By Doug Draper
There is another one of those editorial cartoons that can drive a columnist like me crazy, even though I love it.
We may think we still live in a democracy. But they need a wall to keep us out.
This one, by veteran cartoonist Brian Gable and featured last week on the editorial pages of The Globe and Mail, shows a nice old grandmotherly type who happens to be living inside the security zone in Toronto near the convention centre where the G20 summit is about to be held. As she is planting something in her yard, police armed with clubs and shields yell at her through a bullhorn; “Put down your elderberry!!! … Resistance is futile.” A caption accompanying the cartoon reads: “Toronto – Saplings removed because they could be used as weapons by G20 protestors.”
The reason I say a cartoon like this can drive a columnist crazy is that a great cartoonist like Gable can, with one drawing and a few words, capture the essence of an issue with as much, if not more punch than a columnist can deliver in hundreds of words. And this particular cartoon, in my view, sums up just as well as almost any column I’ve read over the past few weeks, the dark, draconian lengths our federal government is going to this month to provide security during the G20 summit in Toronto and G8 summit in the Muskoka area.
I have no illusions that I can match the punch of Gable’s June 17 cartoon with my words here. But as one Canadian who came of age feeling proud of our country’s image and its role as a democracy and peacemaker in the world, I can’t help but make some remarks on the spectacle that is unfolding for the rest of the world to see in the heart of one of our country’s largest cities.
Just look at what we are already being treated to on the television news. I found myself into the middle a CB broadcast recently to images of barricades, and platoons of police patrolling streets and stopping passersby and asking for papers, and I thought it might have been a report about the ongoing strife in Thailand or some other troubled country in the world. But it was Toronto!
A day or two later, I turned on the news to the site of armed forces roaming the streets again, but this time it actually was Thailand. And I couldn’t help but wonder what is going on here? Have we reached a point where several blocks of a city many of us grew up feeling safe and secure in have got to be turned into a militarized zone resembling the streets of Bangkok? Is that how dangerous it potentially for the dignitaries who visit our country today?
Don Martin, a foreign affairs reporter for the decidedly conservative National Post, wrote in a recent column for that paper; “This is Canada, not Kandahar. In London (England) that has seen subway and bus terrorist bombings,” Martin continued, “the official security tab for its G20 gathering last March was $30 million.”
What gives with our federal government putting up security for these summits that is now costing $1.2 billion and counting? Is Canada that less safe a place for world leaders to meet than England or Germany or Italy or Russia, where the cost of security, in all cases, was significantly less?
In a rare media interview earlier this week with CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge, Richard Fadden, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (our country’s equivalent to the CIA), noted that he’s not really worried about an Al Qaeda-like terrorist incident at the summits. He’s not even all that concerned about the majority of people from labour, environmental and other groups that will show up to promote their causes before the international press. It is a small population of more militant, anarchist types that could pose the biggest problem, he said.
So why such a massive police presence? Is it paranoia? Is it an extension of ‘get-tougher-on-any-kind-of-crime-but-white-collar-crime’ mentality of this particular Stephen Harper government?
Whatever the reason, what a way this is to showcase Canada and Toronto to the rest of the world. The leaders are going to spend most of their time barricaded inside a steel fence and anyone who tunes in from the United States, India, China or wherever is bound to see such a police presence in the streets, they may very well come to the conclusion that this is a country with a government that is afraid of its own people.
And maybe it is. Maybe it is our governments say of saying something like; ‘I know you are angry at government but if you ever want to grab pitchforks and go marching in the streets, this is the kind of metal we can throw at you.’
But then maybe I’m getting paranoid now. As that old Buffalo Springfield song goes; “Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep.”
(Click on Niagara At Large at niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater binational region.)
Niagara At Large 
Hi Doug,
I must comment on a few of the points you raise in this article. Firstly, I completely agree that the tab for these 2 summits is absolutely insane. And furthermore, I too hate Stephen Harper just as much as the next person, so I’m the last one to support him on anything. But as a first world country, rich in natural and human resources, a democracy that is the envy of many, and one who came out of the global recession in better shape than most, I suppose Canada is perhaps best suited to host such an event. After all, to whom much is given, much is expected. So if we are going to host this expensive global hootenanny, we’d best get it right, particularly on the security front.
Your statement about the “$1.2 billion and counting” figure is misleading. That is not the cost for security alone. It is the cost for the entire 2 events – food, beverages, transportation, entertainment, accommodations, extra staff,you name it, and of course, the Fake Lake! Your suggestion that this is just the tab for security is disengenuous.
And while I’m not generally a supporter of increased police powers, I have enough common sense to realize it’s not Canadians our government is afraid of. It’s our unruly and uncivilized cousins from abroad that need watching.I’d rather Canada was overprepared than underprepared. Consider the consequences
Are you following at all who today’s terrorists are? They’re not just living in caves in Afghanistan. They’re also wearing beige chinos and American Eagle polos. They’re homegrown – often born or raised in a democracy, university educated, employed, married with children. They’re someone’s neighbour. They’re quiet, polite, unassuming and disenfranchised by society. Look at the recent Times Square bomber.
I think that nice old grandmother knows that the police are simply acting out of an abundance of caution. She’s lived through wars and JFK, and if her beloved Barack or someone else gets hurt on her proud Canadian soil, our government better be afraid of her by golly!
For the vast majority of Torontonians who are reasonable and law-abiding, this will pose no great hardship. Many will simply leave town or escape to the ‘burbs for the weekend. The smart ones of course will hop a GO train to the Niagara region!
LikeLike