At first glance, the G-20 looked harmless. As predicted, it cost much and accomplished nothing. No decisions were taken, no minds were changed. Politicians had their pictures taken; the press hailed mushy communiques as breakthroughs and delusional protesters played silly ‘revolutionary’ games.
That would be fine under normal circumstances; wasting taxpayer money on pointless pageantry is one of the least harmful things the world’s political leaders ever do.
And he's just getting warmed up.
Given Mead's worries re the world economy, you have to wonder about those nations (like our own, for example) that are looking to wind up their stimulus packages and bring in austerity measures. If you look at the U.S. housing market over the past six months, its clear that the only thing holding it afloat was the federal first time buyer's tax credit. Now that that's been removed, home sale have gone back into the tank. It's very much unclear right now if the current, tenuous economic recovery can stand on its own. As mentioned in the comments section: Krugman is right.
Calling public participation asking for an independent investigation. Only through public non-violent/non-destructive participation can the public will be heard.
ReplyDeleteIf you witness vandalism, please immediately voice your concern loudly that their vandalism is destructive to public participation. Do not support hate, it is counter-productive. Therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves hating evil and loving good establish justice, faithful until death.
- G20 planning. 1.1 Billion dollars is a lot of money. Why were the recommendations of Toronto ignored. Security at the CNE could have been obtained at a fraction of the cost? A military base which includes security could have been used with open land for demonstrations with very few targets for vandalism.
- G20 1.1 Billion spending requires a detail financial audit. The G20/G8 was budgeted to cost under 200 million. This difference represents an enormous mismanagement of public funds.
- Confusion and than an order by high command, telling officers to stand down and not to stop vandals, even though they had more than sufficient personal and equipment
http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/joe_warmington/2010/06/30/14564416.html
- Ineffective administration of the G20 security and planning. Why was a high command order required to NOT engage vandals? Videos show that most were by standers and very few vandals.
- Why did police deceive the public about the public works laws? Action must be taken when police do not honestly execute laws and regulations. This is police corruption.
- Who ordered the mass arrests? Mass roundups and pre-emptive arrests have served a very unethical political purpose of deflect attention from the G20 policy decisions and legitimate concerns the peaceful public attempted to present.
These problems cross multiple levels of government, police and security services. Which have failed to protect and serve the Canadian public to various degrees.
This requires an independent investigation. Given that these problems cross multiple levels of government and police, I strongly suggest monitoring the independent investigation committee by international monitors who will publish at various point of the investigation, with a final full published report at the completion of the investigation.
Timothy Webster Green Party Candidate for Richmond Delta