Afghanistan stat of the day (UPDATED)

By Andrew Potter - Monday, June 28, 2010 at 10:13 AM - 11 Comments

“More declared cash flies out of Kabul each year than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue nationwide.”

link.

UPDATE: Or not. Read Scott’s blog.

With this app, I thee divorce

By Kate Lunau - Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM - 8 Comments

Getty Images

Most people going through a divorce could probably do without the stress and expense of endless consultations with a lawyer. Now, some—in the U.S., anyway—can consult with their iPhones instead.

A new company out of Dallas, called DivorceApps.com, is selling iPhone applications aimed at helping people who “can’t afford the services of a lawyer and need to help themselves,” says family lawyer Michelle May O’Neil, its co-creator. O’Neil’s company, which launched in March, sells two apps through the iTunes store (both cost US$9.99). The Cost & Prep app helps people “calculate the hidden costs of divorce,” she says, from the “double cost of housing,” to extra kids’ clothes, down to “how much it costs to park at a lawyer’s office.” It also helps create a list of necessary documents, saving money on “the back-and-forth with a lawyer,” O’Neil says.

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Really cheap beauty secrets

By Julia McKinnell - Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:55 AM - 7 Comments

When Hollywood aesthetician Raisa Ruder first applied oranges and cooked pumpkin to the faces of her clients, she kept it secret, she admits in a new book (co-authored with Susan Campos) called Babushka’s Beauty Secrets. Ruder was born and raised in Ukraine, where her grandmother was a legend among local women who lined up at the family’s tiny home at the end of a dirt road for her homemade beauty potions that consisted of beets, potatoes and garlic. “When I first arrived in the United States, I’d apply these one-ingredient wonders but wouldn’t tell women what the product was in fear of their reaction,” she confesses in the book. “I thought they’d scream. But as each satisfied customer left my salon, my confidence grew.”

Now Ruder’s clientele includes models and actresses like Tyra Banks and Molly Sims. “The positive feedback I received upon revealing my ‘secret’ ingredients is one of the reasons I decided to write this book. Clients didn’t really care about all the fancy packaging, just if a beauty treatment worked.”

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Just plug it in—if you can

By Rachel Mendleson - Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:53 AM - 6 Comments

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW TOLSON

Toronto-area electrician Tony Krakovich likes it when his clients are happy. So he was dismayed to receive a phone call last month from a couple who, despite their best efforts, were unable to plug a light into the outlets he’d installed.

The pair had gone to check on the progress of their 6,000-sq.-foot home, which was a few months from completion. “They said, ‘You put in damaged [outlets],’ ” he recalls. They thought they’d have problems with every plug in the house. Well, his clients may be right. The outlets aren’t damaged; as Krakovich explained, they’re simply the new, tamper-resistant variety that must be installed in all new dwellings. And he concedes that they’re “very hard to use.”

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A battle of image

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 6:43 PM - 137 Comments

The Prime Minister’s massive image appeared on the monitor hung from the ceiling at the international media centre shortly after five o’clock—Mr. Harper speaking to a news conference at the Toronto convention centre on the occasion of the conclusion of the fourth meeting of the G20. His blue and black striped tie matched not only his suit (black), but his backdrop (dark blue) and the sign on the lectern (a slightly lighter shade of blue).

“At a time when concerns on government debt were growing, this was the challenge we had to face,” he said. And so, apparently, they had.

He outlined vows made to reduce government deficit and debt—”fiscal consolidation” it is apparently now called. He warned against protectionism and hoped of recovery. He applauded the most recent budget in the United Kingdom, exchange rate flexibility in China and financial sector reform in the United States. He noted that the decision to impose a levy on the banking industry would be left to individual countries. He took a question on a proposed clause that would have addressed yuan reform and the ramifications for national sovereignty in a world increasingly dependent on common action contained therein. Continue…

Not just tough banking rules, but tough referees, too

By John Geddes - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 4:49 PM - 49 Comments

A nearly final version of the G20 communiqué includes a commitment to combine a new rule book for banks, which won’t be finalized until late this year, with tougher supervision to make sure those rules are actually followed.

