause trouble. Absolutely wrong. Cities and governments don't choose to do, or not to do things because a couple of hundred hit-and-run artists put up a smarmy threat of "direct action". The splinter doesn't direct the oak.

Yesterday's mini-riot had one irony that will be very hard for some to digest. It gives at least partial cover for the extraordinary one billion dollar cost that went into security for the G20 meeting here. The Black Bloc, and they will love this, is Stephen Harper's best political friend today.

For very long, the pseudo-anarchists have been coddled and played with. The costs of that approach showed up in the images of Toronto broadcast all over the world yesterday. "Toronto the mild" looking like "Toronto the war zone". In so far as it is at all possible, those responsible for criminal activity and damage to property should be arrested and charged. They should be banned for good from any like event in future. Penalties should be heavy.

Toronto is a decent, civilized city. Hooligans and thugs should never be allowed to twist those virtues into a shield for their own ignorant and dangerous ends.

For The National, I'm Rex Murphy.

[Deleted]

Oh well, next time is for France, on the Côte d'Azur. Maybe they'll all go to the beach. Sarkozy has at least promised to spend no more than 10% of what Toronto spent. Famous last words.

edited to add: No, there's still Seoul to get through in November before they can have fun in France.

[bjd]

I think the Germans did it right when they had their summit on an island in the Baltic -- at least it's easier to restrict access to an island.

[Deleted]

Well, the summit wasn't held in Toronto -- it was held 200 mi (or was it 200 km?) from Toronto. Demonstrators will always converge on the nearest large city anyway.

[joanne28]

The G8 was in Huntsville but the G20 was in downtown Toronto.

Spending all that money was a waste as the clips showed these thugs breaking windows without a cop in sight. One clip in particular infuriated me - one guy smashing a window with a brick and 30 people standing around using their cell phones to record it. If all those people had swarmed him, it certainly would have been poetic justice.

The media here was ecstatic - the only thing lacking for them was the CN tower getting blown up. The violence and the earthquake last week - they're happy campers.

[lagatta]

I disagree with Rex Murphy. Not out of any love for the Black Block idiots, but because disrupting the life of a major city and effectively removing "the eyes on the street" as famous Torontonian Jane Jacobs put it set the stage for any sort of violence and vandalism.

Not to mention the ridiculous waste of Canadian taxpayers' money. There is a good reason businesses and organisations often hold such meetings at retreats. It saves money, improves security and makes for a more effective working meeting.

[joanne28]

One suggestion a friend made was to hold the meetings at an army base. Lots of protection there, doesn't cost the taxpayer much more and easier to do all around. Plus army bases tend to be on the outskirts so less easy to get to.

[bixaorellana]

And they have places for airplanes and helicopters to land. Well, air force bases have them -- don't know about army bases.

[gertie]

Less summiting, more doing would probably be the best plan at this stage in my estimation. Can't agree with destruction of anyone's property, but certainly feel a degree of frustration at all this talk talk talktalktalk. Have done, will you, and go do something about the problem. Just an excuse for the various so-called leaders to visit places around the world on government dime.

[gertie]

Oh, and at least US army bases certainly could handle helicopters, have no idea the rest of the world but going to assume their army leaders get squired around in helicopters same as here.