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Stephen Harper continues to say we are watching, and the global (never a word about the Canadian) economy is fragile. And that they are working very hard. But Mr. Harper and his cabinet never elaborate on what they are working on.

In the month of June our trade deficit widened to 1.1 billion, and Canada's merchandise exports fell 2.5 per cent. Then in July we lost 139,000 full time jobs.

In these same two months our government has spent 1.2 billion on the G20/G8 summits, announced the spending of 16 billion on 65 new fighter jets, and an estimated 9 billion on new jails.

The G20/G8 Summits did not help anything with our economy. The new fighter jets are being purchased in a time that Canadian soldiers are exiting from Afghanistan, and our country has no creditable threat from any nation or groups.

The plan for the new prisons is the biggest fiasco. Crime rates in Canada are down, but according to Stockwell Day, the new jails are for the unreported crimes...

In just those three examples, we are spending nearly 30 billion dollars on unnecessary and unjustified things, while our economy just keeps slipping further and further into the abyss.

We cannot forget the Canada Economic Action Plan though. I am going to use Brantford for an example on this.
In Brantford nearly 25% of our economy and jobs are in the manufacturing industry.
Source

In the last few years our manufacturing base has lost a large number of jobs with the closures of factories like Patriot Forge, Dekka, and ITML just to name a few.

So what has been done by the action plan to help this. Well some of the projects include. Renovations to city housing, road repairs, Renovations to recreational facilities, and a new commercial hanger for the small airport that we have.

Can you make any sense of this?

I can. Our economy is going the way of every other nation that gets it's money supply from private banks. The Canadian Economic Action Plan is nothing more then a sad attempt to make it look like something is being done to fix the problem. When in reality it is only prolonging the inevitable, if not making it worse.

Our government is spending money on new military hardware, and on new prisons because they know this. They are expecting for things to get bad. Couple this with the national disasters in China and India right now, that could potentially cause major food shortages and this could be coming very soon.

There is no fix in sight other then abolishing the privately run money and credit system that we are under, but most of the people have become way to trained to accomplish this.

Think about it. Why would a government spend that kind of money on military hardware, and jails if they did not feel that they are going to be needed in the near future?

As the main stream news covered the protests over the weekend. More specifically the Black Bloq vandalism, which has been almost totally proven to be led by agent provocateurs.

The protesters and truth seekers in Canada have had there attention diverted away from the real story. Which is the treasonous actions of Stephen Harper.

Mr. Harper has followed in the foot steps of Paul Martin and continued to sell our sovereignty down the river.

Here is a video clip of Mr. Harper at the G20 closing news conference.



Did you hear that? We do not have a Canadian economy, we have a global economy and it is a simple reality that we are loosing our national sovereignty.

Does that sound like a true leader for our country? Do you think that Mr. Harper would have been elected if that was said on the campaign trail?

The answer to both of those questions is NO. So why are we all just sitting back and allowing this? We need to call for the resignation of Stephen Harper, if not have him tried for treason!

John Pruyn wasn’t much in the mood for celebrating Canada Day this year.


How could he be after the way he was treated a few days earlier in Toronto by figures of authority most of us were brought up to respect, our publicly paid-for police forces who are supposed to be there to serve and protect peaceful, law-abiding citizens like him.

The 57-year-old Thorold, Ontario resident – an employee with Revenue Canada and a part-time farmer who lost a leg above his knee following a farming accident 17 years ago – was sitting on the grass at Queen’s Park with his daughter Sarah and two other young people this June 26, during the G20 summit, where he assumed it would be safe.

As it turned out, it was a bad assumption because in came a line of armoured police, into an area the city had promised would be safe for peaceful demonstrations during the summit. They closed right in on John and his daughter and the two others and ordered them to move. Pruyn tried getting up and he fell, and it was all too slow for the police.

As Sarah began pleading with them to give her father a little time and space to get up because he is an amputee, they began kicking and hitting him. One of the police officers used his knee to press Pruyn’s head down so hard on the ground, said Pruyn in an interview this July 4 with Niagara At Large, that his head was still hurting a week later.