The bland-sounding pledge—”We agree that new, stronger rules must be complemented with more effective oversight and supervision”—actually reflects a key Canadian push based on experience in this country about what actually works.

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The war zone

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 4:05 PM - 90 Comments

Steve Paikin reflects on his Saturday night in downtown Toronto.

I have reported from war zones in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Lebanon, and Israel. But last night’s confrontation between peaceful demonstrators and riot squad police was the scariest situation I’ve ever been in, in almost 30 years of reporting.

The G20 communique

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 3:37 PM - 0 Comments

Various drafts are now circulating—Andrew has a link to one, the Star has a draft posted, the Sun claims their own. It’s not clear if there’s much difference between any of them, but here is the text of a draft obtained by our bureau, described as being 99% complete. Continue…

The final communique

By Andrew Coyne - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 3:19 PM - 9 Comments

Stephen Taylor, whose contacts within government are pretty good, posts what he says is the text of the G20′s final communique, from “a friend inside the red zone.” It lines up pretty well with an earlier leak of the final communique, posted by Greenpeace before the conference began. Compare the preambles:

June 22 leak:

In Toronto, we held our first Summit of the G20 in its new capacity as our premier forum for international economic cooperation. We are committed to ensuring the G20 remains effective and relevant in this role.

We reviewed our progress in addressing the global economic crisis, and we agreed on next steps to ensure a full return to growth and jobs, and to create strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.

Our efforts to date have borne good results. Fiscal and monetary stimulus has helped restore private demand and lending, and we have taken strong steps toward increasing the stability of our financial systems. Increased resources for international financial institutions have helped address the impact of the crisis on the world’s most vulnerable, and ongoing governance and management reforms will enhance the effectiveness and relevance of these institutions. We have successfully maintained our strong commitment to resist protectionism.

But there is no room for complacency. While growth is returning in many countries, the recovery is uneven and fragile, and unemployment remains at unacceptable levels. We recognize the important progress made since our last meeting in Pittsburgh, but we also agree that much work remains. In particular, emerging fiscal challenges in many states are creating market volatility, and could seriously threaten the recovery and weaken prospects for long-term growth. Further actions are still required to address the underlying causes of the global financial crisis and promote more responsible and transparent banking sectors.

Today, in Toronto, we have decided to take the following actions: [Note: decisions to be determined through the Declaration process]

We are determined to be accountable for the commitments we have made, and will instruct our Ministers and officials to take all necessary steps to implement them fully within agreed timelines.

June 27 leak:

1. In Toronto, we held our first Summit of the G-20 in its new capacity as the premier forum for our international economic cooperation.

2. Building on our achievements in addressing the global economic crisis, we have agreed on the next steps we should take to ensure a full return to growth with quality jobs, to reform and strengthen financial systems, and to create strong, sustainable and balanced global growth.

3. Our efforts to date have borne good results. Unprecedented and globally coordinated fiscal and monetary stimulus is playing a major role in helping to restore private demand and lending. We are taking strong steps toward increasing the stability and strength of our financial systems. Significantly increased resources for international financial institutions are helping stabilise and address the impact of the crisis on the world’s most vulnerable. Ongoing governance and management reforms, which must be completed, will also enhance the effectiveness and relevance of these institutions. We have successfully maintained our strong commitment to resist protectionism.

