Much is being made about the upcoming international gabfest coming to Toronto later this month. The G8 and G20 conferences will cost around a billion dollars to secure according to media estimates. Which may or may not be true. As an example, every dollar in salary of every member of the Armed Forces or police officer seconded to the events is calculated in that cost. But since they were going to earn those dollars regardless of whether they were assigned to G8/G20 I’m not sure that’s fair to account in with those costs.
Equally, much has been made about the $2 million man-made lake designed to provide a rural Canadiana backdrop for international media. Turns out the lake will only cost $57,000. The balance is on time, materials and labour to build the media pavilion. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
A $2 million dollar man-made lake sounds much better to the baying media hordes desperate to inflict damage on a “scary” Prime Minister.
This is not to say this isn’t a colossal waste of money. At a time when the deficit is running at $48 billion and the national debt is soaring at over half a trillion dollars, I question any public spending that is not absolutely necessary. But, for good or for bad, this country’s government had committed to hosting the leaders of the free world and given the current geopolitical climate, we must ensure their well-being.
But,the irony is that the bulk of this money is being spent not to protect our guests from assassination although that is a part of this. No, the bulk of the money being spent on security for this event will be aimed at crowd control efforts and by that, I mean keeping the anarchist members of the loony left from getting too close or destroying the city of Toronto in the process.
These are the same Black Bloc-heads who keep turning up and starting a riot. They are the APEC-erheads who attacked police lines at APEC in Vancouver. Remember them from the so-called Battle in Seattle. The riot at the Hyatt? Quebec City? Same crowd.
These are the folks who decry globalization, forestry, mining, oil, government, police and just about everything that makes the West the dominant culture in the world and the most advanced society in history, the endeavours of al Qaeda notwithstanding. They worship at the altar of Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, the high priest and priestess of the loony left.
These are the people who firebombed a bank in Ottawa and attacked The Bay in Vancouver during the Winter Olympics. These are the people who have not contributed anything to society except to bore us to tears with their theatrics and rhetoric. And, likely as not they never will. They will always have their hands out, living off the avails of the taxpayer who pays twice for these idiots with the extra costs for security to keep them in check.
They are worse than the Chardonnay Socialists who permeate the mainstream media, the Liberanos, Jack Layton’s dreary Dippers and the femi-Nazis like Maude Barlow and her Council of (Communist) Canadians. No, these are the people who believe that the state should take care of everything and everyone and that profit and business are bad words. And, they plan and do resort to violence to try and make their ridiculous point every time.
If you want to get mad at someone for the security costs, restrain from flinging stones at the government. How about tossing some stones, and big ones at that, at the real parties responsible for the spiralling costs for security at events such as the Olympics and G8/G20.
Leo Knight
primetimecrime@gmail.com
Excellent article. As a retired copper myself I was wondering who would raise the questions you pose.
I was also if wondering the citizens of those communities denuded of their police were going to be reimbursed for the services they won’t be getting but have paid for. Additionally, as someone who has participated in previous such occasions, I am sure all the police services on the ground will be loading up on equipment they normally wouldn’t have dreamed of owning.
Much is being made about the upcoming international gabfest coming to Toronto later this month. The G8 and G20 conferences will cost around a billion dollars to secure according to media estimates. Which may or may not be true. As an example, every dollar in salary of every member of the Armed Forces or police officer seconded to the events is calculated in that cost. But since they were going to earn those dollars regardless of whether they were assigned to G8/G20 I’m not sure that’s fair to account in with those costs.
+1