G8 / G20 Meetings in Toronto

The somewhat informal, but institutionalized annual meetings of the G-8 have been held in Canada only four times over the last three decades. Starting in the late 1970s, these meeting of heads of government were intended to allow a less formal, personal opportunity for world leaders to think through pressing shared problems. First it was the G-6 until Canada joined, making it the G-7, and with Russia, it became the G-8. With the increasing importance of the developing world, and especially those nations with growing and rapidly industrializing economies, another twelve nations has brought it to a G-20.

This June Canada is hosting both the G-8 and the G-20. 2010 is a critical year for these meetings. In the wake of the failure in Copenhagen, there is a desperate need to make progress on the climate crisis. As climate events exert themselves globally, peoples and nations are already experiencing crop failures, exacerbating a growing food crisis. At the 2005 summit at Gleneagles Scotland, the G-8 committed to alleviate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The due date on those promises is 2010. The financial crisis, that hits the poor the hardest, has shown the urgent need of regulating markets. Measures taken until now, are far from sufficient. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are due for completion in 2015 and are not on target. The increasing numbers of extreme weather events threaten the fragile progress in development. Poverty and climate and food security are inter-related and none of them are receiving adequate attention or resources. Maternal and child health, the host country’s named lead issue, is one of the MDG and like the others, is languishing for lack of resources.

Many commentators have questioned the value of these summits that get a lot of public attention and can only be justified by outcomes that help the international community to advance. The countries participating must focus on results that are acceptable for the international community and that cannot be imposed. Security concerns have increasingly driven them to ever more remote locations. Witness that in 1981, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau welcomed world leaders to Montreal, in 1988 Prime Minister Mulroney hosted sessions in Toronto and in 1995 Prime Minister Chretien held successful meetings in Halifax. But by 2002, the G-8 retreated to less accessible Kananaskis Country in Alberta and this time Prime Minister Harper has chosen similarly remote Huntsville, Ontario. The costs of security really demand that something useful be done.

It is in this climate of scepticism that Canada is hosting this year’s summit and Canada’s government’s parochial approach to issues is causing diplomatic waves. For the first time since the late 1980s, Canada has opted not to hold a pre-meeting of the G-8 Environment Ministers. Climate is on the agenda only in a minor way, and only because the other G-8 leaders insisted. Tragically for the task of developing a global consensus on climate, Canada has decreed that climate change will not be on the G-20 agenda at all. Member countries have begun to ask out loud, “Can the host country really control the agenda to such an unhelpful extent?”

Meanwhile, with shades of George W Bush, the Canadian approach to reproductive health services as an aspect of maternal and child health has created unhealthy divisions among allies. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear, as did the UK, that any package of measures to improve women’s health must include access to a full range of contraception and family planning, including safe and legal abortions. It seems the Canadian government chose this theme with an eye to domestic political advantage, “softening” the Prime Minister’s image and hoping to close the gender gap in his support base.

International meetings of this importance cannot be designed for a narrow domestic political agenda by the host government. Canada is in the big leagues here and has a clear responsibility to the international community. Real issues are pressing and no world leader has time to come to Canada to watch people eat seal meat. This is not the time to play to a local audience. This is the time for all parties of the international community to act responsibly and to focus on the important issues that are on the global agenda. If Canada refuses this responsibility, and instead shuts down discussions on climate and twists the urgent MDGs for a public relations message at home, we fear that Huntsville may well be the last of the G-8 summits, at a time when the world needs more cooperation on critical issues, not less.

Elizabeth May Video from G8/G20 Rally in Victoria

Powerful speech given by Elizabeth May, national leader of the Green Party of Canada, to 500 people at the Green Party's "Countdown to the G8 and G20 - Climate Rally and Info Night" on June 7, 2010 in Victoria, BC. Four days later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper relented and is allowing climate to be discussed on the G8 and G20 agenda in Ontario.