Accusing him of resisting arrest, they pulled his walking sticks away from him, tied his hands behind his back and ripped off his prosthetic leg. Then they told him to get up and hop, and when he said he couldn’t, they dragged him across the pavement, tearing skin off his elbows , with his hands still tied behind his back. His glasses were knocked off as they continued to accuse him of resisting arrest and of being a “spitter,” something he said he did not do. They took him to a warehouse and locked him in a steel-mesh cage where his nightmare continued for another 27 hours.

“John’s story is one of the most shocking of the whole (G20 summit) weekend,” said the Ontario New Democratic Party’s justice critic and Niagara area representative Peter Kormos, who has called for a public inquiry into the conduct of security forces during the summit. “He is not a young man and he is an amputee. …. John is not a troublemaker. He is a peacemaker and like most of the people who were arrested, he was never charged with anything , which raises questions about why they were arrested in the first place.”

Pruyn told Niagara At Large that he never was given a reason for his arrest . When he was being kicked and hand-tied, police yelled at him that he was resisting arrest. Then a court officer approached him two hours before his release on Sunday evening, June 27, and told him he should not still be there in that steel -mesh cage. So why were Pruyn and his daughter Sarah, a University of Guelph student, who was locked up somewhere else, detained in a makeshift jails for more than 24 hours, along with many other mostly young people who, so far as he could hear and see, had nothing to do with the smashing of windows and torching of a few police cars by a few hundred so-called ‘Black Bloc’ hooligans that weekend?

Why was Pruyn slammed in a cell without his glasses and artificial limb, with no water to drink in the heat for five hours and only a cement floor to sit and sleep on before his captors finally gave him a wheelchair? Why was he never read his rights or even granted the opportunity to make one phone call to a lawyer or his family – the same rights that would be granted to a notorious criminal like Clifford Olsen or Paul Bernardo?

He never received an answer to these questions and, he said, “I was never told I was charged with anything.” Neither were many of the others who were penned up in that warehouse with him, including one person who was bound to a wheelchair because was paralyzed on one side and begging, over and over again, to go to the washroom before finally wetting his pants.

Pruyn said others in the warehouse begged for a drink of water and younger people made futile pleas to call their parents to at least let them know where they were. In the meantime, Pruyn’s wife, Susan, was frantically trying to find out from the police and others what happened to her husband and daughter. She found out nothing until they were finally released 27 hours after she was supposed to meet back with them at a subway station near Queen’s Park.

So what was this all about and why were John and Sue Pruyn arrested if they were part of the gathering of peaceful demonstrators in the Queen’s Park area? Was their crime to dare to come to Toronto in the first place and join with those who express concerns about the G20 and whether it has any concern at all for the environment, for people living in poverty, for fair access to health care and other issues important to people around the world who fall into the category of ‘have nots’?

Pruyn wonders if the idea of the crackdown was to send a message to the public at large that gatherings of opposition to government policies won’t be tolerated. “That is (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper’s attitude,” he said. “He doesn’t like dissent in his own (party) ranks.”

Kormos said some might respond to the crackdown against the G20 summit demonstrators by saying that they should have stayed home or they should not have been there, or that if they were swept up by the police, they should have nothing to worry about if they did nothing wrong. But that misses the point, he said. It misses the possibility that this was another example of the province and country sliding down a path of clamping down on citizens’ right to gather together and express views that may not be popular with the government of the day.

Kormos stressed again that a public inquiry is needed, not only for those demonstrators arrested and roughed up during the summit, but for those shop owners in Toronto that had their stores vandalized by a horde of hooligans with little apparent presence of police officers to prevent it.

Asked if there was any possibility a few hundred black-clad vandals were allowed to run wild to make the thousands of people there to demonstrate peacefully look badly, Kormos responded; “That’s why we need a public inquiry.”

Susan Pruyn agreed. “ We need a public inquiry for all of the people who went (to Toronto) with good intentions and who ended up suffering that weekend,” she said.

Source

So McGuinty has said that there will be no investigation into how the police handled the G20 in Toronto. Or how chief Blair flat out lied about a law and enforced a non existent law.

WOW there a shocker. Just like with 911, the criminals behind the problem will do everything in their power to stop an independent investigation.

It is up to the people to hold these criminals accountable for their actions! If we do not unite and force that to happen, it never will!

.Here is the article from CTV, that covers McGuinty saying no to an independent investigation.

Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty has said no to the idea of an independent public inquiry to review police conduct during the G20 Summit.

The premier said he doesn't think one is necessary. He made the statement in an exclusive interview Friday afternoon with CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss.

Two marches have been held in Toronto since the two-day summit of world leaders ended Sunday.

The protesters have called for an independent inquiry and the resignation of Chief Bill Blair of the Toronto Police Service.

They accuse Blair of misleading people about police powers around the three-metre-high security fence that snaked around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Police had indicated they had the power to demand people within five metres of the fence show then identification or consent to a search. If they did not, they could be arrested under the Public Works Protection Act.

The McGuinty government quietly amended the act before the summit.

As of the afternoon of Friday, June 25, Blair had been advised this was not true. However, no news release was ever issued.

Blair has said that would have been the responsibility of the G8/G20 Integrated Security Unit.

The chief has promised an internal review.

Toronto Police, the OPP, RCMP and officers from police services across Canada were involved in G20 security operations.

More than 1,000 people were arrested, but more than two-thirds were only charged with breach of peace, a very minor offence.

Some believe the police over-reacted with peaceful protest after a group of militants using so-called "black bloc" tactics engaged in vandalism, breaking windows and torching police cars.

Many have decried the conditions that existed in the Eastern Avenue temporary detention centre. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association predicts many lawsuits will be filed and says that the McGuinty government owes the Ontario public an apology.

This is some footage of police forming a circle in the middle of protesters, then abandoning their cars there. And conveniently the Black Bloc comes and sets the police vehicles on fire. After the video where a undercover police officer is caught being dressed up as a Black Bloc member, and the pictures that show the police style boots and batons used by the Black Bloc. There is little doubt that the police were using agent provocateurs.

This evidence shows that the police were being given orders to set things up for the agents in a very blatant way.

Hopefully as more information is released we can get an real investigation into this.

The expiration of the five-metre rule that had Toronto residents fearing arrest if they strayed too close to the G20 security perimeter came with a startling revelation Tuesday – it never existed.

The rule seemed straightforward when the news broke last Friday that the Ontario government made a regulatory change to a little-known act in secret.

Come within five metres of the summit security fence and you’d better have some identification or risk arrest.

The temporary regulation, which was passed in secret June 2, did decree that all streets and sidewalks inside the fence were a public work until 11:59 p.m. Monday. Under the Ontario Public Works Protection Act, that allowed police to search people trying to enter that area.

But there was no power to search people coming within five metres of the fence, said ministry spokeswoman Laura Blondeau.

“The area designated by the regulation as a public work does not extend outside the boundary of the fence,” Ms. Blondeau said.

Asked Tuesday if there actually was a five-metre rule given the ministry’s clarification, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair smiled and said, “No, but I was trying to keep the criminals out.”

The confusion, it seems, came from the wording of the regulation.

The phrase five metres does appear, but it references land well within the fence that is neither a sidewalk nor street – land near a parking lot and land behind the Rogers Centre. A driveway below ground level in front of Union Station was also designated a public work.

Still, the misconception that any zone within five metres of the imposing steel fence – which wound its way through the downtown core – was included persisted throughout the weekend despite extensive media coverage Friday.

Neither the province nor police set the record straight. In fact, both made comments about the necessity of such powers.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association demanded an apology from the Ontario government.

“The lack of transparency surrounding the designation of the security perimeter as a public work led to misunderstanding as to the scope of the search and seizure powers during the summit,” said association spokeswoman Nathalie Des Rosiers.

“In our view it was an inappropriate use of search and seizure powers.”

There were complaints about police engaging in arbitrary searches throughout the weekend in different areas of Toronto, even far away from the G20 security zone.

The New Democrats said Premier Dalton McGuinty and his community safety minister allowed people to misinterpret the law until the G20 was over and the regulation itself had expired.

“Mr. McGuinty’s solicitor general misled the people of Ontario and the police into believing that police had the authority to demand identification and to search people without warrants,” said NDP justice critic Peter Kormos.

Toronto lawyer Rob Kittredge, an avid photographer who works near the G20 site, said Tuesday he was handcuffed and searched by police last week for taking pictures of the security fence, from the outside.

