The Stephen Harper Report

On the evenings of June 26 and 27 in and around downtown Toronto during the G20 global summit, thousands of riot police repeatedly assaulted demonstrators, journalists, and Toronto residents in non-riot situations.  Many journalists trying to document police actions were illegally arrested, assaulted, and had their equipment confiscated.  According to several eye-witness reports many journalists were charged and attacked by police.  Of the over 900 people detained and assaulted, twenty have testified in this ground breaking report.   

Among the journalists detained:

We, the Leaders of the Group of Eight, met in Muskoka on June 25-26, 2010.  Our annual summit takes place as the world begins a fragile recovery from the greatest economic crisis in generations. 

Prime Minister Harper and Mr. Gates spoke about the Canadian government's flagship maternal, newborn and child health initiative.

Prime Minister Harper thanked Mr. Gates for his foundation's pledge of $1.5 billion toward improving the health of mothers and children, and thanked the Gates Foundation for its support of Canada's G-8 initiative.

Mr. Gates thanked the Prime Minister for Canada's decision to make maternal, newborn and child health the focus of development discussions at the G-8 Summit and also thanked Canada for making accountability a priority.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today that the Government of Canada has extended invitations to Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, as well as to Colombia, Jamaica and Haiti, to attend a special session at the G-8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario, from June 25-26.

“The G-8 has a long tradition of developing credible solutions to global challenges in partnership with Africa and others in the international community,” said the Prime Minister. "At this year’s Summit, we will be engaging African leaders as well as key hemispheric partners in order to broaden representation and maximize results on international development and peace and security issues."

To ensure an informed global perspective, Canada has also engaged in extensive consultations and outreach efforts in the lead-up to the G-8 and G-20 summits.

The G-8 is a forum for leaders of the world’s most industrialized nations. It is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Union also participates in the G-8 summits.