To your left is an anarchist, to your right a cop in riot gear, and just yards away is a burning police car – it’s chaos. The G20 is holding its annual summit this weekend in Toronto and has certainly sparked an outcry. Rallies have been occurring throughout Canada’s largest city all week, reaching a pinnacle on Saturday with a protest ending in violence. The infamous Black Bloc, who were responsible for most of the violence last year in Pittsburg, along with other protesters surged through downtown throwing bricks through windows and clashing with police.
The Black Bloc paint a dark picture of activism, but most of the protesters actually remained peaceful. Unfortunately though, their messages got lost in the confusion. Here’s an explanation of the real issues, and why the summit has made everyone so upset.
Poverty
According to the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) John Clarke, “The whole process of putting together this grouping has been about impoverishing people, and benefiting the richest members of society.”
Specifically, OCAP is protesting the proposed “two decades of austerity” policy that mandates governments cut back on social program spending and increase user rates and taxes in order to reduce deficits. The policy would be calamitous to social assistance locally and abroad leaving many living in poverty, said Clarke.
The enormous cost of the summit has just added fuel to the flames. The two day summit in Toronto, plus the cost incurred by the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario will set tax payers back more than $1 billion dollars. It’s the priciest G8/G20 summit ever, and the most expensive 72 hours in Canadian history.
“It’s deeply offensive, but in a bizarre sense there’s also something strangely fitting about the representatives of the wealthiest people on the planet getting together to devise an agenda of austerity and dinging us for $1 billion in the process.”
Clarke said the money could cover the cost of social benefits in the province of Ontario for the next five years.
Climate Change
With the failure of the United Nations’ Copenhagen Summit last December, many feel the G20 is now responsible for fighting climate change. But according to many environmentalists, the world leaders are failing.
“They’re not handling it at all,” said Toronto based activist Pieter Basedow. Basedow thinks it’s realistic to come up with a strategy to reduce emissions by 300 parts per million by 2030, and keep temperatures from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius. “But the governments aren’t paying any attention to that.”
Oxfam Canada is rallying to bring awareness to the connection between climate change, women’s rights, and food security. “We can’t look at climate change without seeing that it disproportionately affects women and children,” said former Oxfam board member Rick Julianson. “When a drought or a flood comes, it hits the most vulnerable people first, and that’s the women.”
“A dialogue is always good, but [the G20] are not bringing our voices to the table. It would be much more positive if they would take the expertise at Oxfam and other groups, and said ‘let’s together try to come up with ideas’.”
Gender Equity
Dagmar Werkmeister of Gender Justice, a Toronto group that fights against injustices toward women, queer people, and trans people, hovers over a half a dozen placards on the grass of Allan Gardens, the site of Friday’s much more peaceful rally. The signs contain a wide range of massages from “Love is Not a Crime” to “Access for All.” The scene illustrates the mélange of messages encapsulated by gender equity.
Werkmeister says the G20 doesn’t pay enough attention to queer and trans issues. “It’s illegal to be homosexual in more than seventy countries in the world, and they don’t do anything about that.”
But quickly the conversation shifts to women’s rights – a hot topic in Canada. Outrage has boiled since Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government announced the G8 Maternal Health Initiative that seeks to reduce mortality rates for mothers around the world, yet cuts funding for safe abortions.
“It’s absolutely outrageous to have maternal and child health on an agenda when you’re not willing to talk about family planning,” said Werkmeister. “Women around the world are not going to be given the same rights that Canadian women are given in terms of when I reproduce, how I reproduce, or if I reproduce.”
Leaders from the United States have criticized Harper’s proposal, challenging the long held notion that Canada is the more liberal nation. There’s a lot of concern among women’s groups that these discussions will reopen the abortion issue here in Canada, forty-one years after it was legalized in 1969.
Immigration
Pete Beaulieu of No One is Illegal, an organization fighting for immigrants’ rights with chapters across Canada, explains that the problems immigrants face start with the G20′s neo-liberal agenda. “These policies of exploitation often result in the displacement of people, and at the same time we’re seeing criminalizing of migration and militarization of borders.” That goes for Canada, and the rest of the G20 nations.
Just yesterday on the first day of the summit, Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced the adjustment of its 2010 immigration policy to include more economic immigrants. In other words, Canada will be more willing to accept immigrants if they fill the jobs that will help the economy. It’s a trend that is expected to spread through G20 countries.
The concern among activists is that migrants fleeing from humanitarian and climate crisis will face closed doors if they don’t have the desired skills.
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These mesaages barely begin to scratch the surface. Add to the cornucopia of causes: labor rights, socialism, Aboriginal land claims, drug law reform, disability rights, anti-globalization, animals rights, anti-nuclear proliferation, and pacifism. The overload has left many heads spinning, but has also garnered a lot of attention.
“What we’re trying to do is build a movement,” said Clarke. “We certainly want to challenge and disrupt this gathering to the extent that’s possible. But more important than that is what’s on the ground after this is all over.”
After the broken glass and blood is cleaned off the streets, hopefully they’ll be left with something.
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