Me and my camera spent yesterday wandering around downtown Toronto to see what we could see of preparations for the G20 summit which will be blessing this fair city on the weekend. You don’t have to walk too far beyond the “security zone” before you discover that Toronto the Good ain’t so good. Thank god for that. Otherwise it would be a pretty bland place to live. So, for example, we have a graffiti artist using the side of a building (south of Queen St. & west of Spadina Rd.) to ask: “Who Watches the Watchmen?” Good question. It got me to thinking about the situation in the U.K. where it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a private citizen to take photos without being stopped and questioned (and sometimes arrested) by police. I regard amateur photography as essential to a functioning democracy. Professional journalism isn’t good enough anymore because it no longer operates at arm’s length from power. So the answer to the graffiti artist’s question is: “You and me. We’re the ones who watch the watchmen. If no one else watches, then we’re all screwed.”
At 8:30 a.m., I perched myself on the raised part the the entrance to the Toronto-Dominion Bank Centre on Wellington Street which marks the north limit of the security zone. People who work inside the security zone can enter and exit if they show their work ID. In the photo below, I count 10 police officers at the corner of Wellington & Bay.
I was struck by how complacent people are. This is a major inconvenience and demands of us the temporary suspension of what I regard as fundamental civil liberties. I’m amazed at how people of a more conservative cast will yammer on about the freedoms our fathers and grandfathers fought and died to secure, yet will look at someone like me as if I have rocks in my head when I suggest that there might be something wrong with the concessions we’re now forced to make.
The barrier for the security zone extends down the middle of Wellington Street. The photo below looks west and illustrates how, already, this circus is disrupting life in the downtown core.
“Who Watches The Watchmen?” The watchmen certainly love to watch us. We’ve been assured that most of the CCTV cameras will be dismantled after the shindig is over. The important word here is most. “AVIS! Des Caméras de Surveillance en circuit fermé (CSCF) sont utilisées dans ce secteur.”
I couldn’t resist this photo of all that “temporary” CCTV paraphernalia with Toronto’s iconic symbol of phallic prowess in the background.
I took this photo on Yonge Street just south of Hwy 401 more than 10 km away from the scene of the farce. The sign advises of a Road Restriction. Apparently there will be motorcades and cellphone blackouts (because we might use our phones to detonate bombs). If I sound like I’ve got my nose out of joint, well, yeah, I’ve got my nose out of joint. It’s my friggin’ home! Not theirs. And I didn’t invite them and their security details. It feels as if a herd of elephants is trampling through my living room. Mayor David Miller has been quite pointed in his disgust, wondering why they couldn’t have staged the whole thing (including the G8) on the Exhibition grounds. It’s a ready-made area, centrally located, and much easier to cordon off without disrupting everybody else’s (5.5 million people’s) lives. Why oh why, Stephen? Tell me why?
The choice of Toronto to host this debacle has been sold to Toronto citizens, and Canadians generally, with all kinds of silly rationales. I grew up listening to the “world-class city” bullshit, which did nothing but reveal the insecurities of local politicians. The great erection of 1975 may have given city councilors a political hard-on, but to me, it’s always seemed like overcompensation. Now, to hear that same tired refrain sends a chill down my spine. We do not need prestige; we need livability. I wonder if the homeless man below cares if he sleeps on the streets of a world-class city.
One of the dumbest rationales is that our world-class summit will promote tourism. For Christ sake, the U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory for Toronto and surrounding area. Below is a photo of a tour bus cruising alongside the barriers to the security zone. Note the number of passengers: a bit fat zero.
Toronto will get a lot of press. Surely that will add to to the fine city’s prestige. Well … most of the press will be of the sanitized variety, delivered by a professional host of journalists who are treated to the natural wonders of our countryside as they relax in their Muskoka chairs and suck back Molsons by the fake lake. Ever wonder where the fake lake’s water is coming from? I found out this morning as I walked by this bone dry and garbage-filled fountain in the park between Roy Thomson Hall and Metro Hall. WTF? Have they stopped simple civic amenities? Ah, isn’t amazing how civic pride gets flushed down the toilet when the feds dictate how to run the city?
The tab for a week’s worth of security may well top $1 bn. That is outrageous. Security spending alone is more than double that of the next most expensive summit (Japan in 2008). But by holding it in the heart of Toronto’s financial distract, the cost to Canadian citizens and businesses may run into the billions. The federal government will implement a compensation scheme, which means that the obscene losses will be spread amongst all Canadians. Given a pre-existing national hostility towards Toronto, I fail how this scheme will enhance the city’s prestige. I hope that people from Gander to Prince Rupert will recognize that Toronto didn’t choose this. f international summits are going to be institutionalized as annual events, then isn’t it time to create a permanent facility to minimize disruption to ordinary citizens?
Below, a woman searches for her ID to show to police while a crew from CTV films the transaction (CTV’s studios fall inside the security zone). The whole thing was staged of course. Hence my disparaging comment above about “professional” journalism. CTV is playing in that grey area where media start to look a little like stooges for power. It’s hard to believe that CTV doesn’t have an interest in portraying the security personnel as a bunch of good ole boys.
Some of the security measures have danced awfully close to the absurd. Saplings have been uprooted from planters for fear that protesters might use them as weapons. And does Toronto really need sound cannons? Some of these devices will become part of law enforcement’s permanent arsenal. Toronto is among the world’s safest major urban areas. We don’t need weapons; we need social services.
Below are two posters on a pole, and while neither poster has anything directly to do with the G8/G20 summits, taken together, they point to one of the primary issues of global concern which these proceedings seem to ignore. The top poster is an ad for a “Canadian Real Estate Wealth Tour”—in essence, it promotes a get-rich-quick quack. The poster underneath is an ad for a cleaning lady. The top and bottom. Wealth and the working poor. Never in the history of our species has there been such a disparity between rich and poor. And yet the primary economic concerns will include the question of whether or not to tax banks and how to cushion national economies, like those of Greece and Spain, from a collapse precipitated by obscenely wealthy fund managers working on Wall Street. What good is it to think of these issues if you don’t keep at least one eye on the homeless man sitting in the park outside Metro Hall? Or the cleaning lady advertising on a utility pole? Or the food vendors who have been told to abandon their businesses for the duration of the summit?
Finally, a photo of Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto’s world-class concert hall, home to the TSO, Toronto’s world-class symphony orchestra. Four of Toronto’s world-class police officers are crossing the street underneath a sign that says: “Intimately powerful.” I have no idea what that means, but it certainly doesn’t make me feel comfortable.
