WATERLOO, Ontario — In Pittsburgh, Pa., a year ago, the leaders of the world's 20 leading countries declared that the Group of 20 summit would henceforth be the world's premier forum for international economic governance. The group meets again in Seoul on Nov. 11-12.
In between there was a meeting in Canada in June that will be remembered mostly for downtown Toronto being turned into an armed fortress and the largest peacetime arrest of citizens in this country. A thousand Canadians were arrested — some for protesting, others for merely being caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
To add to the general confusion, Canada hosted the G8 summit back to back with the G20. Mercifully, South Korea is not a member of the G8 and can thus concentrate fully on the G20.