The final two days of the summits were a bit more tense than the first two that I witnessed in Toronto, as the constant barrage of video and commentary on the relatively small number of people ruining legitimate protests can attest to.  There are certainly going to be questions around the actions of certain protesters and those of certain members of the police, but while I think the conversation needs to occur, I'm going to focus for the most part on some things that have been overshadowed.

Saturday morning I attended a press conference hosted by a group called GCAP, or Global Call to Action against Poverty.  GCAP as an organization is dedicated to eliminating poverty in Africa, increasing education, improving the health and well being of Africans, and taking control of their rich natural resources.  It is because of this that they are pushing for Africa as a whole to be represented with a full seat at future G20 summits, arguing that South Africa doesn't represent the continent.  I believe some of their anxiety (justifiably so) is due in large part to the massive amounts of foreign investment being pumped into the continent by major players like China who are hungry for natural resources.  Many Africans feel that they are being cut out of the loop, especially when aid organizations like World Vision have demonstrated that the health and wealth of local communities increases as they learn how to develop their own sustainable industries with the resources available to them. 

In light of the massive bailout of international financial institutions to the tune of trillions of dollars, organizations like GCAP rightly wonder how we could bail out what was essentially a giant ponzi scheme, and not invest a modest $30 billion to continue to build upon the successes made with previous commitments.  Unfortunately for the plethora of NGOs who attended the G8/G20 summits they were sorely disappointed by the $5.5 billion pledged as additional funds.  The global fear of deficits and the possible reenactment of the Greek implosion is weighing heavy on the minds of world leaders and their governments, leading them to balk at further spending on anything, let alone foreign aid.  However, the reality is that it's a political worry about how a significant announcement would affect voter sentiment back in their own countries, and not because they can't afford the investment.

As such, GCAP joined other organizations who were highly critical of the G8 and G20 self assessment mechanism and the rosy image painted by the latest report released by the Canadian government.  I asked Glenn Farred, who was part of the GCAP delegation from Africa, what he thought about the current G8/G20 leadership and the new commitments garnered from leadership talks?  He simply said that he believed that Stephen Harper will go down in history as the man who pushed the G8 into irrelevancy, lamenting the decision to separate aid organizations from the major media and world leaders, as well as the less than stellar commitments for further funding to the global fund. 

Now, I just want to comment briefly on Saturday's "Black Block" shenanigans.  I was relaxing with my friends in their condo when my friend Bill noticed some activity down below on the street and we learned that a group of protesters were heading up Younge street so I grabbed my press badge and my camera and headed outside.  My first attempt to go outside was met with a police officer insisting that I should get back inside while his colleges stretched out across Bay street in full riot gear.  I went back inside for about 20 seconds and decided that I didn't actually have to listen to the officer, so I went back out walking towards Younge.  Along the way I stopped to take a picture of a couple of police officers in full riot gear and gas masks.  I shouted to the closest officer to ask if he was hot with the equipment on (because it seemed to me it would be extremely hot), to which he replied in the affirmative with a vigorous nod of his head.

 

No sooner had I begun to walk away, a plain clothes officer began to walk in stride with me once he noticed my press badge and laughed at my inquiry to the other officer.  He said without prompting that things were pretty crazy outside and that he worked as an intelligence officer.  I didn't get his name, but I did ask him who the people were causing all of the problems considering there had been several protests without incidence.  He said that they had intelligence on most of them, with many coming in from Quebec specifically to cause violence.  He added that they (police) had miscalculated by not moving in when the group of so called anarchists were all marching together, instead waiting too long so that they broke up into small groups police then had to chase all over the city.  We parted company at Younge street, but he wished me luck in getting some photos of the people walking all around us, adding that he wanted to get out of the area because he looked like a government employee.



I took a couple of shots of what appeared to be regular people walking down the street with the odd person holding a sign mixed in between, but it seemed to me that if there actually were protesters heading north, the people I was encountering for the most part just happened to be walking on Younge street.  Suddenly I heard some screams and a rush of people running into Younge street from College and a wave of panic swept up the street with people just trying to get away from the area for the most part.

 

In any event, it was an experience.  Oh, and here's a bonus photo just for fun: