|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
G8 in Canada Has Ottawa Spending; Raises Environmental and Security Concerns |
Current rating: 0 |
by Robert Kendall
Email: aword (nospam) somethingorother.com (unverified!)
Address: Bloomington, IN |
27 Dec 2001
|
|
The G8 summit will be environmentally impacting. The Canadian government has written Calgary and Alberta a blank check for security costs. |
Canada's federal government has alloted $34.3 million for the purposes of building security for the G8 summit it is scheduled to host in June of 2002, according to CBC News, Cananda. The government has written Alberta and Calgary an open check for any additional security costs. On July 22, 2001, Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced his decision to hold the 2002 meeting in the Kananaskis region of the Canadian Rockies, hoping that demonstrators will hold their rallies 50 miles away, in Calgary. (http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/11/21/g8-security011121)
While concerns about Septemeber 11 played some roll in the decision, the Canandian government's generosity is largely due to the continuing global resistance to organizations like the G8 and similar meetings. The 2001 summit in Italy brought massive demonstrations to Genoa. One protestor was killed in what Italian police termed a self defense shooting.
Though they have no formal legal powers, and no set of rules governing their operation, the G8 is without a doubt the most influencial orgnization working for globalization. The decisions made at the celebrative and secretive meetings guide the direction of other organizatons such as the WTO, NAFTA, IMF/World Bank and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The G8 is a coalition of the world's wealthiest seven industrialized nations, and Russia.
The G8 began as the "Library Group" in April of 1973 when the finance ministers of West Germany, the United Kingdom, the US and France met in the White House library. After a few years of regular meetings the group became the G6 in 1976 after including Japan and Italy. Canada's addition to the group establishing the G7. Russia was included to make the group the G8 after the fall of the Soviet Union, but G7 meetings are still held regularly, without Russia in attendance. The group has recieved much criticism for their empty promisies made to developing nations cocerning environmental and human rights issues. (http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol5/v5n23g8g7-body.html)
Environmental activists have raised questions about the impact of the military, RCMP, and protestors on the Kananaskis Country's fragile ecology. In addtion to the threat of their very presence, the meeting's organizers, led by Ambassador Robert Fowler, have deemed it inevitable that 40 kilometers of fibre optic cable be intalled along the TransCanada Highway and Highway 40 to the site of the summit. The installation of the cable will bring heavy machinery as well as unavoidable soil disruption to the protected wilderness area. (http://www.g8.gc.ca/enviro-screen-e.asp )
Alberta and Calgary activist groups have already begun meetings at the University of Alberta. Before diciding on the best approach for demonstrations to take, discussions on the issues of Kananaskis's sensitivity as well as the impact of Canada's new anti-terrorist laws are taking place. One thing is for sure, despite the occurences of September 11, the activists plan to respond to the G8 summit with the same resounding resistance that has surounded global organization meetings since the WTO in Seattle in 1999. (http://g8.activist.ca/calltoaction/calgary.html) |