4. But serious challenges remain. While growth is returning, the recovery is uneven and fragile, unemployment in many countries remains at unacceptable levels, and the social impact of the crisis is still widely felt. Strengthening the recovery is key. To sustain recovery, we need to follow through on delivering existing stimulus plans, while working to create the conditions for robust private demand. At the same time, recent events highlight the importance of sustainable public finances and the need for our countries to put in place credible, properly phased and growth-friendly plans to deliver fiscal sustainability, differentiated for and tailored to national circumstances. Those countries with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation. This should be combined with efforts to rebalance global demand to help ensure global growth continues on a sustainable path. Further progress is also required on financial repair and reform to increase the transparency and strengthen the balance sheets of our financial institutions, and support credit availability and rapid growth, including in the real economy. We took new steps to build a better regulated and more resilient financial system that serves the needs of our citizens. There is also a pressing need to complete the reforms of the international financial institutions.

5. Recognizing the importance of achieving strong job growth and providing social protection to our citizens, particularly our most vulnerable, we welcome the recommendations of our Labour and Employment Ministers, who met in April 2010, and the training strategy prepared by the ILO in collaboration with the OECD.

6. We are determined to be accountable for the commitments we have made, and have instructed our Ministers and officials to take all necessary steps to implement them fully within agreed timelines.

Clause 4 would appear to be where the most significant redrafting took place.

From the backbench

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 2:33 PM - 10 Comments

Glen Pearson considers the last 24 hours in Toronto.

If Stephen Harper made a mistake on this, it was likely in his decision to move the summit to Toronto rather than some remote place, like a military base. In so doing, he stripped businesses of vital income for two weeks. To add to that loss must now be added the physical damage created by the Black Bloc. Those firms must be compensated for a loss they had no way to prevent.

But the Prime Minister never caused the destruction yesterday. That was left up to a kind of criminal DNA that was not only “un-Canadian,” but deeply unjust. And justice will only be served when their actions receive their due punishment. Thoreau would be sickened.

The other G20 issue: remember China?

By John Geddes - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 1:35 PM - 5 Comments

With our focus so firmly fixed on the tension between the U.S. accent on stimulus and the deficit preoccupations of Canada and Europe, the question of China’s place in the G20 has been pushed a bit to the side of this weekend’s summit.

But the question of how willing China might be to play ball by letting its currency appreciate and otherwise boosting domestic demand is arguably of more long-term importance than this weekend’s stimulus-vs-austerity rift. After all, many argue the imbalance between America’s spending and China’s saving is the crucial economic question of the age.

And if the challenge here was only reconciling, say, Angela Merkel’s inclination to retrench with Barack Obama’s instinct to stimulate, the old G8 would surely suffice. The strains are mainly among the old rich countries. The G20 was meant, remember, to expand the summit club to reflect 21^st-century global realities, so a more telling test of the new group’s utility will be China’s reaction to peer pressure at the Toronto summit table.

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Par… ty… Down?

By Jaime Weinman - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 1:34 PM - 5 Comments

This weekend I watched the season finale of Party Down, the half-hour comedy on the Starz cable channel. This may be the series finale, too, since the show has virtually no viewers (given that it’s a critical favourite, it may be that its entire audience consists of critics).

[vodpod id=Video.3914622&w=640&h=385&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

The show has done quite an amazing job of turning out good, solid episodes given quite a number of limitations that would cripple any other show. For one thing, the budget — it looks like they sneaked a couple of film cameras into somebody’s house every week, and have to finish filming in about five minutes before they get kicked out. (The finale had a scene where a character’s hands are down in one shot, and up on the other guy’s shoulders in the very next shot — this doesn’t bother me, but it’s just an indication that they don’t have much money for retakes.) And because they’re a little show with a tiny budget, they can’t hold cast members: Jane Lynch was a regular in the first season, but left to do Glee – she came back for the finale, which was about her character’s wedding — and the lead, Adam Scott, has already left to do Parks and Recreation.

And finally, though the show is about caterers, it’s really about people who are on the fringes of show business and are working this job until they can fulfil their dreams, plus the successful showbiz figures whose events they cater. It’s a show where successful showbiz figures get to re-live their past struggles, making it the kind of story where the audience is asked to care about a somewhat alien, insular L.A. culture. It’s been compared to Taxi, since both shows are about people working dead-end jobs while clinging to the dream of being something more, but imagine if almost every character on Taxi was Bobby Wheeler, and you’ve got an indication of why this show didn’t take off.

