More than 10,000 people marched against the G8/G20 in Toronto on June 26, 2010.
A Government of Canada statement has confirmed that a Group of 7 (G7) summit will take place in Canada in 2018.
The statement simply notes, “The next G7 Summit will be held in Taormina, Italy, from May 26-27, 2017. Canada will host its sixth G7 Summit in 2018.” There is no indication of what city or part of the country the summit will take place in or the specific date (though G7 summits normally happen in May-June).
That means Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will soon be hosting U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (if she wins the September 24 election), French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May (if she wins the June 8 election), Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. The European Union will also be represented at this summit by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk.
The Council of Canadians and numerous allies mobilized against the last G8 summit in Canada (when Russia still attended these meetings) that took place in Huntsville, Ontario on June 25-26, 2010.
We critiqued that G8 summit and the G20 summit that followed in Toronto (on June 26-27) on the basis that they:
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were presented as promoting austerity (which means social spending cuts and privatization), while costing about $1.24 billion to stage -
noted that climate change would remain ‘top of mind’, but took no action to address this crisis (while worsening it) -
recommitted to the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round (that Maude Barlow has described as “profoundly undemocratic and environmentally devastating”) -
included an announcement by Canada that it would contribute $1.1 billion for maternal health, a commitment less than the price tag for the summits -
pledged $5 billion for maternal health, well short of the $30 billion the United Nations says is necessary to stop preventable deaths -
promote a neo-liberal agenda of free trade, corporate tax cuts, deregulation and privatization that is harmful to the public interest -
resulted in mass arrests and violations of fundamental democratic rights.
For an overview of our interventions at that time — including our ‘Shout Out for Global Justice’ event at Massey Hall that drew 2,700 people — please click here.
The Council of Canadians has called for the exclusive and costly G7 and G20 summits to be scrapped and for national leaders to meet instead in the more democratic forum of the G193, otherwise known as the United Nations General Assembly. We have noted that the $1 billion spent on the two-day G20 summit in Toronto could have been used instead to provide clean drinking water to about 50 million people.