About 3,000 march in Calgary in first anti-G8 march of Kananaskis summit
CALGARY (CP) — About 3,000 protesters marched through the city’s downtown Sunday in the first of what protesters hope will be many anti-G-8 rallies to coincide with this week’s summit of world leaders.
People in wheelchairs, parents pushing strollers, and a woman dressed in poppies and grapes were among those who marched, chanted and blew whistles in the afternoon heat in the labour-sponsored rally.
They carried a Canadian flag and banners reading: Cancel Africa’s Debt, End Corporate Greed and Don’t Trade My Rights.
The Calgary District Labour Council billed the event as a “family friendly” march and urged demonstrators not to break the law.
Mounties, Calgary police and police from Waterloo, Ont., were out in full force, monitoring on bikes and blocking off roads to allow the parade to proceed. The drone of the Calgary police helicopter overhead became the white noise background to the event.
Protesters have been using the Internet to rally support for anti-G-8 demonstrations in Calgary and across Canada.
Plans are underway for demonstrations in Edmonton, Toronto, Victoria and a large Take the Capital protest this week on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
In Calgary, activists are urging colleagues to jam city roads and march in G-8 events during the meeting of world leaders on Wednesday and Thursday.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien is hosting leaders from Japan, Italy, Germany, Britain, the United States, France and Russia at the Kananaskis mountain retreat, 100 kilometres west of Calgary.
Protesters had tried for months to arrange an eight-day, Woodstock-type protest festival, featuring music and civil disobedience seminars, but failed to get land near Kananaskis. They were denied a permit to rally at a park in Calgary.
Protests that spill over into violence have become a fixture at international events such as the Group of Eight meetings.
Activists see the summits as the best time to send out their message that global trade policies perpetuate human rights violations, hurt poorer nations and damage the environment.
At the G-7 finance ministers meeting earlier this month in Halifax, 31 protesters were arrested after police turned the tear gas on activists who charged a security fence.
The last G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, saw hundreds injured, one demonstrator killed and cars and homes burned in running street battles between protesters and police.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.