G20 Brings The Green Zone To Toronto

Excessively armed thugs parading through the streets, military checkpoints at traffic lights, police helicopters hovering over the city, a long chain-link fence around the center of downtown, secret snipers on rooftops, urban warfare weapons, bomb-sniffing dogs, sound canons; this is not the sight of the infamous Green Zone in blood-drenched Baghdad, but a picture of what downtown Toronto will look like this weekend when the city hosts the world’s leading heads of states, and government officials.

They are in Toronto for the G20 conference, where they plan to discuss a global economic order, and new austerity measures for heavily indebted nations. It is expected that U.S. Obama will fearmonger about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and motives, just as he did at the last G20 meeting that took place in Pittsburgh in September, 2009.

The heavy presence of ground troops on the streets are usually seen in war-torn countries, occupied countries, or countries that are on the edge of a violent revolution, so it has come as an unwelcome surprise to many Canadians that the downtown core of its major city, known for its safety and cleanliness, is being transformed into a military fortress to serve the world’s leading politicians.'

Read more...