Spice and Chillies

Toronto On Fire

The G8 and G20 summit held in Toronto has gone beyond a peaceful,democratic rally which is common in Canada. Chaos erupts in Toronto as police and activists clash in running street battles during a meeting of the world leaders. The demonstration turned violent burning police cars and breaking windows and damaging various shops and businesses. Riot police arrested more than a hundred G20 protesters as they rampaged through the city’s downtown. It is believed that some protesters specifically targeted the businesses who may have come to Toronto with this sole intention. This act of vandalism is unknown in Canada and has generated a wide range of reaction amongst the people. Many are surprised and shocked at this act of violence and think the police didnt react quickly and do enough to stop the rioters from damaging property in the downtown core. Some think that it has send wrong signal or message to potential business investments in Canada as the world attention is turned to this event which is perhaps secondary only to the world cup soccer being held in South Africa right now. Looking at the history of Canada one does not often see these destructive nature of Canadian people. One wonders what provoked these generally peaceful people to create havoc on the streets of Toronto on the Saturday afternoon of Jun 26th. Perhaps these protesters or the Canadians in general are disillusioned by the government and are not willing to accept the ever increasing tax hike that they are continuously been subjected to. The people of the Province of Ontario and the British Columbia have the Harmonised Sales Tax to tackle from July 1st and many are extremely upset as this will definitely increase the cost of many products. Though the general cost of living increasing but the wages or the salary are remaining the same with many not getting a salary hike due to recession in 2009. Quite a few have lost their jobs and others are struggling to keep them.

Toronto demonstration on G20 Summit

Under these severe financial crisis people are rather stressed and think the G8 and G20summit to be a total waste as they cost billions of dollars. Common people dont understand the revelance of having two summits ie G8 and G20 summit and why these both cannot be converged into one summit or have the summits totally abolished. Policitians and bureaucrats however beg to differ. It seems there has been a change in the attitude of Canadian people . The demure Canadians have suddenly become aggressive and more responsive to the world of politics. Maybe they have taken a lesson ot two from their U.S counterparts who are known for violent political protests and uprisings.I guess the masses had enough and are tired of being exploited with soo many wrong decisions in the name of development like sending troops to Afganistan with no apparent solutions. Is this a start of a revolution which may change the face of Canada and bring a new political era. Will the introduction of H.S.T bring this kind of reaction and protest and unify people minus the violence of course. Some of the protesters arrested had sustained injuries that left them bleeding from the head.

Protesters arrested by police