What's A Billion?
(Saturday, June 12)
Is a billion dollars too much to spend on a two-day summit of G8 and G20 leaders — too much to protect them and us — from the unthinkable?
We will know in two weeks time.
And editorial in the Toronto Sun last Saturday posed just such a question — pointing out that Toronto, in particular, is likely viewed by the world as the perfect setting for such a venue.
It is, after all, likely the most multicultural and ethnically diverse city in the world.
And therein lies the problem.
No one stands out in the crowd.
The Toronto 18 — remember them — plotted to blow up Parliament Hill, bomb the CN Tower and the Toronto Stock Exchange, and cut the head off Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
But up until 2006, and a paid snitch sealed their fate, the Toronto 18 were able to go unnoticed in the sea of diversity that the GTA has become.
The ringleader of that group, by the way, recently pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, meaning the plot was real and not imagined.
So, let's ask the question again: Is a billion dollars too much to spend on a two-day summit of G8 and G20 leaders — too much to protect them and us — from the unthinkable?
We will soon know, won't we?




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