G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost

Ensuring the safety of world leaders, authorities face a ‘bottomless barrel of demands’

A police officer with a riot helmet on his hip watches as a police motorcyclist drives past in Toronto on Tuesday as final preparations are made to host the G20 summit later this week. CHRIS YOUNG/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Colin Freeze

The moment Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided Canada would host this week’s G20 meeting, Toronto was fated to become a fortified city.

Police and military leaders decided that Muskoka, host of the G8 summit, could not also accommodate the G20 to follow. So they were forced to accept that dozens of world leaders would be crammed into the densest corners of Canada’s largest city – and that, to protect them, authorities would need to install three-metre-high fences and summon thousands of police, leaving residents bemused and bothered.

This is the new reality of hosting global summits in an urban setting, when the only thing officials agree on is that they can’t spend too much to safeguard against the nightmare of playing host to an international incident.

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As expected the mainstream media is falling into line to defend the police state security. The headline for this article in the print edition of the Globe is: "And is All This Worth It? Yes It IS". People were being grilled on their way into the Royal York at 7:20 this morning. The Royal York is outside the security zone. There was a long line of ambulances parked on Bremmer St. Queen's Park continues to look normal. I asked one riot clad officer if he thought much would happen in Queen's Park. He said anarchists don't like to follow the rules, so they would hardly show up at a designated "free speech zone". Organized labour will be there on Saturday for sure. Tom

Update: Noon: The riot clad police have arrived in force at Queens Park, even if the protesters havent. I have some good photographs of two bus loads and three mini vans full of snoozing police. Also some motorcycle police and an ambulance. Also rumours that the OPP are at all exits of the Gardiner. Guess some Leaders are about to arrive and traffic chaos will ensue. Tom