Being an inhabitant of Canada’s largest city, crowds, traffic jams, and even protests come as no surprise to this long-time Toronto resident. Nevertheless, as the G20 summit rolls into the downtown core this weekend, the word “crowded” becomes an understatement as thousands infiltrate the streets, including protesters and more than ten thousand police officers patrolling to protect the leaders of the world’s top twenty capitalist nations. It shouldn’t be a great shock to anyone that this June’s summit has been optimistically branded with the title “Recovery and New Beginnings”, as recovering from the recent recession will undoubtedly be the number one topic on the agenda. However, as the world’s economies have desperately struggled to regroup and reform following the financial meltdown of 2008, increasing numbers of individuals who have been hung out to dry by their respective governments have begun to question whether they truly will see a new beginning, and whether capitalism will be the system to bring it about for them.
