Canadian Crossing

Queen Elizabeth hits Canadian soil in Halifax; Toronto police chief says no apologies for G20 behavior

While the British monarchy hasn't meant a whole lot officially in the United States since the late 18th century, there is a lot of unofficial interest in where Queen Elizabeth goes. And she is making her 22nd trip to Canada, visiting Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The 9-day Canadian visit also takes the royal couple to Manitoba and Ontario. They will celebrate Canada Day on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

The Governor General is technically the representative of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. The Governor General has ceremonial responsibilities, but as we saw a while back, Governor General Michaëlle Jean prorogued Parliament upon request by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Queen Elizabeth has been the queen of England since 1952, where her father, King George VI, passed away.

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While the Toronto Police Service will review "all aspects" of how things went during the G20 summit, Police Chief Bill Blair is offering no apologies for the behavior of the officers over the weekend.

In this interview in the Globe and Mail, Blair offers a striking take on the proceedings despite witnesses and video footage to the contrary. From the Globe and Mail:

"This was not a site where somebody casually walked up to catch a bus," Chief Blair said of the demonstration at Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue, where police in riot gear hemmed in protesters and bystanders until about 9:30 p.m. Sunday. "It was clearly a large and dangerous demonstration. It was clearly a situation that we were asking people to avoid, [where] we were asking people to disperse. They ignored that request."

Here is a more thorough take from the Globe and Mail reporter trapped at Queen Street West and Spadina. This reporter and the people she talked to would strongly disagree with Police Chief Blair.

Hopefully, we can find out more about what happened not just at that intersection, but elsewhere in the city of Toronto.

G20 wrapup: Daily Show take, police storming peaceful protesters

Wrapping up the G20 coverage from Toronto requires a look back to see how others reacted as well. The Daily Show's take agreed with our impressions that deficit-cutting, while noble, seems hasty given the economic situations in the major world powers, especially the United States.

The Daily Show was critical of the protests without spotlighting the innocent victims as this video (below) notes.

This looks bad. Yet how many MSM outlets will talk about this side of the G20 protests?

I also have a more serious take on the G20 summit from my sister political blog, DemocracySoup.

G20 summit Day 3: Missed opportunities to help economically hurting; non-protesters swept up by authorities

Deficit/debts were at the apex of the G20 summit in Toronto. Canadian PM Stephen Harper convinced his fellow world leaders to slash their deficits in half by 2013. The countries have great leeway on how to do this, especially if their economies continue to suffer.

U.S. President Barack Obama weaved that tapestry carefully, knowing full well that the U.S. economy is in much worse shape than Canada's. Obama did commit to cutting the deficit in half by 2013, but did note that "we have to make sure we're not rushing too quickly to the exits and all at the same time ... Our fiscal health tomorrow will rest in no small measure on our ability to create jobs today."

Things the G20 world leaders could do to jumpstart those economies were a missed opportunity for them to help people who just need a chance, in the United States, Canada, and other major countries.

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For those who think Canadians are mild and meek might have their minds changed by what they saw in Toronto over the weekend. The violence, the clashes, the smashed windows. But if you look closely, there was a lot more to what happened in the streets in downtown Toronto.

Close to 900 people were arrested over the weekend, but many of them weren't protesters, and weren't anywhere near the actual G20 summit. This first-hand account from a Globe and Mail journalist shows the police action in a different light.

Lisan Jutras wasn't even working the protests or the G20 summit, but got trapped and penned in around Queen Street West and Spadina. I can personally vouch that this area is nowhere near where the G20 met. The boundaries may have been exaggerated, though regular people would have thought that this area would be safe. They weren't.

The CBC reported that "Freelance journalist Jesse Rosenfeld alleged he was beaten by police Saturday night as he was at a non-violent protest on The Esplanade, a downtown Toronto street."

There were also allegations that undercover police added to the violence.

It should be noted that while it's good to have sufficient people to deal with protesters, the estimated allotment of security personnel is 19,000, which if true, would be nearly 5 times the number at the G20 in Pittsburgh last year. You can have too many people, especially if they are looking for something to do.

The reaction to even legitimate, non-violent protests has been harsh and underreported in the MSM. Toronto, and Canada, deserved better treatment for the press.

