The Circus is coming to town: G8 & G20

[imcarthur]

Yes & the games have begun. The G8 is being held 2 hrs north of Toronto on a resort in a small cottage-country town. The G20 is following that in Toronto proper. Downtown.

G8 on Thursday & Friday with the G20 on Saturday & Sunday. As luck would have it, I will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana of all places during the action days. Pity.

And downtown Toronto is now an armed camp with barriers & feds & police & dogs & water cannons ready for Armageddon. They are spending a bazillion dollars to showcase a city which no one will see because of the restricted barricaded ‘armed camp’. My stepson works in a bank in the ‘armed camp’ & he is being sent to Montreal to man a backup of his division just in case. Everyone working in the zone are being told to dress down to avoid the attention of the nasty protesters who are expected to want to dismember them & any world leader who happens to saunter by.

It should be entertaining.

Ian

PS: Parfers please resist with your drivel.

[1990C4S]

The money they are dumping up there is unbelievable. Starting with a new hydro line through cottage country. Renting a vacant ski club for $70k. Then repaving the driveway because it wasn't good enough. And on and on....

[ZOO]

I love security fences in a democracy . . .

[tabs]

Can U keep Obama for us please? Maybe the USA can deny him re-access to the States because his passport isn't in order...as the place of his birth is misstated..

[imcarthur]

The security zone:



What the map doesn't show is that several bank office towers are in this zone. As well as a chunk of Toronto's underground city. As well as a major power & telecommunications terminal.

Security Costs: G8
2010 – Canada – $442 million
2009 – Italy – $124 million
2008 – Japan – $280 million
2007 – Germany – $124 million
2006 – Russia – N/A
2005 – United Kingdom – $140 million
2004 – United States – $25 million
2003 – France – N/A
2002 – Canada – $93 million
2001 – Italy – $40 million

Security Costs: G20
2010 – Canada – $442 million
2009 – United States – $12.2 million
2009 – United Kingdom – $28.6 million

Tabby:

Your typical Barf remarks about your stupid typical repetitive Barf agenda are getting really old on threads in standard OT. From your posts you appear to be an intelligent person but you obvious have some screws loose or the political hate in you just burns so brightly that it has reduced your judgement & willpower to minuscule levels. Don't you understand that it just makes you look like a friggin' idiot? Over & over & over again. We don't care what you & your Barfer buddies think about virtually any subject that grazes the political situation in your country. The price of a bushel of corn is fascinating in comparison. You are merely a clone of the thousands of talking head 'expert' pundits that have been spewing bile & hate & propaganda. Get over it. Go outside & get some sun & smell your cactus flowers. Get a life.

Ian

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

PS: Parfers please resist with your drivel.

Originally Posted by tabs

Can U keep Obama for us please? Maybe the USA can deny him re-access to the States because his passport isn't in order...as the place of his birth is misstated..

A perfect example of internet diarrhea....the uncontrollable release of political feces. Your request was futile, Ian.

[Dottore]

Since the security costs are being spent on Canadian security personnel—isn't this really just a little economic stimulus package?

[Kirk911SC]

On a lighter note.....one of the contractors employed to install the fencing is named Mammoth Erection.

http://www.mammotherection.com/

[Jim Richards]

Lol!

[Tobra]

Sounds like a good reason for a three day trip out of town for you.

mammoth erection, outstanding

[Christien]

This is the most ridiculous thing in the world. To top it off, it's coming less than a week before sales taxes in this province go up 8% on many purchases. I don't think there's anyone in Ontario that's happy with their gov't (feds are conservative, provincial are liberal, so everyone's been pissed off).

To make it worse, I've got a 3-day conference downtown coinciding with the g20. Ours was booked before g20 dates were announced, and couldn't be changed. Yeehaw.

Many op-ed pieces have suggested, first tongue-in-cheek, then more seriously, that these guys should buy an island or anchor a cruise ship somewhere and have their meetings there. A fraction of the cost and disruption.

[Rick Lee]

And why does this security cost so much? Aren't police salaried gov't. employees who get paid the same, whether they're writing parking tickets or working crowd control? I realize they're probably calling up some extras and using some overtime. But into the nine figures for a single event? Someone is on a gov't. contract gravy train here.

[pwd72s]

Here come the anacharist demonstrations...you have my sympathy!

[1990C4S]

My error. They paid $700,000 to rent an unused ski chalet. Plus the repair walls for the destruction they have done.

[Christien]

The security costs are so high (at least to my understanding) for 2 reasons: 1. terrorism threats (real or imagined) and 2. protestors (real)

Now I'll be the first one to defend the constitutional right to peaceful gatherings, but protesting has simply become a popular pastime for many people, along with the general violence and destruction that goes along with it. And the policing and damage that goes along with gets paid for through tax dollars. It's ridiculous, but there's only so much police can do, because it's a right. Well, at least the non-violent part of it is.

I heard a "man in the street" interview on the CBC a few weeks ago where a girl said something like "yeah, I'm a student, so I guess I'll go protest with them all". WTF? No sense of what you're protesting, no passion, no nothing. It's the same as deciding which club you'll go to on a Friday night.

I was living in Montreal when the G20 was there back in 2000. Protest marches all up and down the major streets, the same old stuff. Nobody really noticed or cared, except for those inconvenienced by their inability to move about. What most of these "protesters" don't get is that they're harming the very people that keep our society running - every day men and women trying to get to work, run a business, pay their taxes, etc.

Now we've got first nations promising a blockade of the country's busiest highway (2nd busiest in NA next to the Santa Monica Freeway) during the g20, because, in their words, it's an opportune time to get noticed. But nobody considers the ill-will it will generate.

[imcarthur]

The media is abuzz with the fact that the resort for the G8 (Deerhurst Inn - Huntsville) is not secure because the room plans are online. We stayed there for a weekend 10 years ago in a condo with the kids. It's OK . . . My cousin's ex used to be the manager.

And the media is also floating that the real cost is ~1 billion . . . That's a lot of money for hot air.

Ian