G20 summit in Toronto

CityNews reporter Francis D'Souza from Mississauga has won a Gemini Award for his work with cameraman Alfredo Colangelo during the G20 protests in Toronto last summer.

D'Souza accepted the award for best local breaking news coverage last night as the Gemini Awards were presented at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto.

G-20 aftermath: court allows class action lawsuit to proceed

Without any kind of serious, thorough and official reckoning in the wake of the G20 summit in Toronto last summer, we were finally starting to get used to the idea that what Ontario ombudsman André Marin called the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history was going to be brushed off with nothing more than a pat on the head from the feds, a province desperate to pass the buck and an SIU that couldn’t get Toronto police to identify more than a handful of officers. But it looks like we got used to the idea a little too soon. News broke yesterday that a class action lawsuit on behalf of the people rounded up during the G-20 will, in fact, go forward.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants commitments at G20 summit

PARIS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday he wanted to see concrete commitments at a G20 summit in November on a plan to get the world economy back to healthy growth.

“What we want at Cannes is for the G20 to agree on a plan of action for growth, including precise and concrete commitments from the main economies,” Sarkozy said during an opening speech for an annual conference of French ambassadors.

Judge allows one G20 class action lawsuit to seek certification, while staying a second one

A judge has given one G20 class action lawsuit the green light to seek certification, while calling a halt to another.

The $45 million suit launched by office administrator Sherry Good on behalf of people subject to mass arrests during the June 2010 Toronto meeting of world leaders can now ask a judge for certification.

But the $115 million G20 suit launched by activists Miranda McQuade and Mike Barber is stayed, Justice Carolyn Horkins ruled in a judgment released Tuesday in Ontario Superior Court.

European Union to push for financial transaction tax at G20

BRUSSELS: The European Union will push for the adoption of a financial transaction tax at a summit of the world's 20 biggest economies, the G20, in November, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday.

G20 leaders are to meet in the southern French resort of Cannes in early November.

A boots on the ground perspective on the Chile riots

You’ve probably heard that old saying– ‘if you’re not a socialist by the time you’re 20, you have no heart. If you’re still one by the time you’re 30, you have no brain.’

This is true everywhere in the world. Even in capitalist bastions like Hong Kong, there is a misguided minority that believes they should prosper from others’ labor.

OAS wants global recognition for small states at G-20

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Monday August 29, 2011 – Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Albert Ramdin, says the time has come for small states and smaller economies to be officially included in deliberations of the G20 – the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from 20 major economies.

His call followed recent meetings in Trinidad and Tobago with the twin-island republic’s Finance Minister and Chair of the World Bank Small States Forum, Winston Dookeran.

Economic storm casts pall on French president's China visit

On the afternoon of Aug. 25, French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Beijing and met Chinese President Hu Jintao, and they jointly attended the evening reception. The leaders of China and France deeply discussed and communicated with each other regarding such subjects as the current global economic situation, the European debt crisis, the agendas of the G20 summit and China-France relations.

Sarkozy's current visit to China is just a short working visit on his way to visiting France's overseas territory New Caledonia, but it has attracted a lot of attention. The main reason is that the economies of France, the euro zone and the whole world are all in a dire condition.

France Expects Consensus On Financial Transaction Tax At G20

French plans to achieve consensus on the financial transaction tax at the G-20 meeting to be held on November 3 and 4 in Cannes, Finance Minister Francois Baroin said in an interview with newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday.

Obama, Merkel vow action on global economic woes

Aug 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the eurozone crisis and financial-market turbulence on Saturday and vowed action to bolster the global economy, the White House said in a statement.

"The two leaders agreed on the importance of concerted action, including through the G20, to address current economic challenges and to spur growth and job creation in the global economy," the statement said.

Canada’s Macklem Says G-20 Reform Delay Threatens Global Economic Recovery

Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Tiff Macklem said delays by the Group of 20 nations in fixing “imbalances” in trade and fiscal policies threatens to exacerbate recent financial market instability and erase trillions of dollars of demand.

“As the recent extreme market volatility has made all too stark, we hand financial markets the opportunity to speculate against needed adjustments at our collective peril,” Macklem, who helped lead G-20 talks on improving financial rules, said at a banking conference in Mumbai today. “We have fallen short in correcting the imbalances that are plaguing the global economy and fueling financial vulnerabilities.”

