Violent G20 protests made “criminals” out of church groups
By the time you read this column, the G8/G20 Summits held in Ontario will be over. You are likely going about your day like any other—wondering if you'll get through all the e-mails on your computer, what you'll have for lunch, whether your significant other will ever get over the fact that you ditched him or her for the soccer World Cup over the last few weeks.
But, as I write this column, my city of Toronto is under siege. The army laying siege to Canada's largest city is a combination of a federal government which claims to be "conservative" yet spends like drunken sailors and "protesters" who are pretty much against anything and stand for nothing but being against everything.
As much as I like a good meeting of world leaders—Obama's trip to Ottawa right after his election still sends chills up my spine—having my city under siege for this gab fest is not just annoying; it's offensive.
"Offensive" is a word that was thrown around a lot in relation to the G8/20. Anytime a federal government has the audacity to spend over $1 billion at the tail end of a recession on what was essentially a glorified photo op, "offensive" is a pretty good adjective to use. But artificial lakes aside, most of us understand that in today's world of hyper sensitivity to security and terrorist issues, the sheer operation of getting 20 world leaders in and out of this country is not cheap. Throw in a G8 meeting a couple of hours north of Toronto and it's easy to see how costs for the event got out-of-hand.
I can also sympathize with many community and advocacy groups—including church groups—who argued the money should have been spent on other things. Feeding hungry kids (yes, kids do go to school hungry here in Toronto), building affordable housing, promoting public transit and good roads and a cleaner environment are things most of us support regardless of ideology.
But I want to be very clear with all those church leaders who joined the G20 protests that turned violent very quickly: all your good intentions meant squat as soon as your fellow protesters started burning police cars and trashing Starbucks.
Church leaders who made common cause with faith-debasing anarchists, socialists, labour groups and the like are now forever linked in the minds of hard working Canadians with what Toronto Mayor David Miller rightly called "criminals." And there you will stay.
Those of us who experienced the G20 protests first-hand had trouble seeing what many of the protesters actually stood for besides being "against" the Harper Conservatives and world governments in general. If you're going to be "offended," then you must believe in something moral—some deeply held belief that is more than just about "housing is a right" or "save the planet." For many of the protest groups (including the usual guilt-ridden mainline Christian denominations), being "against" was enough.
As a young reporter, I covered the 14th G7 Summit held in Toronto in 1988. Brian Mulroney was the prime minister; Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Margaret Thatcher was still the "Iron Lady."
That summit did produce some protests. But it did not shut down Toronto's city core or generate the sort of senseless violence on the scale of the 2010 summits.
Social media is partly to blame for whipping up the sort of frenzy that drives mostly young people to burn police cars and attack American retail stores. But a society that has adopted the attitude—aided and abetted by mainline Christian denominations—that your "right" is the only right that matters should expect nothing less than moronic "protests" that lead to hate and contempt.
I can understand the frustration of some protesters with summits that have become little more than media circuses. The leaders come ready with their official communiqués. Protesters draw TV cameras with their chants and violence. Citizens of the host cities flee in the wake of a massive disruption to their lives. And nothing changes.
It wasn't always like this. Pierre Trudeau once famously came back from a summit meeting in Bonn, Germany, with a completely new economic belief about how to handle inflation. Western leaders used summit meetings to plan for the inevitable break-up of the Soviet Union.
Canadians should find the G8/20 Summits in Canada offensive. If these summits are to continue, perhaps the leaders should just meet at the United Nations.
We in Toronto would be very grateful.
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