Foreign reporter shut out of G20

Pakistani journalist Syed Asfar Imam has been to the Congo to cover the United Nations mission, to England to interview the late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and to the U.S. for the Kashmir Mission Program.

Last week, Imam, chief international correspondent for Aaj TV news network, got his media accreditation to cover the G20 summit in Toronto. But he won’t be here anytime soon. The Canadian High Commission told him it would take three months to get a visa.

So Imam said he contacted Dimitri Soudas, communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper — and was advised to join him on Twitter to follow news at the summit.

Nicholas Keung Immigration Reporter

Comments

[Ed Wise]

G20 Summit.
I live in Toronto and pay taxes is this city. I believe that the police chief should be fired for the poor job he did. He allowed the criminal aspect to run all over our downtown breaking windows and vandalizing at will, including graffiti and looting. He had the police officers to stop this and yet he decided to let these criminals run all over and scare the living hell out of some of the store owners.
Why were the police not stopping this action. Yes they made many arrests on Sun but it was Sat that we needed the police and they were not there.

It is obviously the fault of the police chief and the buck stops there. He should be fired for his disgraceful ability to lead his force.

[Mofiz Uddin]

The outcome of G-20
The recent meeting of G-8 and G-20 seemed to be a complete failure, as they could not provide any meaningful solution to the current financial crises, or any concrete agreement among these rich countries. The expenses in organizing these meetings were huge; Canada spent billions of dollars on organizing these meetings.
Therefore, it would be better for all of them to do their homework first, and think whether it is necessary to organize these meetings; or is it simply an activity just to waste the public money.

[Mofizuddin]

Honesty is the best policy
Public are still feeling the pain of humiliation, as they have been treated badly, just like a criminal during the G-20 Protest. People have the right to know why they have been treated in a disgraceful way in their own country. So, it would be better for everyone to let the matter settle through public inquiry. If the related departments think that their actions were right, they should have no problem in facing the public inquiry.