Protests and alliances

Last week’s G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto were supposed to showcase Canada to the world. The Canadian government spent nearly $1 billion on security, so why did the event end in violent protests and mass arrests? We look at what Canadian newspapers had to say about this and about a new trend to bilateral agreements between G20 nations.

Police state?

The Toronto Star says that the mass arrests were not justified and calls for a public inquiry into the way the police handled the protests.

… Heavily armed, riot-clad police closed in on the crowd from all sides and nearly everyone present — including journalists, legal observers and people just walking home — were arrested, handcuffed, stripped of their possessions, transported to a detention facility and held in steel cages. … The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has called it “punitive policing” — apparent  retaliation for the actions of hooligans who smashed store windows and set police cars ablaze earlier in the weekend. … [Q]uestions about the policing tactics used on the G20 weekend should be addressed in a systematic fashion through a public inquiry.

Nation states

The Globe and Mail has noticed a new trend among G20 nations: individual states are strengthening ties with one another, rather than relying on multilateral bodies like the World Trade Organization.

… It was notable at the Toronto summit, for example, that the United States and South Korea strengthened their bilateral trade and military relationships, and that Canada and India entered into a nuclear agreement. … [Sovereign states] are not trying to close themselves off. They recognize that most of their economies depend on cross-border supply chains, but these vital connections in particular clusters of countries do not necessarily require a uniform trade code for the world. ...