Toronto's G20, 2010 - Heckuva Bargain!

Welcome aboard! Today's cruise takes in the aftermath of the G20 Summit held this past June in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (latitude and longitude available on request).

Much analytical attention is currently being paid to that now-infamous event - and justifiably so. In following it, the Good Captain and his spyglass are seeing several popularly recurring themes:

1. Outrage over the behaviour of some protesters;
2. Outrage over the behaviour of the security forces;
3. Outrage over the behaviour of the responsible officials;
4. Outrage over the coverage in both the mainstream and the alternative media;
5. Outrage over the expenditures involved.

Since the very air and the Internet are sufficiently rife with all the above, your humble Captain will, mercifully, spare you from a rehash of that here. You're quite welcome.

Instead, I would like to draw your attention to the bewilderment that is often mixed in with all that outrage, like an accelerant to flame. Looked at individually, a great many things just don't seem to make sense. But our life experience tells us that most things do make sense; so we reach about for commonalities pointing to the reason(s) for it all. And what unifying G20 2010 theme is being identified most often? Human error. (As your grateful host, your Captain is being as genteel as he can with his choice of words, here.)

Yes, mistakes were made by many. We all meant well and tried our best; but like so many frisbees caught in unexpected gusts, circumstances simply took on unforseeable directions all their own and, well, there you are. Very sorry. Can we move on now: we've important work that needs doing.

Captain Daylight's problem, however, is that, while his spyglass has spotted many G20-related things that officials might like, at worst, to be taken for mistakes, a great many simply don't look like errors, when you think about it all for just a moment.

Chief among those things is the budget for the G8/G20 combo meal the Harper goverment ordered. At somewhere between $1.2 and $2.0 billion, that seems like pretty steep tab, all the more so in comparison to previous G-this-and-that events. Surely the government found itself in a little over its head and had to make up in dollars for what it lacked in preparation time. Sorry. Won't happen again.

But the Captain knows that, what's printed on those cardboard, clamshell, fast-food packages doesn't have to be what's actually inside. So if (just by way of conjecture, mind you) Herr Harper knew the good innocents of Canada would object to his ordering a non-simulated, full-scale, urban, unabashedly-aggressive, mass-control war games exercise (but that's what he planned to order, just the same), would he want it delivered in a package labeled for what it was; or might, "G20 Security Package," not prevent spooking the children - especially since he'd need them to treat the game as real when their turn comes?

Of course you'll be tempted to ask why he would want to order something so insidious and how could he expect to get away with it in a free society, particularly one as infrequently visited by civil unrest as Canada? Well, you may be relieved to discover that it might not be because he is "going rogue" and embarking on an aberrant and delusional campaign. (See? Your Captain doesn't like to spook the children, either.) No; it might be much worse than that. (Okay, I lied.)

Now, I can see that some of you eyeing the exits at this point; so let me assure you you're free to disembark at any time. But for those staying with the tour, let's pause a moment to recapture some needed perspective by asking ourselves a couple of questions:

• What is the G20's purpose? (To facilitate international economic co-ordination [notice I didn't say "co-operation"]); and
• What was on the agenda at its Summit in Toronto? (Austerity measures.)

Whereas other countries have had hands-on experience in dealing with local fallout from the former, Canada is arguably past due for having its turn. Problem is, if it's not sports-related, contemporary Canadians don't have much of a history of running riot, the little dears. Therefore, how to convince the rest of the G20 that, if and when its time comes to handle the kind of widespread unrest that, oh let's just say, something like draconian austerity measures might incite, Canada will be up to the task? Furthermore, if part of the G20's co-ordination task is to promote a North American Union (along the lines of the European Union), how might it demonstrate the way such an arrangement could successfully assert itself? Well, what better way to do it all than to stage a real-life dress rehearsal while everyone is in town?

Now, what would be needed? Let's run through the shopping list:

• Carte blanche. (Not really a problem in a no-opposition and summer-recessed parliament. If necessary, however, see "property damage", below: so, check);
• A major North American urban centre (Toronto: check);
• The latest toys (Sound cannons, pre-fab fortifications, state of the art armour, sprays, gasses, modified mass transit for detainees: check);
• Space for masses of detainees, bona fide or otherwise (Eastern Avenue, etc.: check)
• A combined U.S./Canadian force (Untendered $500 million contract to private U.S. firm, RCMP, OPP, Toronto Police Service, hundreds of other cities' officers and the JTF2 : check);
• Stealth (Private firm & contractees obscured from public view or accountability, martial law regulations passed effectively in secret: check);
• Legal enforcement status for U.S. operatives to make their arrests prosecutable in Canada (48-hour approavals and deputizations for all: check);
• A high-enough profile to attract public attention and test-drive the media-spin machine (pre-arranged and carefully-controlled coverage by all the major, proven-compliant dailies and networks: check);
• Crowds in both open spaces and on the streets to test the gamut of control tactics (Queens Park, Queen/King West, College, Yonge Street: check)
• Good old, reliable property damage to divide and distract the public (Agents provocateurs, staged rampages in full media view: check);
• Large, strongly resistant protester masses (Oops. Well, if they don't play along, let's just treat them as if they're out of control, anyway: so, check);
• Identifying likeliest repercussions & sources of resistance (Message management, media placements, internet monitoring: check);
• A swift denouement to contain the impact and leave behind only the intended subliminal images and lessons (Massive releases within 24 hours, no messy charges to clean up: check);
• Full play-by-play recordings for extensive post-game analysis to hone future tactics (Scores more surveillance cameras: check).

As you can see, that's one spectacularly ambitious list that probably falls well short of covering everything. So, given all that, the priceless value of being able to see/dissect full-scale mass control in action and the opportunity to implant a preemptive and precautionary message for the future with an entire country's population, perhaps what was actually inside that little "G20 Security" package turned out to be heckuva bargain, after all. Mistake? Maybe not. I'm not saying; I'm just saying.

Well, that's the end of this cruise. I hope that you enjoyed the trip and perhaps you'll join Captain Daylight and his crew for more thoughtful adventures down the road. Until then, be the wind in your sails and the horizon bright with promise. Ahoy!