Politics in Canada

Hosting the G20 in Toronto was the first of a series of political gambles by the Conservative government. They failed on every level and time will show how much.

A G20 protester arrested last Saturday recounts what happened: Peaceful protest, silent menace from the police, being in a 'trophy photo' with her arresting officer, and the camaraderie in the cells.

Everyday violence at work in the world seems fine with the authorities. If 30 Toronto store windows are smashed during G20 protests they become bigger issues than poverty, war, and corporate abuse.

The lessons to be learned here are numerous but none more so than why politics matters, why we can never rest and think that while some of us have achieved equal rights, the battles are over.

As a Canadian Jew who grew up in Israel, I am stymied. My Israeli friends debate what happens there freely. I say the same in Toronto, and I am not only an anti-Semite, but an enemy of the state.