Mr. Kittredge said he knows his rights – or at least thought he did in this case – and always politely refuses to comply with police demands for identification if he feels they have no grounds.

“They told me that I did in fact have an obligation to answer their questions and provide identification and cited the Public Works Protection Act,” said Mr. Kittredge.

“They explained they had the right to ask me the purpose of my being there, they had the right to ask my name and demand identification and my address.”

Mr. McGuinty still hasn’t explained why cabinet passed the regulation change in secret, and then kept it secret.

“They knew that this was going to be a live issue and that people were going to be getting legal advice and that chances are if they didn’t publicize it, the legal advice would be wrong and misleading,” said lawyer Jonathan Dawe, who has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Canada on the scope of police powers.

“As a matter of basic fairness people should be told in advance what they’re doing that constitutes an offence.”

Opposition Leader Tim Hudak said Mr. McGuinty “should have been more honest” about the regulation change.

“I think if this was known to the general public ahead of time the vast majority of Ontario residents would have understood the need,” said Mr. Hudak.


Source

While making my way through the craziness of the protests on Saturday in Toronto. I came across Charlie Veitch of the Love Police. Here is some of the video that we got of Charlie.

This is the first of many videos coming from the G20. We came across a great group of truthers and this is what happened.

When we arrived in Toronto at 10:30am, things were somber. About 10 police at every corner, but not many people in the streets.

We saw a few people being harrased by gangs of police.
In this picture it shows about 9 police officers circled around 1 man.


Things quickly changed around 2 pm. When the "official" march began. In the march were many groups and organizations, such as a local union, oaxfoam, Greenpeace, the communist party of Canada, Anti globalization groups, maternal rights groups all along with protesters not affiliated with any groups.

I really did not expect to see Greenpeace protesting for a carbon tax, or for the maternal rights group to be protesting without being fully informed on the topic.
The proposed maternal rights plan brought forth by Stephen Harper, calls for Canada to give 5 Billion dollars in aid. Other contributors are people like Bill Gates (who has pledged 2.5 Billion). Gates as many of us know is an admitted Eugenius, with a goal of world depopulation.

The protests did remain fairly peaceful until about 3pm. The police then started to make attempts at boxing the people in. In this process I personally witnessed police officers attacking a woman, for not moving quick enough. Thankfully most of the people in the protest were aware of what was happening, and were able to get out of the boxed in zones. This is when we saw the black block appear. We saw a group of them run by us.

The next thing we knew there were windows smashed, and a police car burning. As if nothing had happened the police still continued to try to box the protesters in. They must have made at least 5 attempt at this within a hour. With the protesters recognizing it every time.

Around 5pm things started to cool down a little bit, so we took a break and met up with our team. Shortly after That we found out that police were randomly arresting peaceful protesters on Bay St. and King St. Then the police started to attack protesters at Queens park (These were peaceful protesters that were attacked).

After Queens park we decided to call it a day, and head home. On our way to the car we went down Young St. This is when I saw the craziest part of the day!

People were shopping and walking around as if nothing was happening. Only 2 or 3 blocks away riot police were attacking protesters, and several blocks the other way riot police were facing off with protesters. This is a great sign of the kind of trouble we are facing. People can be 2 blocks away from a total police state, and pretend like it is not there.

kinda like that saying. Hear no evil, see no evil. As long as there were buildings blocking the view of what was happening they were ok. To scared to recognize what was happening.

Thankfully we had the megaphone with us. Chance used the megaphone all the way to the car. Telling the people boarding up windows that Stephen Harper would pay for that, and to send him the bill. Along with things like your city is becoming a police state but don't worry about that. Please just keep shopping.

Overall that was an insane event, and many videos will be coming soon.

The province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search.

A 32-year-old man has already been arrested under the new regulation, which was quietly passed by the provincial cabinet on June 2.

The regulation was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an “extraordinary request” by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who wanted additional policing powers shortly after learning the G20 was coming to Toronto.

The regulation kicked in Monday and will expire June 28, the day after the summit ends. While the new regulation appeared without notice on the province’s e-Laws online database last week, it won’t be officially published in The Ontario Gazette until July 3 — one week after the regulation expires.

“It’s just unbelievable you would have this kind of abuse of power where the cabinet can create this offence without having it debated in the Legislature,” said Howard Morton, the lawyer representing Dave Vasey, who was arrested Thursday under the sweeping new police powers.

