In Toronto, when the leaders of the world arrive for the G20 summit next week, Canada will be spending an estimated million dollars a minute on security. Police officers from around the country will be called in from their regular duties to patrol in and around the fenced-in no-go zone.
The aim is to prevent trouble, but if it arises, our security forces and legal system should be well-equipped to handle it.
We’ve even doubled our national prison budget to make sure nobody gets any extra credit for time spent waiting for the courts to handle their case. Call it a legacy benefit of the G20 summit.
In South Africa, FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, has arranged for 56 courts running 15 hours a day, with 260 prosecutors assigned to push World Cup cases through in shifts.
Everything from scalping tickets, to whacking tourists on the head for the contents of their pockets, to wearing the wrong beer logo over your breast while you jump around in a miniskirt in the stands for the cameras — all will quickly see justice in South Africa. In the World Cup’s opening week, three journalists were robbed at knife point; the next day their robbers were arrested. A day after that, they were in court. Today the robbers are serving 15-year sentences.
In one case, proceedings against a 50-year-old man accused of robbing a Mexican tourist were postponed in the World Cup Court in Cape Town because the victim had gone to Polokwane to watch a rugby match. In Canada, our judges need to speak two languages; in Cape Town, they need to understand allegiance to multiple sports.
South African officials were determined not to have crime disrupt the World Cup. They put out the word that visitors would not encounter lawlessness — and they backed up that promise by installing courts in the nine cities hosting World Cup games.
Our Prime Minister is determined that neither rowdy protesters, nor terrorists, nor hawkers selling black velvet paintings from their vans will sully the experience of world leaders contemplating how they’ll fix their expressions during the final photo session.
The point here is not to propose that hosting a summit of leaders of the world’s top 20 economies is comparable to running the World Cup. It isn’t. Not even close. People will actually remember the World Cup.
And Stephen Harper — all of us, really — want to keep it that way. Canada’s G20 will be memorable only if something bad happens.
Whether it’s worth spending a million dollars for every minute the guests are locked up behind the three-meter fence is a topic for free debate. But the shame Canada would feel if terrorists slipped through to harm any G20 guests would be far more substantive than the soft goals that slipped through both the British and the Spanish goaltenders in their opening round games.
Getting swift justice in South Africa is estimated to cost about $6 million over a month or so.
The attempt at preventing the need for swift justice in Canada for the few days of the G20 will cost over a billion.
We already know the World Cup is a success. It always is.
Let’s just hope that a billion dollars will ensure that nobody remembers who said what, at the G20.
Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.