Wednesday, November 29, 2023
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Guest
Alphonse MacNeil
Two months from now, some of the world's most powerful leaders will descend on downtown Toronto for the G-20 summit. And along with those leaders - a small army.
Yep, security is expected to be HUGE.
Over the years, protests at these events have been big, angry and sometimes violent. Remember the APEC Summit in Vancouver in 1997? Police famously pepper sprayed protesters, and Jean Chretien famously said: "For me, I put pepper on my steak."
Two years later: The Battle in Seattle. Forty thousand anti-globalization protesters took to the street at the World Trade Organization Summit. And police fought back. Then, in 2001, The Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Authorities built a three meter high concrete and wire fence, but it didn't stop the violence. Twenty thousand protesters showed up, police used tear gas and rubber bullets.
That same year, at a G8 meeting in Genoa, a protester was shot dead in a clash with police. So, officials in Toronto are preparing for the worst come June. Reports say as many as ten thousand cops and a thousand private security guards will be on duty - nearly double the security force at this year's Winter Olympics.
To discuss the security for the upcoming summit, Alphonse MacNeil, RCMP Chief Superintendent and head of security for the G8/G20 in Canada visited the show.
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