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The Toronto Blue Jays ended up losing 2 of 3 games in its "homestand" in Philadelphia. Sunday's game was a humiliating 11-2 defeat. The Blue Jays committed a season-high 4 errors, leading to 6 unearned runs. Perhaps there were too many cheesesteaks and not enough peameal bacon.

Vernon Wells' 2-run homer was Toronto's offense. Admittedly, the Phillies are a powerful enough team, and you had to figure that Halladay would have beaten Toronto anywhere, but this was the game the Blue Jays figured they could have won had the game been played in Toronto.

The Blue Jays continue their road trip, yet will go back to being the road team in a stadium, traveling to Cleveland. The northern Ohio MLB team is having a bad year.

G20 summit Day 2: Canada PM Stephen Harper pushes for misguided deficit and debt cutting

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pushing the G20 to adopt deficit- and debt-cutting targets though governments can do so at their own speed, depending on their economies.

This sounds great, but most of the economies of the G20, especially the United States, is nowhere near in as good a shape as Canada's economy. People are hurting financially and economically — deficit and debt cuts can come later.

Harper also convinced the other countries to go against a proposed bank tax.

While the meetings are just leaders, the large corporations and mainstream mentality are hovering in the room while individuals screwed over in the economy are nowhere to be seen, except for the streets of Toronto.

It's one thing to have nothing go on in these meetings; it would be worse to have something happen that won't help the world's deep issues and problems. But we'll see what happens in the third and final day of the G20 summit in Toronto.

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The Associated Press is reporting that more than 500 demonstrators have been arrested in G20 protests in Canada's largest city.

There are the pictures of the riots, and the media places the emphasis on the riots themselves. Would be nice if they spent more time asking why people are protesting in the first place.

Especially since these protests have a new unique Canadian angle to them, asking people why they would risk arrest and their safety to be in that situation.

There is coverage of the excessive security involved, and we know the security is designed to keep the power leaders away from even the messages of the protesters. it's also bad enough that protesters are being arrested nowhere near the site of the G20.

People protest because they want the leaders to know how they feel. By shutting out even the messages from the leaders, protesters feel like they have to resort to more extreme measures.

If security really wants a reduced level of protests, let the leaders hear what the protesters have to say.

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The Blue Jays got some revenge of Day 2 of their "homestand" in Philadelphia, beating the Phillies 5-1.

Shawn Marcum, the new pitching ace for Toronto, went 6 innings, only giving up a solo HR to Ryan Howard, to get the win. Marcum is now 7-3. Roy Halladay, Toronto's previous ace, beat the Blue Jays on Friday to go 9-6 on the year.

The lumber came out for Toronto as they hit 3 home runs (HR) in the game, the 18th time this year the team has hit at least three HR in a game. John Buck, Aaron Hill, and Alex Gonzalez all went deep for Toronto. The Blue Jays led MLB with 114 HR.

MLB Network was scheduled to carry Saturday's game. Perhaps you saw it on the cable channel, but I sure didn't in Chicago. We got Detroit at Atlanta, which was not exciting. Would have been good to see how the MLB Network handled the G20 reaction.

Though since Comcast owns a minor share of the channel, and MLB Network gravitates to carrying Comcast sports channels, all we would have seen was Philadelphia's coverage. And the Phillies announcers likely weren't going to question a gift horse given to the Phillies of playing three extra "home" games.

G20 summit Day 1: Building conversations?

Day 1 of the G20 summit: a lot going on outside but how much was there inside.

The hope is that conversations started on Friday led to decisions on Saturday and Sunday. After all, even in winter meetings in baseball, few actual trades happen early on.

Whether banks need more capital to protect themselves — this is something where progress should be made today.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is looking for an agreement to help safeguard the fragile global recover. Harper does have a better track record in terms of dealing with the worldwide economy. But even Canadians are suffering from the depressive recession.

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Protesters are a strong part of every G20 type summit, and having that summit on Canadian soil brings Canadians a chance to make their voices heard on issues usually ignored or deflected by the major powers of the world.

Author and Canadian Naomi Klein talked to some of the protesters.

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The Blue Jays might not have beaten their former teammate, Roy Halladay, Friday night even if the game were in the Rogers Centre. But alas, we will never know. Halladay and his new team, the Philadelphia Phillies shut down Toronto 9-0 at a "home" game for the Blue Jays in Philadelphia.

Halladay deserved to face his former team in front of the fans who supported him through thick and thin, but those fans could only watch it on TV.

The Blue Jays have now been shut out 6 times this year, but 4 of those in June.

