MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release
June 28, 2010

Council of Canadians Condemns G8, G20 Agenda

Toronto - The Council of Canadians is outraged by the decisions made by the G8 and G20 summits this past weekend, and says their priorities are misplaced and harmful for people and the planet.

"It is unconscionable that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would pledge less for maternal health and infant mortality for the next five years than what he spent on 16-hours of summitry with pre-drafted final communiqués," says Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow. "It is a further outrage that the G8 countries together pledged less than one-fifth of what the United Nations says is necessary to stop the preventable deaths of women and their children under the age of five around the world."

The Council of Canadians is also concerned that the G20 countries agreed to cut their deficits by 50 percent by 2013. "This kind of deep cutting will provide cover for the sell-off of public assets and the further diminishment of needed social services and social supports," says Brent Patterson, the director of campaigns and communications. "The billion dollar austerity summits have put structural readjustment at the top of their agenda."

"This agenda of privatization and social spending cutbacks is what feeds the rage we saw on the streets Saturday afternoon," adds Barlow. "We cannot be surprised by fury when people are excluded and discarded by a toxic economy and politicians who lack not only common sense, but compassion. We do not condone the smashing of windows, but a billion dollars of security will never stop this, only a just, fair and inclusive economy can do that."

The Council of Canadians participated in the People First march of more than 25,000 people on Saturday, June 26. The organization shares the concerns expressed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association about the sheer number of arrests - more than 900 - and the jail conditions experienced by those detained. We also join with Amnesty International in calling for a public inquiry into the appropriateness of police actions both prior to and during the summits.

We maintain that the G8 and G20 summits should have been scrapped and that the key issues of trade, climate and water justice should be addressed by the G192, the United Nations.

"Decisions that impact the world should not be made by small, self-selected groups of eight or twenty," says Patterson. "It appears that France may combine the summits next year, and the United States may finally do away with the G8 in 2012. But these discussions need to move to the G192 right away. Climate change, the lack of access to clean water around the world, and an unsustainable and destructive model of global trade demands immediate action, not more dithering by these small groups."

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For more information:

Mark Calzavara, Regional Organizer, 416-319-6524, mcalzavara@canadians.org Dylan Penner, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org