Protesters hoping to create a Solidarity Village near the G-8 summit have been shut out of Kananaskis Country.
Indeed, it seems increasingly likely the activists will be forced to pitch their protest tents dozens of kilometres away from the summit site at Kananaskis Village.
Dave Nielsen, director of Kananaskis Country, said Monday the province will not permit thousands of protesters to camp on provincial land in Kananaskis during the summit.
"We don't want to see it in Kananaskis," Nielsen said. "Any protest camp in Kananaskis would have strong concerns associated with it, environmentally and . . . (in terms of) control and orderliness."
If Solidarity Village isn't located near Kananaskis, it would be a major disappointment for many activists across Canada, the United States and Europe who hope to use it as a launching pad to infiltrate the summit site.
Melissa Scaman, a local protest organizer, said activists coming to Alberta for the G-8 summit should be prepared to hold their protests in Calgary.
"Things will be focused on Calgary, it won't be focused on Kananaskis," Scaman said. "You won't get anywhere close to Kananaskis. If you do want to, you're going to be on your own."
Kananaskis Village will be turned into an armed fortress during the June 26-27 summit, with word now coming from Ottawa that as many as 5,000 Canadian Forces soldiers and 1,400 RCMP will take part in security.
Solidarity Village has been billed as a community of resistance to the G-8 that will grow out of the foothills near Kananaskis. The search for a home has been dragging on for months.
With Kananaskis closed to them, local activists would like to create their Solidarity Village on land adjacent to Kananaskis, owned by the Stoney First Nation.
Last week, the activists made a formal request to the Stoney band council to lease land during the summit.
While the proposal is still being considered, the band's lawyer said Monday the request comes late.
"(The activists) did not give us a request on a timely basis," Heather Carnahan said.
"The request came in too late, basically. Normally, it would be impossible to turn a request around in this time frame."
If the Stoneys reject the request, activists will likely have to relocate their Solidarity Village dozens of kilometres away from the G-8 site.
Sarah Kerr, a Calgary protest organizer, said the location of Solidarity Village will be announced in coming days.
She declined to be more specific, saying she didn't want to jeopardize negotiations with the landholder in question.
"We are on the verge of making an announcement," Kerr said. "We don't want to let it out until it's confirmed."
Kerr wouldn't say whether Solidarity Village would be on private or public land.
Officials with the municipal districts of Rockyview, Foothills and Big Horn -- which border Kananaskis -- said Monday they aren't aware of any plans to locate Solidarity Village in their jurisdictions.
With the summit mere weeks away, some backers of Solidarity Village are growing concerned over the inability to nail down a location.
"There is some real problems right now in finding a location," said Jim Selby, a spokesman for the Alberta Federation of Labour, one of the key supporters of Solidarity Village.
"We still actively looking for a site," added Dave Malka, a spokesman for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, another supporter of the protest village.
"Whenever you're organizing anything big, it's always difficult to have everything the way you like to have it done."
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