“It was just done surreptitiously, like a mushroom growing under a rock at night.”

According to the new regulation, “guards” appointed under the act can arrest anyone who, in specific areas, comes within five metres of the security zone.

Within those areas, police can demand identification from anyone coming within five metres of the fence perimeter and search them. If they refuse, they face arrest. Anyone convicted under the regulation could also face up to two months in jail or a $500 maximum fine.

“It reminds me a little bit of the War Measures Act,” said lawyer Nathalie Des Rosiers of the new regulation. Des Rosiers is a lawyer with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which has been working to monitor arrests during the summit. “This is highly unusual to have this declaration done by order-in-council without many people knowing about it.”

Des Rosiers learned of the regulation Thursday afternoon, shortly after Vasey was arrested while standing near the security fence.

Vasey said he was exploring the G20 security perimeter with a friend when they were stopped by police and asked for identification. Vasey says he had also been searched by police the night before.

According to Vasey, police explained there was a bylaw in place obligating him to provide identification but he refused, acting on the advice of a “Know Your Rights” information pamphlet given to him by the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, a group assisting protesters.

The York University master’s student was taken into custody at around 4 p.m. He was brought to the Eastern Ave. detention centre, a former movie studio that has been temporarily converted into a prisoner holding pen. According to his charge sheet, he was charged with refusing to comply with a peace officer under the act.

Vasey said he only learned of the new regulation after his release, at around 9 p.m. The summit’s Integrated Security Unit did not respond to interview requests from the Star.

According to Vasey’s lawyer, neither he nor his colleagues at the law union were aware of this draconian new regulation. Des Rosiers said the CCLA and protesters have met with summit officials on several occasions and the regulation was never mentioned.

“They don’t even have signs up saying you can’t be within five metres or you’re subject to the following,” Morton said. “If they really wanted to keep the peace, they would have announced the regulation.”

According to Laura Blondeau, an aide to Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci, the regulation “ensures that police have the legal authority” they need for such a massive security zone.

“They really wanted to ensure they could provide a certain level of security,” Blondeau said Thursday. “The regulation does not include private residences or businesses. It’s for certain streets and sidewalks in the security perimeter.”

Blondeau said “rightly or wrongly,” the new regulation can be compared with airport security.

“You don’t have to get on that plane if you don’t want to be searched and wanded,” she said, adding that Bartolucci carefully weighed public safety and civil liberty concerns before agreeing to the one-time amendment.

“It was an extraordinary request. This is just for Toronto, just for the G20,” she said. “Given the environment that the police were expecting, they needed to be prepared.”

Blondeau emphasized the law only affects those trying to enter the security zone and applies solely to police officers, not to private security guards contracted for the summit.

If someone declines to comply it empowers the police to turn them away — or face being searched.

According to government lawyers, the regulation was passed by cabinet using what is known as a “covering” order-in-council.

“The authority for the regulation is contained in the PWPA (Public Works Protection Act). The PWPA authorizes the designation by cabinet of places as ‘public works,’” the lawyers said.

The Public Works Protection Act was created in 1990 and defines a “public work” as everything from a railway to a bridge or a provincial building. The act says any other building, place or work can also be “designated a public work by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.”

Morton said he’s unaware of any precedents to such a regulation being passed in Ontario and questions if it is even constitutional.

Des Rosiers said the regulation runs contrary to the Charter of Rights because it prohibits people from generally circulating on public land.

The G20 security fence has been a magnet for passersby and protesters alike, with many people approaching to take pictures or just quench their curiosity.

For Des Rosiers, she is especially worried because most people, including protesters, will operate under the assumption they have a right to refuse handing over identification to police.

“Protesters would have been told that the law of the land is that you don’t have to talk to police officers if you don’t want to,” she said. “This changes things because even if you attempt to approach, it gives the power to the guard to demand identification.

“It’s a significant intrusion on people’s rights.”

Source

On the day before the g20 officially kicks off, the police really made there presence known. Charlie Veitch from the love police has been detained for not showing his Id. Luke Rudkowski from We Are Change New York was also denied entry into Canada.

