I tend to be cynical about these kinds of things, even though I'd prefer not to be. The entire week seems almost to have been choreographed, as if everyone knows their stage directions and acts accordingly.
If you put up barriers, you know you will get nutcases trying to bust them down. My guess is that this is counted on, by all sides. It's a necessary part of the show. At some level, it's useful to get footage of people breaking windows, because it makes it look like the money spent on security was justified. Also, by comparison with the violent louts, politicians end up looking good, not always an easy thing to achieve. All the politicians involved are members of their countries governing parties, so parading around while being protected by mean looking police probably makes them feel important. Can't help feeling it's part of a re-election marketing campaign. I am pretty sure than any agreements of substance and resulting documents were arrived at and signed months ago. The weekend event itself cannot really be a "working" weekend, in the sense that I understand work.
Then there are media semi-professional rioters whose only purpose is to taunt police in the hopes of generating a backlash while cameras are running. There are plenty of agendas to go round. It's difficult to trust anyone's motivations.
At the G7 (I think) meeting in Montebello Quebec several years ago, it was revealed that undercover masked police tried to cause a riot but that the demonstrators objected and tried to calm the provocateurs down. Sounds like a Hollywood script except it was caught on YouTube and later discovered to be true, a truly amateurish and dumb police stunt, whose purpose is beyond me.
Then, in the middle of all that, are truly dangerous wackos with guns and bombs. Them, we should arrest and lock up for a long time.
I read a good suggestion elsewhere that if they really wanted a secure meeting location, why not use a military base, or a prison.
The Canadian government spent $1 billion dollars on this show, a large figure. But now people are talking about something else entirely, a nice distraction isn't it? Whenever I read about some crisis du jour in the media, I always wonder what else is going on today that they don't want me to know about. In an e-mail I sent to a friend about this, I said that I hated being so cynical. She replied that it's not possible to be cynical enough.