THE G8/G20 SUMMIT: WHO'S CITY IS IT PART 2

This was actually a topic I did not want to write about. I try to avoid politics but of course, that's impossible, we live in a political system and it seems hell bent to take us on a journey that we never booked

Later this month Toronto is going to host summits for the G8 and the G20, but "host" is a rather specious term in this case. Hosting is when you welcome someone to your house, this is more like a home invasion where masked armed thugs tie you up and tosses you in a closet while they eat your good ham and drink your beer; the micro brewery beer

So the G8, being hosted north of us at a resort in Huntsville and the G20 who are being hosted here are the white guys in expensive suits who rule the universe. I guess Prime Minister Harper direly wants to be a Master of the Universe so he's invited all the big boys, like the U.S. and Britain to come play in his sandbox .. or perhaps I should say litterbox. As far as I can tell, the only purpose to these summits is some kind of pissing contest

I really wouldn't give a shit about any of this except Harper's sandbox happens to be my city, so yeh, following the litterbox analogy, he's shitting where I live.

Hosting this whole summit is going to cost a billion dollars. A billion dollars. For a meeting that seems little more than a photo op, pushing an agenda our own prime minister seems opposed to

The monetary waste is infuriating. They decided they needed to fence in the resort in Huntsville ... all 35 K of it. They're building a giant artificial indoor lake here in the city to give foreign media "a taste of Canada" at a price of one million bucks. One million bucks. To build a lake. In downtown Toronto. Probably less than a mile from something called .. Lake Ontario

It's waste. Nothing but waste. We all know the issues in these countries. Natives in Northern Ontario don't have access to clean drinking water, working families in Toronto have to go to food banks because rent and utilities eat all their income .. but we can spend a billion dollars just so Stephen Harper can be seen shaking hands with Barak Obama.

But that really isn't the worse thing. What's worse, is what my city is becoming, thanks to this summit. There are new security cameras installed everywhere downtown. For the weekend of the conference certain subway stations will be closed, as will U of T and other institutions. And they will be building another fence. This one will be downtown. Like, a good chunk of downtown. Some 3 kilometers all together

A fence. A 3 kilometer fence. Around my downtown. With armed guards in uniforms, and security in plain clothes with cameras. Keep out. Stay away. Private

Verboten

My city. Our city.

I hate it. I hate the fact that my city is being taken away from me, and nobody even asked if I wanted this thing. No one was asked. It's like they're building this fortress, like they're constructing Troy. And there's a reason they need Troy. Because it's going to be put under siege

Wherever the G8 or G20 is staged, there are problems. People hate these guys .. yes, the white guys in the expensive suits who rule the world, go figure. There will be protesters. Lots of protesters, from all over North America and probably Europe. And there will almost certainly be violence, that's the track record, hence the fences and the security.

An arial photo of the Huntsville compound which will host the G8 showed about 60 mobile home style trailers and that is just for the security. So they are expecting trouble. More accurately,they are bringing trouble with them, because it sure as hell doesn't exist in the city without these summits.

Local businesses are being told that there is a very high chance that their businesses may be vandalized. There already has been some light vandalism (ie graffiti) of a couple of banks. And, oh yeh, the government .. our government, who got this whole thing rolling .. will not be offering compensation

It really makes me sick. We are not only spending a billion dollars but businesses will be out money, not just from any damage they may incur but because many of them, including the Mirvish Theatres are shutting down for the weekend, so more millions are going down the pipe

Even worse, this event may be bringing violence to the city. Why? For a photo op? For elected officials can sit around smoking cigars and discussing agendas that none of us were ever privy to? From what I've read, no one really expects much to get done at these summits. No real world altering legislation has come out of one of these meetings.

I feel like getting out of the city for the weekend. The way this is going down, I'm feeling like I don't belong here, like I'm a trespasser. No, not a trespasser. An interloper. Uninvited. Unwanted.

Fuck. Just who's city is this?