The second of the 3-game series in this oddity will be shown nationwide in the United States on the MLB Network. Coverage begins at 4 pm Eastern.

G20 preview: Toronto in the worldwide spotlight

If you are looking for your world leader this weekend, and that leader isn't in South Africa watching soccer, chances are he or she is in Toronto for the G20 summit.

The eyes of the political world will be in Canada's largest city this weekend. If you made your travel plans to be in Toronto this weekend and you aren't there for the G20, hope you aren't spending time downtown.

There will be protesters, and lots of sightings. Though there will be no Blue Jays, forced to play a "home" series on the road in Philadelphia as a result of the G20 summit.

The economy in the United States and other struggling economies will be on the docket. The problems with Greece also will be up for discussion.

Employment around the world is a serious issue, and while these summits don't always do a whole lot, hopefully this time will be an exception.

We will have more extensive coverage over the next few days, not just how the summit goes but also how the summit affects Ontario's capital.

The G20 is in a stretch of meeting twice a year. Washington, London, and Pittsburgh have hosted summits. Seoul will host the second summit in 2010. In 2011, France will be the only host that year, the city to be determined.

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The anticipated return of Roy Halladay that would have happened on Toronto soil will instead be Friday night in Philadelphia, Halladay's current home park.

Baseball, in its lack of wisdom, justifies this monstrosity by pointing out that Toronto will be the home team, will bat last, and utilize the DH. But it will feel every bit the home game that it is for Philadelphia. And Toronto will be the only MLB team (at this point) to have 78 games in its home stadium versus 81 for the rest of baseball, except for Philadelphia's 84.

Canadian food event was a success

Okay, the headline is a bit biased. I thought the event on Saturday went quite well. For those who didn't remember or are brand new to the Web site, I moderated a panel on Canadian food and culture at Kendall College in Chicago.

We had a great panel, experts in their own realm and connection to Canada, food, and history. And the audience was very eager to share their own history.

We talked about the different Thanksgiving celebrations, differences in junk food, poutine in Canada and around the world, the impact on the native people in Canadian cuisine, why there are no Canadian restaurants, how Quebec approaches food versus the dominant English-speaking provinces, Americans crossing the border into Canada and their reactions, the impact of seafood on the West Coast and Vancouver Island and the Maritimes on the East Coast.

The impact of how Canada was settled and the wild animals and plants conducive to Canada — how they impact Canadian cuisine was also discussed.

There were other vital discussions, such as why Canadians put ketchup and sometimes cut up hot dogs in their Kraft Dinner, why Smarties look more like M&Ms in Canada yet Smarties in the U.S. is a different candy altogether.

As soon as the podcast comes online, I promise to share it with readers of BalanceofFood.com as well as CanadianCrossing.com.

Earthquake hits near Ottawa, affects Ontario and Quebec

UPDATE: There wasn't any significant damage — great news. One funny aside came from Stephen Colbert: "A 5.5 magnitude earthquake hits Canada. Even their earthquakes are bland."

An 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Eastern Canada this afternoon. The epicenter of the quake was in the province of Quebec, 36 miles north of Ottawa, and struck at 1:41 pm EDT.

There were earthquake reports stretching as far south as Windsor, ON, on the U.S. border with Detroit and as far east as Montréal.

There don't appear to be significant injuries so far, so that is hopefully a good sign. If there is more on this story, we will bring it to you on CanadianCrossing.com.

Health Canada decides not to fortify junk food

The idea that Health Canada would be tempted to fortify junk food seems depressing. The good news, for now, is that they shelved the idea.

Canada has always fought for more in truth advertising and food presentation. Fortifying junk food takes away from Canada's legacy, and would American-ize the process at a crucial time in knowing what we know about food.

I wrote about this in a more lengthy take for my sister blog, BalanceofFood.com.

Canadian food informative session coming on Saturday

This blog isn't normally of a self-serving nature, and while today's entry might seem that way, there will be information — and snacks — at the following event.

I will be hosting an event on Canadian food (yes, there really are such things as Canadian food items) in Chicago on Saturday morning. This will be about so much more than poutine. All the details can be found here.

There will be a panel discussion, so it won't be just about me. And I will summarize the session for those who can't make it, or the mass amounts of people that can't get to Chicago on a moment's notice.

I do have a food connection through my sister blog, BalanceofFood.com.