Yet it is a good show. I personally don’t find it very funny, but that’s subjective. It does have sharply defined characters, a willingness to challenge each of them (Scott’s detachment is questioned and shaken up just enough to keep him from being annoying), and an ability to use its low budget to its advantage, interweaving multiple plots within a limited amount of time and number of locations, almost like a play without an audience. The humour depends too heavily for my taste on stuff showbiz insiders find really hilarious, like a celebrity playing himself but acting out of character (Patrick Duffy last night), but again, that’s a personal thing, and many non-insiders find it funny as well. And its willingness to mix some drama in with the comedy, as it did in the scene where Casey (Lizzy Caplan) discovers that she’s lost the movie part she thought she had, is effective and refreshing.

The show does give off a vibe, to me, of being a bit painful. I feel the same way about it that others feel about The Office, which has never depressed me (in either version). I don’t know exactly why, since it’s not particularly despairing as these things go, and tries to include glimmers of hope. It may be the job itself, where the characters are trapped: they have to stand there and take it, or stand there and listen, and their moments of freedom are moments that they grab on the side. If you compare it to Taxi, the dead-end job was one that provides a bit more freedom and independence, and most of the episodes took place when the characters weren’t working anyway. The British Office is more depressing than the U.S. version because the characters on the original have to sit there and take everything the boss dishes out (though they have more avenues of escape), while on the U.S. version they’re much more free to talk back. Maybe the decision to make Party Down literally about the characters on the job — though necessary, probably, for budget reasons if nothing else — is what gets me down, subliminally. Most workplace comedies avoid being depressing because we never see anybody doing much actual work or experiencing boredom.

That also brings up something I’ve noticed about the half-hour cable comedy, which is that it tends to Continue…

'So what does success look like?'

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 1:32 PM - 8 Comments

The text of Mr. Harper’s opening statement to the meeting of the G20 today.

“Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Canada and to the magnificent city of Toronto, which is our country’s largest city, and I would like to say, home of the most solid financial sector in the world.  We are very pleased and proud to be holding the G-20 Summit.

“In welcoming you, I’d like to make a few observations about what we must achieve here.  At Pittsburgh last year, the G-20 officially declared itself the world’s premier forum for international economic cooperation.  Now with such a claim and with the global recovery that remains fragile, it is incumbent upon us to act with the same unity of purpose, the same sense of urgency and the same commitment to the enlightened exercise of our national sovereignty, as we did in the depths of the crisis in order to begin to develop a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth that we promised the world in Pittsburgh.

“The coordinated actions taken to date by the G-20 are producing positive results that are benefiting the entire world.  However, the recovery remains fragile.  To be frank, private sector demand is not yet where it should be in some of the G-20 countries.

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The peaceful part of the G20 protest

By Mitchel Raphael - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 1:29 PM - 5 Comments

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From the backbench

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 1:27 PM - 3 Comments

More Twitter commentary from last night and this morning.

Siobhan Coady. Oh Mr. Harper, what have you done to our country?

Carolyn Bennett. still thinking that for a billion dollars we could have had a University Campus with a medical school in Huntsville or the Near North

Daryl Kramp. attended a immigrant laguage graduation-grateful and appreciative of Canada-what a contrast to attitude of violent criminal protesters-sick … black clad criminals do a diservice to the cause of legitimate protest.-behind the mask is thuggery rather than honest principles of dissent

Bryon Wilfert. Master Cpl. Kristal Giesebrecht and Pt. Andrew Miller killed by an IED in Afghanistan. People allowed to demonstrate because of these heroes … The Black Bloc – anarchists – attack symbolism of capitalism. Legitimate demonstrations overshadowed by these thugs. They hide their faces.

