Although I successfully avoided physically being in Downtown Toronto last weekend, I could not ignore the ruckus and the hoopla that went down in the heart of our city. Many events have taken place in Toronto, but in my 22 years of living in the GTA, I cannot recall a single one that caused as much commotion and uproar. The G20 summit took place in the heart of one of the largest urban centers of the world, and disrupted millions of residents. The government spent an immense amount of money hosting the G20 and setting up security and police to monitor activities of the public.

Along with the G20 came millions of dollars in government expenditure, disruption to the city which no cost can be put on and numerous protests. Protestors came out to exercise their rights and show that they were not in agreement with the choice of the government to host the summit. In response to this, the government increased the powers of the authorities and this meant that the civil liberties of citizens were greatly limited. Numerous arrests took place for activities which were not illegal, and as a result of the anger that protestors had, many local businesses were also vandalized. The government refused to compensate the businesses, and refused to acknowledge the loss of civil liberties.

Throughout the last few weeks of June 2010, Toronto proved to be a city that failed its people. The animosity that swept the city along with the road closures, U of T being closed for a week and cell phone signal disruptions were no doubt a horrible start to the summer of 2010. One can hope that this horrific occurrence is taken as something that lessons are learned from, and one which prevents anything similar from occurring in the future.
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Comments

T
07/11/2010 11:54pm

Hey,

Please provide a source/explanation for this:
"In response to this, the government increased the powers of the authorities"

cuz I've read:

"It was widely reported in the media that a new ‘secret law’ had been passed by the Executive Council of Ontario which gave police special powers. This allowed police to arrest anyone within 5 metres of the 10 km fence set up as a security perimeter for the summit, provided the individual would neither leave nor identify themselves. No such law existed. The police made the arrests under the Public Works and Protection Act of the Criminal code of Canada as the fence was designated as public works."

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