A man was also arrested in Toronto for having a car load of weapons. Which included some gasoline, an axe, and a cross bow. None of these items are illegal, and sound like items that some one going camping or has recently gone camping would have.

Another report was that a "weapons cache" was found. This "cache" consisted of a few broken peices of cinder block in some bushes.

If this is the way that security is going to be handling this event. We are in for a very long weekend!

Police have added a water cannon to their arsenal as they step up security ahead of this week's G20 summit in Toronto.

Provincial police Const. Michelle Murphy of the Integrated Security Unit says the water projection system will be used to control large crowds if there are riots.

Activists have promised to be out in force to protest the two-day summit of world leaders that starts Friday.

Const. Murphy says the security plan is moving ahead as planned and officers are being put in place.




Toronto's police chief has said 5,100 officers have been assigned to keep the city safe as the weekend summit nears.

There are ads in local newspapers Monday explaining the security zone and advising people how to deal with it.

There was also a visible increase in the number of uniformed police officers on downtown streets over the weekend.

Source

I do not like to jump the gun on the possibilities of a false flag terrorist attack. But when I saw this report, something just did not seem right.

Just before the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games, there were reports of large amounts of ammonium nitrate fertilizer "missing". This was covered heavily on the Internet and even on a few MSM news stations. Thankfully nothing happened.

Now only weeks before the G8 in Huntsville and the G20 in Toronto, CTV news is reporting that a mysterious man purchased a large amount of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the Niagara area late last month, and that Several law enforcement agencies are investigating the case.
CTV news

I see there only being to scenarios.
First one is that the RCMP likes to use the excuse of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, to have the people accept the draconian levels of security at an event (in this case the G8/G20).
Or That these are attempts at a false flag event in Canada. The first one abandoned due to the attention the story recieved.

I would personally prefer neither of these, but I sincerely hope it is the first scenario.

Updates to this story will be coming soon.

OTTAWA - The City of Toronto has asked the federal government to relocate this summer's G20 summit to prevent Canada's biggest city from being "severely impacted" by the event, according to a Toronto councillor.

In a letter to his constituents this week, Councillor Adam Vaughn warns that the summit could cause "serious disruptions" to the city's downtown core.

"Summits such as this in Quebec City and Seattle have presented serious challenges to host cities. Anti-terrorism precautions, crowd control and the reality that these meetings usually draw large numbers of protesters, will mean that much of the ward will be severely impacted by security initiatives," writes Mr. Vaughn, who represents Ward 20 in Toronto, where the summit is expected to be held.

"I have received a ‘classified' briefing so far. There will be serious disruptions. The security perimeter will be much larger than the area affected by the recent NFL games, and the protests are expected to be larger than last spring's Tamil demonstrations."

Canada was originally supposed to host a meeting this summer of the G8 leaders in the cottage-country town of Huntsville, Ont., north of Toronto. But the federal government decided to expand the summit to include the G20 countries after it became clear that organization had become the dominant forum for dealing with the financial crisis and other economic issues.

The G20 summit will be held on June 26-27, and is expected to take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, a stone's throw from the CN Tower. The G8 summit will still be held in Huntsville on June 25-26.

If held at the convention centre, the summit would affect one of the city's busiest areas for business, tourism and entertainment. The convention centre lies at the edge of Toronto's financial district, and is also close to the Air Canada Centre and Union Station.

Mr. Vaughn said the city would prefer the summit to be located at Exhibition Stadium, which is slightly removed from the city's downtown core. But he says the federal government has refused to consult with his ward.

"The city has tried to convince Ottawa to move this event to Exhibition Place, but the federal government insists on staging it near Front Street, between Yonge and Spadina," Mr. Vaughn wrote in his letter.

Mr. Vaughn says the massive security preparations for the summit will disrupt his ward before and after the event.

"There will be fences, security checks and a significant number of street closures. The event may only last for two days, but preparations and clean-up will extend the period of disruption."

The Prime Minister's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source

WINNIPEG, MB ­ The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) will conduct Exercise Amalgam Virgo this week in the south-central Ontario region in support of preparations for the G8 and G20 Summits.

The exercise, which will be conducted May 6-7, will involve Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet fighter jets and CH-124 Sea King and CH-146 Griffon helicopters flying at low altitudes. Residents in the exercise area may hear aircraft noise and perhaps see aircraft flying at various times throughout the day.

