• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

OT: The News Thread

Re: OT - The News Thread

ctv has just reported that over 75% of canadians feel hosting these two major world summits is worth the expense. it seems a very big majority of us disagree with you.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

I wonder what the number is for people in Toronto directly affected by it?. Because being here, I can tell you its horseshite.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

TimHorton said:
I wonder what the number is for people in Toronto directly affected by it?. Because being here, I can tell you its horseshite.
Click to expand...

Having some family involved in the summit fairly directly, I can say that the general insider opinion that while hosting the summit is not directly a good return on investment:
1. The federal government was originally planning to only do the G8, and only in huntsville. When the G20 decided to piggyback, there was a rush to prepare Toronto for it. The logistics of the G20 being hosted in Huntsville would have been ridiculous (not even close to enough hotel rooms, for instance), and hosting the G20 was not what the Harper government wanted. The news of the G20 coming to Toronto was greeted with a general "ohhhh shit" from all 3 levels of government.

2. All that said, it's not really something you can say no to. Everyone hosts it in a loose rotation, and telling the rest of the G8 or G20 to find somewhere else would NOT go over well. It would hurt Canada's power in both summits and would just generally be treated with serious disdain from various organizations.

3. As much as the security seems like overkill, there are SERIOUS security concerns, mostly related to anarchists. Anarchist chat rooms are filled with talk along the lines of "the bank bombings are a taste of our G20 plans". Whether the security measures turn out to be a provocation or prevention remains to be seen.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

johnunit said:
3. As much as the security seems like overkill, there are SERIOUS security concerns, mostly related to anarchists. Anarchist chat rooms are filled with talk along the lines of "the bank bombings are a taste of our G20 plans". Whether the security measures turn out to be a provocation or prevention remains to be seen.
Click to expand...

i agree entirely. so these self-loathing anarchist punk-scumbags are responsible for a good part of that $1bil cost for security.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

You really think downtown Toronto is the place to hold this? It's ego. Ridiculous expensive showmanship. No wonder people get angry at these morons.

Also I just read the results of that CTV poll...again you didn't read the story.
But the picture becomes somewhat more murky in looking at the 70 per cent of respondents who had heard something of the cost of hosting the meetings. Of those polled who heard something about the cost of hosting the summits, 61 per cent said they were "too expensive to be worth it," while 32 per cent said the pricetag is justified. "When it comes to the budget being discussed for hosting these two meetings," Anderson said, "the majority feel that the cost may be too expensive to be worth it." Anderson said it is too soon to say whether voters are ready to forgive the Harper government for such lavish spending to welcome the leaders of the G8 and G2
Click to expand...

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100620/g8-g20-poll-100620/
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

i heard it on the ctv national news last night. literally 3 seconds before i turned it off and hit my computer to post about it.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

If they are so concerned about security, and the security of the individuals involved is a number one priority. Then why not host the event at a military base or bunker where there are already top notch security protocols in place?
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

SundinsTooth said:
You really think downtown Toronto is the place to hold this? It's ego. Ridiculous expensive showmanship. No wonder people get angry at these morons.

Also I just read the results of that CTV poll...again you didn't read the story.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100620/g8-g20-poll-100620/
Click to expand...

It's the only place with the capacity for it, other than perhaps downtown Montreal or Vancouver. Imagine 20 countries' heads of states or highest diplomats, plus their entire entourage, plus literally thousands of journalists, and then security for all of them. The issue basically comes down to being able to feed and house all these people.

You COULD hold it in a less dense area, but you'd have to make an olympic-style temporary village to house all the people, which would make the security budget look like a trip to the vending machine. The other option would be to hold the actual summit in a small town but house everyone in the nearest urban area. The problem is, to use the Toronto/Huntsville example, you'd have to either totally shut down all air traffic 2 times a day, or totally shut down the 400 highway 2 times a day to transport all the dignitaries safely and have them get to their hotel rooms before midnight.


If the G20 continues to grow as a summit and as a lightning rod for protests, the only feasible option will be making it digital (running it with skype has been talked about) or establishing a permanent location for the G20 with all the security, housing, etc. built in.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

corksens said:
Because you don't fly in the worlds top dignitaries and put them in barracks.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but you don't do it to the media. Journalists from almost literally every country in the world will be here, and you wanna treat them right or it will have a direct negative effect on what they say about Canada.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

You bring up another point - the media is heavily involved in these sessions.

Military bases do not permit photos to be taken on site (unless under strict supervision). And they certainly don't want to give 1000's of protesters reason to come near an army base.

But, fortunately the idiot radical left/anarchists are out in full force already, proving that the astronomical billion dollar security cost was actually necessary.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

its kind of stupidly ironic that the people who are most likely going to be skewering the tories for these security costs are the ones who are the biggest reason why we need to incur those costs in the first place!
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

theREALkoreaboy said:
its kind of stupidly ironic that the people who are most likely going to be skewering the tories for these security costs are the ones who are the biggest reason why we need to incur those costs in the first place!
Click to expand...

I think most of the people radical enough to be inciting violence this week are not even part of regular public discourse on things like security budgets.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

It's too bad we can't do this in space. First of all, there's your security; secondly...if we could get these world leaders to see the planet as a whole they might get the idea that we all need to work together if we want to have this planet provide for us.

Thirdly, we blow them all up and start again.








:pepper
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

Giant red herring that will likely be justified by some fascist agent provocateurs planted by law enforcement agencies.

What exactly are all these people so afraid to face? Seriously, a billion for "a bunch of red-bandana wearing, mcdonald's window-busting, RBC-bombing, sandal-wearing a$$holes"

Looks like a giant gift to security companies and police unions.
 
Re: OT - The News Thread

BeLeafer said:
Giant red herring that will likely be justified by some fascist agent provocateurs planted by law enforcement agencies. What exactly are all these people so afraid to face? Seriously, a billion for "a bunch of red-bandana wearing, mcdonald's window-busting, RBC-bombing, sandal-wearing a$$holes"

Looks like a giant gift to security companies and police unions.
Click to expand...

Good one...you're awesome!:thumbsup(22):
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top