The largest security no-fly zone in Canadian history will be created over Kananaskis during this month's G-8 summit, the Calgary director of the summit management office said yesterday.
"This is the biggest, the largest no-fly zone that's been in effect in our country," Bev Longstaff told an audience at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Larger no-fly zones exist permanently over areas like Cold Lake's military training area and have been created for emergencies such as 1998's Pincher Creek forest fire, said RCMP Cpl. Jamie Johnston.
But he said the 85-nautical-mile radius from Kananaskis Village is the largest zone for security reasons.
And Longstaff said it's a direct result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"No chance is being taken with the safety and security of all of us, not just the leaders who are gathering," Longstaff said.
"Security of course for these types of events is always pretty intense anyway, but that really changed after September 11.
"There has been a real effort to make sure that this summit is guarded against anyone who has any sort of violent intent."
Large and violent protests at last year's summit in Genoa, Italy resulted in the death of one protester.
But that type of protest isn't expected here this year, Longstaff told the chamber audience.
"The activist community here is large, but the anarchist community is not as large in our area as it is in Europe," she said.
And Longstaff said with a large number of "overflow delegates" such as the African leaders invited to this year's summit, Calgary hotel rooms could be in short supply come G-8 time.
"It's my understanding it will be difficult to find a hotel at that time," she said.
But William Schmidt, president of the Calgary Hotel Association, said there are still rooms to be had outside of downtown.
"Other than the downtown core the majority of hotels have rooms available," Schmidt said.
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