Over the Edge + December 15, 2010

news 5

Summer Security Measures Violate Canadian Civil Rights
Report criticizes the heightened police powers during the summer's G20 summit

HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR

Last summer, Ontario hosted the G8 and
G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto.
After a report was released in the beginning
of December, controversy regarding the
conduct of these summits is now arising.
The G8 and G20 summits provide a forum
for heads of state and world economic
leaders to discuss globally prevalent issues.
Because of the size, importance, and
political nature of these summits providing
security is a big issue for the host country.
The federal security costs were $675-million
alone.”

However, an Ontario ombudsman- a
government appointee who investigates
complaints by private persons against the
government- Andre Marin, released a report
detailing breaches of civil liberties that
occurred during the G20 summit in Toronto.
Andre Marin claims that security decisions
at the summit lead to “the most massive
compromise of civil liberties in Canadian
history.”

Marin is referring to Ontario passing a law
giving police heightened powers during the
summit in Toronto. More than 1,000 arrests
were made during the summit but Marin
claims that hundreds more people were
detained without just cause. They did so by
passing an update to a 1939 Public Works
Protection Act, which was originally passed
to protect public buildings after Britain and
Canada declared war on Germany in World
War Il.

The report also questions federal
accountability in the security decisions
which took place during the summit, as the
RCMP ted the integrated security unit during
the summit. However, the Federal Public
Safety Minister, Vic Toews, claims that
giving the police heightened powers was

a provincial matter. Passing the buck and
finger pointing will most likely continue to
occur until a full public inquiry is conducted
on the questionable behaviour, which all of
the opposition parties have called for.

This summit has also previously garnered

a fair bit of criticism for the building of

a giant fake indoor lake. A $1.9-million

fake indoor lake was built this summer to
showcase Ontario’s cottage country to the
amalgamation of journalists covering the
summit. The artificial indoor pool built to
simulate Ontario’s beautiful Muskoka lake
region was located in the summits media
centre in Toronto. The media centre also
included a reception area with refreshments
from all parts of Ontario. Information

has yet to be released regarding the
effectiveness of the fake lake on increasing
tourism to Ontario's actual, real, live cottage
country.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff had
criticized the purposed fake lake last
summer, asking how Harper was supposed
to host a global economic forum in these
challenging economic times amid the
governments “astonishing” waste of tax-
payers money. If anything, the fake lake,
which was immediately dismantled after the
summit, provided rich content for Canada’s
many political comedians.

However, the issue of a breach. of
Canadians civil rights is a far more serious
matter. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
did admit that they did not take enough time
to reflect on the consequences of the new
regulation and that the Ontario. provincial
government looks forward to “making the
necessary changes at the earliest possible
opportunity”. Hindsight is always 20/20,

Cholera for Christmas in Haiti
The cholera epidemic worsens heading into December

HANNA PETERSEN
NEWS EDITOR

The CDC is reporting that the Cholera
outbreak in Haiti is currently spreading to
every part of the country. Cholera in the
country has sickened more than 91,000
people and has killed more than 2,000
people. Containing the spread of the
disease continues to be extremely difficult
in the country due to the lack of accessibility
to adequate medical services among other
factors.

Reports of cholera are now surfacing in
larger cities of the neighbouring country,
The Dominican Republic. However,
healthcare officials do not assume that the
outbreak will be as severe in the Dominican
as the country has much better access to
clean drinking water and medical services.
Choiera in Haiti has now spread to all 10
regions of the country.

In some cases, patients can die as soon as
2 hours after first falling ill, according the
CDC. This is because patients can lose as
much as one litre of fluid an hour. Cholera
is caused by a bacteria, Vibiro Cholerae,
which causes an infection of the intestine
and produces a toxin that triggers watery
diarrhea and can spread quite rapidly
where people drink tainted water. Before
symptoms become apparent, the infectious
bacteria can be present in feces for up to
two weeks.

Deaths are also occurring quite rapidly
because many patients do not have
access fo medicines which would be able

to rehydrate them quickly. Furthermore,
immunity to the disease is almost
nonexistent as the last cholera outbreak
in Haiti occurred over a century ago. This
gap between appearances of the disease
has left people unable to build any sort
of immunities to fight the bacteria in their
systems.

The cholera outbreak is turning out to be
the worst cholera epidemic in the Western
Hemisphere in years. The last severe
cholera outbreak began in 1991 in Peru.
The death rate for the first year of the
outbreak in Peru was lower than the death
rate for the first six weeks in Haiti.

Speculation for the origin of the outbreak

in Haiti has some experts blaming the UN.
Epidemiologist, Renaud Pirraoux of the
French Government, found the cholera
originated in a tributary of the Artibonite
river, next to a UN base outside the town

of Miribalais.. His report calls for further
investigation of the outbreak, improving
sanitation procedures for UN peacekeeping
troups, and better support for Haitian health
workers. UN officials are quick to point out
that there is still no conclusive evidence that
the base was the source of the outbreak.

The UN has also stated that the death toll
from the epidemic may be up to twice the
Official count, and that 650,000 people in
Haiti could contract cholera over the next six
months.

ONLINE SOURCE

~ G20 Protesters clash with police

ONLINE SOURCE

Cholera is ravaging families in Haiti