Olivia Chow, MP

Summits Came at High Price but Delivered Little

After four days, two summits and billions of tax payers’ dollars spent, world leaders emerged Sunday evening with almost nothing new to report. The decisions that that led to Stephen Harper’s summits were being questioned long before Toronto’s downtown was put on lock-down but now, in the wake of the controversial weekend, concerns have grown to demands for answers.

“Leading up to the summits Harper wasted his political capital on the ‘save the banks tour’ instead of advocating for maternal health financial reform, and strategies to address global poverty,” said New Democrat Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre). “Harper treated these meetings as vanity projects. He rejected consensus and accomplished nothing on the most important issues facing the world.”

“The G20 was called at the last minute and forced onto Toronto. Against all logic, the Conservatives insisted that it be held downtown in Canada’s largest city,” said Toronto New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity Spadina). “In damages, lost income and wages, the summits cost millions of dollars to thousands of business owners and their employees. These hard working people have been forced to pay the price for Harper’s summit. The federal government may not be legally bound to compensate them, but they are morally responsible.”

Demonstrations are inevitable at events such at the G8 and G20 and downtown Toronto is an extremely challenging area for police to secure. Following the summits, serious questions have been raised about the implementation of the security. 

• Why did the federal government ignore the concerns and suggestions of the local government in holding the summit in downtown Toronto?
• Who requested the temporary suspension of basic constitutional rights for the duration of the summits? And why was this done in secret?
• Will the government compensate Toronto for the damage that Harper’s summits have caused?
• What role did the federal officials play within the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) in policing the summits? 

“The estimated billion dollar budget for security should have been Harper’s first clue that downtown Toronto was the wrong place to hold a summit like the G20,” said New Democrat Public Safety Critic Don Davies (Vancouver-Kingsway). “At the federal level, I will be asking the Public Safety Committee to get to the bottom of these lingering questions and develop a post-summit accountability report.”