Given the history of violence that accompanies these summits, most locals, i.e., Torontonians living in the downtown core opted to leave the city or stay in their domiciles.  I preferred to be in the thick of things when such a magnitude of an event is taking place in my neck of the woods.  With my Manila Times ID, I trekked to the (CNE) Canadian National Exhibition grounds, where the journalists were getting accredited with the mindset that if people from far away places like China, India and South Africa are able to travel here to cover the events, why not me who lives right in the heart of Toronto. When I arrived at the CNE, I presented myself as a foreign correspondent for The Manila Times.  I encountered some resistance at first but after explaining in the interview that I had been to the White House and Parliament Hill, Asia Pacific Conference (APEC) to cover big events involving world leaders and that I was a governor council appointee, I was cleared by the CSIS and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). (more…)