Vice premier: China to work with France to secure success of G20 summit

BEIJING, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said here Friday that China is ready to coordinate with France in pushing for the success of the Group of 20 (G20) summit to be held in Cannes in November.

"Securing the stability of the global economy and the financial market is an important prerequisite for the success of the Cannes summit," Wang said.

Hu Jintao meets Sarkozy in Beijing

BEIJING, Aug. 26 (Xinhuanet) --President Hu Jintao has met his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Beijing. Sarkozy is on a five-hour stopover in the Chinese capital, before heading on to New Caledonia, a French South Pacific territory.

Hu Jintao called Sarkozy's visit a symbol of strategic cooperation between the two countries. Hu said strong ties between China and France would drive positive results from November's G-20 summit, and help promote the sound recovery of the global economy.

French, Brazilian Finance Ministers To Discuss G-20 Next Week

By Nathalie Boschat

PARIS (Dow Jones)--French Finance Minister Francois Baroin will travel to Brazil next week to meet his counterpart Guido Mantega to discuss issues related to the next gathering of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging nations, a person familiar with the situation said.

France's Sarkozy says G20 must help global recovery

BEIJING: The Group of 20 leading and emerging nations must play a role in stimulating global economic growth, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in Beijing on Thursday.

"The G20 summit must be conclusive, must be decisive, and must take part in the revival of global growth. It's a major task and China plays an essential role," said Sarkozy, who met Chinese President Hu Jintao on a brief stopover in Beijing before visiting France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

Obama, Sarkozy discuss Libya, economy

US President Barack Obama spoke with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, on Tuesday about the situation in Libya, the global economy and recent developments in financial markets, the White House said.

The Robin Hood tax: a small step for capitalism, a big stride for development

What connects hunger in Africa, people dying for want of medicines or health care and fast-paced global capitalism? A small tax on financial transactions.

A new report about computer-driven high frequency trading (HFT), compiled by supporters of the Robin Hood tax campaign, reveals a niche world of millions of transactions each day. The report highlights how HFT threatens a new financial crisis. Driven by computers and their "algorithmic trading", this activity is divorced from real-world fundamentals and is raising risk in alarming ways. It increases volatility and drives up prices, whether of shares or, increasingly, commodities such as oil or food. The Bank of England has identified high frequency trading as a serious systemic risk.

France's Sarkozy to discuss crisis with China's Hu

By Daniel Flynn and Zhou Xin

(Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy will seek support from Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday for Europe's handling of the euro zone debt crisis, amid signs of growing concern in Beijing.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying warned on Tuesday that the euro zone could collapse if it did not pull together, just a day after China's leading official newspaper likened the bloc's debt crisis to the Black Death pandemic.

Insurers may escape capital surcharges from global regulators

(Reuters) - New rules to ensure no insurance company is too big to fail are set to be drawn up in time for the 2012 meeting of G20 leaders, although unlike banks they may not include capital surcharges, according to industry supervisors.

The proposed new rules, which the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) is helping to draw up for the Financial Stability Board (FSB), are aimed at preventing a repeat of the problems seen at insurer AIG, which required a rescue by the U.S. government during the 2008 financial crisis.

Harper Clashing With Rousseff on Capital Controls May Herald G-20 Discord

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper may clash with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff today as she rejects pressure to scale back capital controls aimed at checking a rally in her country’s currency.

Harper is in Brasilia for talks that will include currency policies, Brazil’s ambassador to Canada, Piragibe Tarrago, said last week. Harper may push Rousseff to rely less on capital restrictions, such as taxes on bond purchases by foreigners, which are undermining prospects for a G-20 agreement on resolving global economic imbalances, said John Kirton, co- director of the University of Toronto’s G20 Research Group.

Credit agencies draft law up for comment

South Africa's Treasury has released for public comment the Credit Ratings Services Bill, which seeks to regulate credit rating agencies according to international best practice, while improving investor protection and the efficiency and transparency of financial markets.

In a statement this week, the Treasury said the Bill seeks to align South Africa's regulation of credit rating agencies with international best standards and practice, including the International Organisation of Securities Commissions Principles, G-20 countries' regulation, and the European Union's equivalency requirement.

Dr Freddy Patel: G20 pathologist suspension extended

The pathologist criticised over post-mortem tests on a man who died at the London G20 protests has had his suspension over another case extended.

In March, Dr Freddy Patel was suspended for four months after being found guilty of serious misconduct.