Scenes from outside the summit: Day 3

By Julia Belluz, Josh Dehaas, Stephanie Findlay, and Jane Switzer - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 17 Comments

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

7:06 pm [Julia]

Lockdown at Queen and Spadina—after mass arrests and reports of riot police using sound cannons and rubber bullets, no one is allowed through. The ever-present helicopters buzz in the air.

6:54 pm [Julia]

Torontonian Nora Loretto shows her bruise from the baton of a riot cop. She says she was hit during a protest on Queen and John as she attempted to take a picture of a cameraman being pushed with a riot shield.

6:11 pm [Julia]

Mounted police come through to break-up the "protest."

6:10 pm [Julia]

Face-off on Queen St. between hundreds of cops and about 50 people. Many do not look like they were involved in a protest.

6:01 pm [Julia]

Julian and Cara were detained by cops at Booth and Queen. They are both shaken up and Cara is crying. Julian says: "We were walking down the street. One of them said 'check those two.' They told us we have to stop you and show us what's in our bags or else we'd be arrested. We didn't resist, we went through our bags. They asked us why our clothing is black. I told them to come over and look at my clothes. I have a lot of clothes that are black... We believe people have the right to peacefully demonstrate... We don't want to go to jail for not doing anything wrong."

5:54 pm [Josh]

Two young women are in cuffs with a large banner just east of Logan. A cop runs at me and tells me I’m not allowed to take pictures. Another cop runs up, grabs my shoulder and escorts me down the street with his hand on my shoulder. I ask if its illegal for me to be here and he won’t respond. The girl in the dark green shirt is screaming “I’m not consenting to this search! This is illegal!”

5:46 pm [Josh]

About four more people—all young, three of them in black—are in cuffs at Logan and Dundas.

5:42 pm [Josh]

Two guys are in cuffs at Dundas and De Grassi St. About 10 uniformed are police around them. One is a short guy in a green sweater in cap—looks about 45 years old; the other is wearing a striped shirt and looks about 20. Cops won’t respond at all. A cop in a white van stares intimidatingly as he passes by. There are a couple dozen people on either side of Wardell, some with animal rights-related banners.

5:39 pm [Julia]

Cops are doing mass sweeps around the park where 5 pm protests are being held. Bags are being checked, people are being questioned by plainclothes police—for no apparent reason except to stop a protest from happening. Very aggressive tactics employed today, perhaps to make up for yesterday's restraint.

5:23 pm [Stephanie]

Police make an arrest at Dundas and Degrassi.

5:03 pm [Julia]

People getting stopped and searched on way to protests at Wardell and Dundas.

4:25 pm [Julia]

Mehdi Zohouri travelled from the Toronto suburbs with his camera because "this is a rare photo opportunity," he said. He and his friend plan to walk the city and take pictures of the changes to the city this G20 weekend. "I'm on the left, and I don't mind people protesting, but I didn't like to see people destroying the area," he said. "They took away from all the legitimate protests going on." Nevertheless, he's one of many G20 voyeurs interested in documenting this different face of Toronto. "Seeing cops lined up all over the place is strange. This is where I grew up, I don't expect this in Toronto, even though I've been to many other cities where having this many cops around is normal. It's not normal here."

4:20 pm [Julia]

Police are randomly searching bags for suspicious items. In this case, the search was prompted by steel-toe boots. "Regular people don't wear those," the cops said. I wonder: how can you tell a goth from a black bloc anarchist this weekend?

4:12 pm [Julia]

One example of the graffiti that adorns Toronto buildings after the G20 summit.

3:13 pm [Julia]

Urban Outfitters, the hipster target of G20 vandalism, on Yonge St, where many stores south of Bloor are closed, some boarded up. Cops linger on street corners and vans filled with police waiting to be dispatched zoom up and down the streets. The sound of helicopters have been present in Toronto for the last few days.

3:08 pm [Stephanie]

Protestors peaceful and quiet surrounded by observers (King/Bay)

3:03 pm [Julia]

Bike block, peaceful protest passing through Dundas Square. Police ride alongside other bikers. People cheer and chant: "Whose streeets? Our streets."

