Re: Who are these hooligans? and Barbarians, June 20.
It deeply upset me to see such harsh language. Both letters were very insulting as I don't consider myself a hooligan or a barbarian.
I would appreciate it if Ottawa citizens would not pass judgment before the G8 events occur. To my knowledge, there has been no statement by either demonstrators or police that there will be violence. Such statements have only been found in exaggerated and sensationalized media coverage.
Assumptions such as demonstrators "do not have families of their own, pay taxes" should also be negated since they are purely speculation and, of course, false.
Speaking from personal experience, police are not the ones whose lives are threatened at demonstrations. It is the police who are heavily armoured and carry a wide arsenal of weapons. Included among these are rubber bullets and tazer stun guns which have harmed people.
The demonstrators who will come for Take the Capital are everyday citizens who feel passionately about issues that now go ignored. And I would consider a government that leaves the homeless to freeze in the streets or international institutions whose structural adjustments have led to the deaths of innumerable people far more barbaric than people risking life and limb on the street to stand up for the basic human dignity, self-determination and freedom of others.
Rhys McGaw,
Stittsville
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