NORAD maintains aircraft assets throughout North America in order to support its bi-national mission of aerospace warning and control for North America. As the Canadian geographical component of NORAD, CANR provides airspace surveillance and control, and directs all air sovereignty activities for the Canadian NORAD Region.

Training is conducted in a disciplined manner and in a professional environment to ensure NORAD’s rapid response capability. To maintain the integrity of its air defense mission, NORAD will not discuss specific details of the exercises.

Source

GATINEAU, Que. — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Ottawa will finance a new centre for examining global security, based at the University of Toronto.

In a speech to business leaders from G20 countries, Harper said the Centre for Global Security Studies should help world powers better understand conflict, terrorism and cyber security.

Harper also urged G20 countries to put aside their differences and press ahead with stronger financial regulations that will cement the global recovery.

He spoke out against attempts by some countries to impose a global tax on banks, saying such a move would penalize Canadian banks in spite of their good performance during the financial crisis.

He said recent numbers show that Canada was the last of the major developed countries to be pulled into recession, and will be the first out -- something he had predicted at the start of the downturn.



Source:CTV

Our tax dollars hard at work again!!!!

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked Down Police State This Summer. Preparations are underway for a massive show of force in Toronto this Summer as the G20 summit comes to town. Unprecedented levels of security are being undertaken, with one of the largest movie studios in North America being transformed into a giant holding facility for unruly protesters.

Police say they are prepared for huge protests during the summit, scheduled to convene over the weekend of June 26/27.

Toronto law enforcement officials have announced they are “tapping” social network websites to monitor the potential activities of protesters as they gear up for the event.

“(Social media) allows people to communicate in a lot more different ways. It’s just another tool,” Const. Wendy Drummond told CP24 news. “The way we police our protests hasn’t changed.”

“The Olympics that you saw recently in Vancouver was actually the largest security event ever to take place here in Canada. The G20/G8 surpasses that completely,” Const. Ed Boltuc, a Toronto Police Services officer and liaison with the RCMP-led Integrated Security Unit, told the Toronto Star recently.

“There’s going to be a massive — absolutely massive — presence of police and security on the ground like you’ve never seen before.” Boltuc added.

The Globe and Mail has reported that up to10,000 uniformed officers, along with a 1,000 private security guards will be deployed, as well as Canadian military forces. The security costs are expected to cost the Canadian government (taxpayers) $179 million.

The plans include two security perimeters, walled in with huge 3 meter high fences, with Toronto police in charge of the outer zone and the RCMP in charge of the inner zone. Anyone entering the inner perimeter, where the Metro Convention Centre is located, will be processed through five levels of airport style security screening.


Various checkpoints throughout Toronto will be outfitted with “Magnetometers,” “walk-through metal detectors,” “X-Ray belt driven scanners” and “hand-held metal detectors.”

Residents and workers in the area will have to register with the authorities to get access to their homes and businesses during the meeting.

The Canadian Forces plans are described as “large-scale operational planning, land and air surveillance, underwater safety and security for the venues and some logistic and ceremonial functions. Support also includes drawing on the CF’s ongoing partnership in the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).”

Protesters will also be subject to designated free speech zones. If they breach these zones they will be forced to move or be arrested.

Police have announced that they will be using a massive movie studio as a temporary jail. The building is roughly five kilometres from the Convention Centre, outside the two security zones. The plan echoes tactics employed in the U.S. at recent DNC and RNC Conventions, where thousands of protesters were indiscriminately rounded up and kept for up to several hours in temporary prisons.

Sunday saw tactical officers take over part of the underground in the financial district of downtown Toronto in an unannounced simulated hostage event. Police worked in tandem with private security guards and we’re seen herding people through the building.

OTTAWA - Stick to a carefully crafted script if you don't want it to die.

That's the advice from an expert Canadian-Korean panel that met last month in Ottawa to advise the Harper government on how to keep the G20 alive beyond its seminal summit in Toronto this summer.

Their 115-page report, obtained by The Canadian Press, says the new international club - tasked with solving the global economic meltdown - will lose public trust and face a dubious future if it makes promises it can't keep.