2:59 pm [Stephanie]

More riot cops moving into a prayer vigil protest at King and Bay. Overheard on a police intercom that a black block biker is approaching the area.

2:58 pm [Julia]

Zanzibar, another G20 target

2:53 pm [Julia]

Urban Brick on Yonge just south of College St: another victim of G20 clashes. Is it a symbol of capitalism like Starbucks?

2:48 pm [Julia]

Starbucks—a dangerous place to be this weekend—is all boarded up after widows were smashed in Saturday's G20 protests

1:35 pm [Josh]

Back at the detention centre on Eastern. Mostly just media is left. Traffic is running again. Bridie Wyrock of Cleveland, Ohio was released around noon today to cheers of the crowd. She’s still here giving the story of her arrest yesterday to reporters. She’s wearing a neon tie-died shirt with “stop the war on the poor” in magic marker. She says her head hurts from being slammed on the ground by police yesterday. She shows the bruises on her wrists from plastic cuffs. She says there were cagelike cells inside the detention centre and she was fed cheese and butter sandwiches and the cops inside were nice. She says her breach of the peace and mischief charges were dropped.

1:17 pm [Stephanie]

Just around an hour ago there was a violent crackdown by police outside the makeshift prison at 629 Eastern ave. "All of a sudden there was fast movement," says George Sawison, a Torontonian. He showed me video he shot with his camera. There was a group protesting, a skirmish, and then a police van rolled in with plain clothed cops. They went into the crowd and pulled out one girl. Afterwards they arrested "6-10 people." Citizens are getting upset here because police are telling them to get off the grass.

12:57 pm [Josh]

Just saw on CP24 that things have intensified at the detention centre. Police have dispersed the crowd. Some witnesses told the cameras that they saw rubber bullets fired. There is something smoky in the air. Heading back to check it out.

12:53 pm [Stephanie]

629 Eastern Ave.

12:21 pm [Josh]

A police office flags down a westbound streetcar that’s crossing the bridge over the Don Valley Parkway on Queen. He asks the driver if he’s seen anything unusual. He hasn’t.

11:54 am [Josh]

The protest outside the detention centre at Eastern and Pape is small and many people look bored. A group of about five twenty-somethings is standing back from the crowd of rougly 100, many of whom are journalists. “I think 70 per cent of people left yesterday,” says one woman with a French-Canadian accent. A man writes “free all” with pink chalk on the sidewalk outside the former Toronto Film Studios building, but no one appears to notice, other than one amateur photographer. It’s hot in the sun and people have sweaty foreheads. One woman carries a pink fabric flag with “free all G20 prisoners” written in black marker. People briefly start singing kumbaya, which causes an onlooker with a disposable coffee cup and a dog on a leash to turn to her friend, point and snicker.

Back on Queen East at Logan, the TD Bank has boarded up windows and people can’t access the ATM. Every 30 seconds or so, someone comes up and tries the door of Starbucks, but its locked. “Store closed due to protest,” reads a handmade sign.

11:12 am [Josh]

Officer T. Roberts said the following to the head of the protest group, Moe Luksenberg, who was pulled aside from the small crowd at Jimmy Simpson Park:

“Tell us what you want to do and if its reasonable we’ll do it.

“Its your right in Canada. We just want to make sure you’re safe. Just tell us what you want to do.

“We’ll give you 10 officers and we’ll have two sergeants who you can communicate with.

“Communicate with the sergeants and tell them what you want to do. We’ll go on the South side and go south on Logan. We’ll go down to Eastern and close it off so you can keep walking.

“We’ll find a space in front of the Prisoner Centre and we’ll stay in the background.”

The group of about 50 protesters is now marching West down Queen. About 30 media are leading the procession.

Someone is playing harmonica, but it’s quiet otherwise. People in cars look distressed.

