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.