Far-reaching and difficult negotiations such as global trade liberalization and climate change should be avoided, the rarefied group advises.

Instead, the summit should follow elements of the G20's New Beginning framework from its Pittsburgh summit last fall that focused on promoting sustainable and balanced economic growth.

"It is critically urgent, at this moment in the G20's development, to build on the G20's initial successes and advance its credibility and effectiveness. This can be best achieved by focusing on a small number of pressing priorities," says the 115-page report prepared for the government, and obtained by The Canadian Press.

"The G20, after all, remains something of an experiment in collective leadership and enhanced co-ordination. It will be properly judged not by the promises it makes, but by the progress it delivers."

Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and its counterpart with Seoul National University gathered 25 economists, diplomats, ex-politicos and academics to help the Conservative government craft an attainable agenda for the June 26-27 meeting in Toronto - the first summit of the G20 as a permanent body.

The group was led by veteran mandarin Derek Burney and leading Korean economic heavyweight Yung Chul Park. Burney is a former Canadian ambassador to Washington and served as the head of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2006 government transition team

Canada contributed 15 members to the panel - including two ex-finance ministers, Liberal John Manley and Tory Michael Wilson - former Bank of Canada governor Gordon Thiessen, former Privy Council clerk Kevin Lynch and one-time Finance Department official Wendy Dobson, who now heads the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

The group held a day-long seminar in Ottawa last month and addressed the G20 meeting of sherpas, the top organizers from each of the group's 20 countries who were also holding a planning session in Ottawa.

Its key message was that although economic recovery shows positive signs in some countries, it remains "fragile, unevenly shared, and vulnerable to reversal." The report cited imbalances between surplus and deficit countries and the continuing soaring deficits in some.

"Recovery cannot be sustained unless these acute imbalances are corrected and fiscal discipline is exercised," the report states.

"Specifically, surplus countries (notably China, but also Germany and Japan) must be encouraged to accelerate domestic consumption and public spending; deficit countries (notably the United States but also the United Kingdom) must adopt prudent fiscal policies in the medium term, restrain consumer demand, and generate more exports."

This won't be easy, the group says, and resorting to "naming and shaming" won't work either.

That is an apparent reference to the tension between the U.S. and China that many feared would leave the summit in tatters.

Economic tensions between Beijing and Washington have eased recently, but the group urges the G20 to carefully address the imbalances between the Chinese and U.S. economies.

The report urges the G20 to pursue international financial regulation and reform. Its suggestions include pushing for a "sensible level" of capital reserve for banks, perhaps as high as eight per cent. It also calls for reform of the International Monetary Fund, including the need for merit-based appointments to top management posts.

But the group appears less enthusiastic about the G20 getting behind energy security and climate change financing.

The group pans last year's global climate change conference in Copenhagen as a "failure of process" and says the G20 should "integrate green-economy thinking more fully into energy security and economic discussions."

But it says the G20 should assume only a "supplementary" role to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"Despite the commitments to energy security by the G20 leaders, it seems there has not yet been much progress in furthering the discussions," says the report, which cites as one reason "the lack of consensus within the G20 in addressing a wide range of energy security issues."

Though the group says the Doha Round of global trade negotiations needs to be completed, it doesn't think it would be a good idea for the G20 leaders to hitch their cart to that horse.

"In particular, G20 leaders should not affirm Doha deadlines they know will not be met. Unkept commitments only diminish confidence in open trade and weaken public trust in the G20 itself."

Downtown Toronto got a taste of security preparation for the upcoming G20 summit Tuesday morning as two military helicopters completed a test flight around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre before landing in front of the CN Tower.

The CH-146 Griffon helicopters were spotted at about 9 a.m. circling the area above the convention centre, which will play host to the international meeting in June.

Canadian Forces Sgt. Maj. Sylvain Gallant said the flight was to test the capability of the landing area between the CN Tower and the convention centre.

The helicopters were flown in from CFB Borden, looping around the convention centre, the CN Tower, and nearby condos before landing on a stretch of grass on the south side of the CN Tower.



After the landing, witnesses reported seeing men wearing black suits getting out of the helicopters and walking towards the centre.

Gallant said the exercise included practice in transporting VIPs to the site.

A handful of Toronto police officers were also on site during the exercise.

Source:The Toronto Star