Saturday, June 26, 2010

Profiling Ontario Tourism to the World


“This is a classic attempt for us to be able to market the country. We have quotes from all kinds of people in the Ontario tourism industry including the president of that industry saying, ‘This is our chance to profile Ontario tourism to the world, we must not miss this opportunity’,” Harper told MPs


Obviously the hooliganism we saw this weekend wasn't Harper's fault. And, to a certain extent, it shows why the security costs were so high.

But there's no way this summit should have been held in Toronto. Clearly, these sort of events are better suited for isolated locations - that gameplan worked well in 2002 (Kananaskis) and it has when other countries hosted.

I'm sure other world leaders won't make this same mistake for future G8 summits.

17 Comments:

  • The hooliganism was the fault of either the Harper government or the police. Everyone knew about the Black bloc from past events.
    Why not have lots of under cover police dressed the same way to march with them and then arrest them, after zapping them with stun guns?
    The whole thing seemed like theatre, designed to justify the police budget.
    To have this kind of incompetence, without any major accomplishments of late, decreases the chances of a fall election.

    By Blogger nuna d. above, at 12:01 p.m.  

  • Clearly, these sort of events are better suited for isolated locations - that gameplan worked well in 2002 (Kananaskis)

    Clearly you have forgotten that since the protesters could not make it to Kananskis, they tried to trash downtown Calgary instead. I also suspect that after 8 years or more, their modus operandi has become a lot slicker.

    But I do agree with you that Toronto is not ready for the big leagues. Hold these summits in one of the world's major cities, like New York, or London or Paris, where the citizens are used to high profile events "disrupting" their city, and where the police are allowed to take sterner measures against protesters.

    By Blogger jad, at 1:55 p.m.  

  • Calgary was largely a peaceful situation with no cars burning.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:04 p.m.  

  • I was unaware that there are 25,000 hotel rooms in Kananaskis for the delegations, media, etc to use.

    But unless such infrastructure exists, a site is NOT viable.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:33 p.m.  

  • On the other hand, it was nice that it wasn't Ottawa businesses being trashed this time around.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:34 p.m.  

  • The 2009 Summit was held in an Italian city with population 75,000.

    Surely there was a better location for this than Toronto.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 2:42 p.m.  

  • Oh, and the point on Kananaskis was that the costs were a fraction of this - not that no one protested (although there was less violence).

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 3:22 p.m.  

  • The 2009 summit and the one in Kananaskis were both G8s. This was a combination of G8 and G20 plus all the additional observers invited.

    Do the math.

    BTW, I am getting increasingly bored with poeple who say "Surely there was a better location for this than Toronto", and don't offer up any serious suggestions. Certainly Kananaskis was less violent, but it was also smaller, and I can just imagine the headlines had this Albertan PM chosen Alberta yet again to host a summit.

    By Blogger jad, at 3:40 p.m.  

  • Hmmm! I think that we need to give credit to the Harper government for stupidity and cunning.

    They hosted the circus in a large city, after highlighting the affluence and connections of the delegates. Not to mention the $1b security budget for the weekend event. Then, they sealed off the inner city as a final provocation. This is stupid.

    Like the protest in Vancouver against the Olympics, the police allowed the protesters to rampage. Then, crushed them by brute force. The astonishing aspect of Toronto was that the police made random and arbitrary arrests and detention. They broke up peaceful demonstrations. This is not the Canada that I know.

    This is a warning about the durability of your constitutional rights and freedoms under a Harper majority government. They now have a precedence to violate their freedoms blatantly.

    Where should they host the event? Under the circumstances, a Canadian government should use a place like Kananaskis. Let the delegations and media trim their numbers, rather than sacrifice our constitutional freedoms.

    By Blogger JimTan, at 4:55 p.m.  

  • Surely there was a better location for this than Toronto.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:07 p.m.  

  • CalgaryGrit:
    Nothing justifies the cost of this. A billion dollars flushed away due to the Conservatives horrible fiscal management.

    By Anonymous MPAVictoria, at 7:33 p.m.  

  • Security fiasco after security fiasco.

    1) Leave a bunch of police cruisers where the protesters will surely take the bait and trash em... Oh, sorry sir, I did not think they would burn the car, just trash the paint a bit. But we got our video of us watching the action on all the worlds major newscasts... and the youtube version has gone viral.

    2) Forget to arrest the actual vandals during the incident.

    3) Make up for issue 2 by arresting anyone in black later in the day. Got a complaint - meet Billy Club.

    4) Make up for item 3 by attempting (pathetically) to confiscate all video coverage of the event.

    5) Prove to be fallable executing item 4 and have video of loonies in black scampering back behind police lines... Something not quite kocher here.

    6) Deny, Deny, Deny

    7) Self congratulate on what an awesome job was done. Any who dispute are labled and photographed as high value targets during the next protest.

    8) Use actions of protesters as justification for jail time extension for criminals - exempting ex members of parliament found with cocaine while driving drunk

    By Anonymous BemusedLurker, at 10:58 a.m.  

  • Ohhhh! They had to do it because of NATIONAL SECURITY!!!!

    All the while adding to their arsenal and street surveillance cameras. Next stop will be a unified surveillance system $$$$$ like London, England.

    It will be absolutely necessary because 5,000 police officers assigned to the G8 couldn't manage a few hundred hooligans who marked themselves clearly in black.

    By Blogger JimTan, at 11:20 a.m.  

  • Like I said, the police let the hooligans rampage before crushing them. In other places, the situation was different.

    “The Canadian government spent more than $1.1 billion on security and other infrastructure work, an amount in stark contrast to other cities that hosted the event, including Pittsburgh, Penn., which held it last September.

    That city's expenditure on security was US$19 million, according to municipal and U.S. federal officials....

    Pittsburgh police arrested 83 people and damage caused by small breakaway groups, similar to the Black Bloc in Toronto, was pegged at $50,000. An additional 110 people were arrested after the summit officially ended.

    More than 900 have been arrested so far in the Toronto protests, but no damage estimates to businesses have been released, but it's expected to be significantly higher.” Yahoo Canada News July 29th

    By Blogger JimTan, at 5:45 p.m.  

  • Did anyone notice the graffiti on the burning police car?
    I find that image shown should not be one to publish.
    Just my feeling.

    fh

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:00 a.m.  

  • I wonder what the LIBERAL Party of Canada has to say about this. The silence is deafening.

    Clearly, Toronto was a great defeat for the anarchists...

    “As well Tuesday, the anarchist group Common Cause is organizing rallies this week outside police stations on Ontario and Quebec against the security response to the G20 protesters and in support of people detained by police in Toronto.

    Rallies are planned in Hamilton, Windsor and London in Ontario and in Montreal. Organizers hope further protests will take place in other Canadian cities as well. Rallies in Toronto are already underway, it said.”

    By Blogger JimTan, at 11:11 a.m.  

  • By Blogger JESSICA JANE, at 4:03 a.m.  

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