10:45 am [Josh]

There are no megaphones or people holding signs here at Jimmy Simpson park, so its hard to tell what people are protesting, but Kelly Pflegback says the group will March to the detention centre where prisoners have been taken to show their solidarity against police violence. “These people have inflicted property damage, that’s not violence because its not on any living thing,” she says. There are fewer than 100 people in the park. At least a quarter are have video cameras or microphones. About 30 police are waiting across the street outside their minivans.

Strike averted at Via Rail

By macleans.ca - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 12:03 PM - 2 Comments

Unionized employees at Via Rail have agreed to three year contract, averting a possible strike at the rail company. “It is an excellent agreement for our members. We’ve been bargaining since January, but it’s clear we couldn’t do it without the pressure of a deadline,” said Bob Chernecki, assistant to the Canadian Auto Workers president. The union represents 2,200 employees, including on-board attendants, station attendants, and office workers. The union’s strike notice was set to expire Sunday at midnight.

Montreal Gazette

Towards the finish

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 11:39 AM - 13 Comments

Good morning from Toronto, where it’s seemingly impossible to find a Starbucks that is open.

Nearly 500 people were reportedly arrested last night in Toronto and a raid this morning saw several dozen more detained.

The Prime Minister is scheduled for a 5:00pm news conference at the conclusion of today’s meetings. According to the latest reports the G20 may be ready to commit to a timeline for deficit and debt reductions. The New York Times has set up that issue as a debate with Mr. Harper and Mr. Cameron on one side and Mr. Obama on the other.

Harper and the G20 tension between the U.S. and Europe

By John Geddes - Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 11:26 AM - 12 Comments

The notion of Canada occupying a middle ground between the United States and Europe is an old, familiar one, and usually rather flattering for Canadians. We’re supposed to blend European-style openness to government programs and intervention with an American-type instinct for letting free markets stay free.

But this comforting version of the Canadian political identity has seemed outmoded under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which feels so firmly anchored on this side of the Atlantic. Until this G20. Here in Toronto, the idea of a Canadian affinity for Europe has fresh relevance.

The reason, of course, is the debate over how far the G20 should go toward committing its members to targets on deficit and debt reduction. Harper has aligned himself with the Europeans by proposing that the G20 nations pledge to cut their deficits in half by 2013 and start reducing their debt-to-GDP ratios no later than 2016.

Now, his bid for clear benchmarks planted Harper squarely on the side of his fellow conservatives, notably Germany’s austerity-minded Angela Merkel and Britian’s David Cameron, who comes to the summit having just tabled a tax-raising, cost-slashing budget. It puts him at odds with U.S. President Barack Obama, who emphasizes the need to maintain stimulus spending in the face of a still vulnerable world economic recovery.

The Canada-Europe bridge is explicitly recognized in high places. Asked yesterday at a news conference about Harper’s suggested targets, José Manuel Barossa, president of the European Commission, said: “It’s very interesting. Why? Because it shows that this concern with fiscal consolidation is not just the concern of Europe.”

And Barossa predicted Harper’s position would find its way into today’s final G20 communiqué. “We expect the G20 to agree on concrete targets for deficit reduction and the stabilization and reduction of debt,” he said. “We want these targets to be credible and we expect them to be minimum targets.”

By his morning, however, the sense that Harper’s position is bound to carry the day is coming under question. Donald Brean, a finance and economics professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and calls the clash “texbook macroeconomics”—a matter of when to “slow the engines of stimulus.”

But beneath the technical matter of timing a contentious economic policy shift, Brean also sees a dense mesh of history and politics.

Relevant history: “The Germans are paragons fiscal probity because they’ve had two experiences in the last century of two totally destructive periods of punishing hyperinflation.” As for politics, he points to looming mid-term elections in the U.S. Congress, crucial votes this coming fall for which Obama’s Democrats need to keep the economy humming: “The Americans are worried, knowing they can’t raise taxes and they can’t cut spending in a mid-term year.”

