Have We Changed?

It’s over, thankfully. In the end, it wasn’t as hoped. The child and maternal health file received frail buy-in from the other nations, though Stephen Harper worked for a better outcome. Following all the hype, it will leave those hoping for some kind of breakthrough in international development from the big leaders in bitter disappointment. For all those hoping for some kind of bank tax and reform – nada. To be sure, our PM never put this initiative in his toolkit anyway, but for those other G8/G20 nations that used the public purse and staggering deficits to bail out corporate profligacy, it was a bitter pill to swallow.The government is attempting to claim leadership credit for the supposed compromise reached on deep deficit, and eventual debt, reduction.  But it’s not what it seemed. The initiative to cut deficits in half by 2013 has so much flexibility built in that key economists on television yesterday worried that countries might never have to stick to those targets. And as far as climate change goes, this will inevitably be seen as the summit with no clothes on. Of all the issues on the table, it was the biggest loser. Despite Copenhagen and the fact the host country is watching its northern regions lose ice at alarming rates – again, nada.Starting today, the opinions will inevitably emerge, wondering if the entire thing was worth it in the first place, especially with such a massive price tag. To put out that kind of money for such mediocre results will hardly be seen as frugal in a time of huge deficits, including our own.But there is another question nagging the minds of average Canadians. At events in the riding on Saturday, talk was mostly consumed with the few hooligans that turned a largely peaceful protest into some kind of video game, except with real costs. The events on Sunday, however, revealed a different story. Why the overkill with security measures? Will storeowners be compensated? What does the world think of us now that they’ve witnessed the violence? Why were innocent demonstrators hauled up in such huge numbers, their backpacks confiscated, when they were behaving honourably and peacefully?It’s interesting that all the comments were being made yesterday after the shocking images of the day previous. Whatever violence these folks saw on Saturday was clearly not sufficient enough to prompt them to accept the severe curtailing of civil liberties evidenced on the weekend. Hundreds were arrested for simply being there. The special law enacted for just this weekend was much more than an emergency measure; it became, briefly enough, the Canadian version of the American Patriot Act. One grandmother from London, a dedicated Canadian and respected for her charity work in the city, found herself in the back of a paddy wagon with no reason provided. She had merely traveled to Toronto to peacefully bemoan the lack of action on climate change and found herself arrested.Most of those detained were there to protest, not to pillage, but they found the special law put them at odds with their patriotism. Something’s wrong here. Those attending bent on violence and destruction mostly blended into the crowd; those transparently showing their concern in typical Canadian and orderly fashion ended up in the hoosegow. Some law; some result.Stephen Harper got much more for his $1billion security bill than just policing. He got, for a weekend at least, George Orwell’s 1984. This wasn’t part of the bargain. Citizens already angered over the exorbitant costs got a police state thrown in. And it didn’t sit well. For the first time in memory, Torontonians were scared. No matter the justification, that kind of outcome just isn’t worth it.  Toronto the Good is still that this morning. It’s Canada we’re worried about. The freest streets on earth were wrapped in cellophane this weekend. To the shame at watching the Black Bloc do its thing, must be added the transformation of “Peace, Order and Good Government” into state control. Some innocence has been lost. In Canada, nothing is worth that price.