Hopefully this will be the last of the news articles on this subject :
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Holding G20 summit Toronto was a 'mistake': Poll
On the heels of a costly G20 summit that saw violent clashes between protesters and police, an Ipsos Reid poll says more than two-thirds of Toronto-area residents believe it was a mistake to hold the summit in their city.
Sixty-two per cent of Canadians also agreed it was a mistake, according to the poll — conducted for Global News and CFRB Radio.
However, 44 per cent of Canadians and 39 per cent of Toronto-area residents agreed that "despite the inconvenience and problems, the G20 summit was worth having in Toronto given the actual results reached by leaders."
Federal officials have faced harsh criticism, both before and after the G20 summit, over concerns the meeting was an expensive, unnecessary disruption in the heart of Canada's largest city.
Restaurants have claimed losses in revenue and some social justice groups have called for a public inquiry into police conduct during the summit.
Amid protests that saw police cars burned, windows smashed and police clash violently with protesters, there were over 1,000 arrests — many of which critics claim were unjustified.
Representatives from the Council of Canadians, Toronto Street Medics and a group of university professors, among others, continued to allege Monday that people were detained without reasonable and probable grounds, sexually harassed, denied access to counsel and left in handcuffs for extended periods of time while detained.
Nearly 1,100 people were arrested, with 714 charged with breach of peace before eventually being released.
Ryan White, a lawyer with a group called the Movement Defence Committee, said about 16 people are still in custody facing charges.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has so far refused to call for a public inquiry.
Despite this, the Ipsos poll indicates many in Toronto had no problem with the police conduct.
Eighty-one per cent of Toronto-area residents and 76 per cent of Canadians overall said they believed the police did a good job during the summit, "all things considered," the poll reported.
Seventy-four per cent of Toronto-area residents and 71 per cent of Canadians said they agreed that the police "properly balanced appropriate force and restraint given the circumstances . . ."
Seventy-one per cent of Canadians said they agreed that police were prepared to handle "violent hooligans" in Toronto, while 29 per cent of Canadians disagreed.
The majority of Canadians and Toronto-area residents said they agreed that the police found a good balance between protecting the summit leaders and allowing people to voice their views on the street.
A minority — 34 per cent of Canadians and 29 per cent of Toronto-area residents — disagreed.
The poll was conducted between June 30 and July 5, 2010 and a sample of 1,859 Canadian adults, 683 from the Greater Toronto Area, were interviewed online.
The poll has an estimated margin of error of 2.3 percentage points, plus or minus, 19 times out of 10.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/Holding+summit+Toronto+mistake+Poll/3238763/story.html#ixzz0sr2CGoyO
(Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act)