If he is positioned between America and Europe, then, Harper is staking out a complex bit of real estate—where the last century’s European history, today’s global macroeconomic conditions, and next fall’s U.S. politics all intersect.

'The Canadian way of life'

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 10:19 PM - 47 Comments

The statement tonight from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Free speech is a principle of our democracy. But the thugs that prompted violence earlier today represent in no way shape or form the Canadian way of life.

Toronto police chief Bill Blair briefed reporters this evening. Steve Paikin and Kady O’Malley are in the middle of the action. The Canadian Press has an overview of the day’s events and a primer on the Black Bloc. Two National Post photographers have apparently been arrested. More from the Globe, Post, Star, Sun, Torontoist and blogTo.

Toronto, tonight

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 10:09 PM - 5 Comments

The city tonight is in a state of stupid chaos.

At the pub over dinner, the TV was switched from the Toronto FC match so everyone could watch a police car burn on Queen Street. A dozen blocks away, around the legislature and the university, a few dozen protesters stood around lipping off at a few hundred, heavily clad police officers. A line of officers stood guard where police headquarters had been attacked. A crowd made its way down Yonge Street chanting and cheering. Some were protesters, a lot were merely curious observers. Some posed for photos beside smashed windows. Starbucks and Tim Horton’s had been attacked, the Perfume Boutique had been spared. A couple homeless guys worked the crowd for change. A TV reporter walked past with a cameraman and private security guard in tow. On the ride back to the hotel, the cab driver pointed out how dark Yorkville was, so many stores having closed preemptively. It’s now pouring rain and helicopters can be heard buzzing overhead.

You can walk a block or two from the action and Toronto is seen carrying on as normal. It’s not quite dangerous, but it’s not quite safe. The crowds are a mix of the indignant, the earnest and the opportunistic. Some obviously carry bad intentions. A lot seem simply bored. When the lights went out in 2003 and order unravelled slightly, Toronto turned into a party. Tonight, again, people are out in the streets, but the mood is simply dumb.

The surreal life

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 6:56 PM - 5 Comments

And while reports of sporadic violence continue to come in, the international media centre is filled with the image of the Prime Minister and Mrs. Harper at the Royal York for an interminable number of grip-and-grins with various visiting dignitaries. Smiles are being forced, small talk is being made, air kisses are being exchanged. Mrs. Harper is wearing a lovely floral-print dress, with matching purse. Mr. Harper is in a black suit, white shirt and red tie. Mrs. Harper has well mastered the right foot forward standing pose and seems to have perfected the photo op dance—she stands with her husband and the other first couple for a few shots, then steps back with the other spouse to allow the leaders a photo together.

Spending and saving: they're different no matter what the G20 says

By John Geddes - Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 6:54 PM - 19 Comments

The most interesting factor in these back-to-back G8 and G20 summits is the widely debated tension between the push from Washington to keep pumping up the world economy with government spending and the pull from European capitals to begin reining in deficits.

This polarization of the economic debate threatens the tenet held most dear by the mandarins who lay the groundwork for summits of this sort: let there be no messy, public disagreements, certainly not on the fundamentals.

And so it’s not surprising that efforts are well underway to manage, massage, and if need be, mangle the summit language to prevent the clear divergence from being evident in the way the G20 leaders talk about their talks here in Toronto.

Continue…

Vic Toews responds

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 6:30 PM - 51 Comments

The office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews sends along the following.

“The Minister is being continuously updated on the destructive and violent activity taking place in downtown Toronto.  These images are truly shocking to Canadians.  Toronto is a world-class city, and the Government of Canada condemns these acts of violence by groups of radical protestors. We commend the outstanding work of the police officers as they continue to maintain order in downtown Toronto.  We are taking all measures necessary to ensure Canadians, delegates, media and international visitors remain safe. The Integrated Security Unit and its partners have a comprehensive security plan that has been developed by Canada’s best security experts in the field.”