Anti-globalization activists will use roadblocks and other tactics to disrupt summit events and paralyse downtown Calgary during the G-8, the Herald has learned.
Activists also intend to prompt a "Showdown at the Hoedown" by holding a mass protest at a city-sponsored gala party for summit delegates and visiting journalists.
Members of the Anti-Capitalist Collective, which is organizing the hoedown showdown, could not be reached for comment.
Mayor Dave Bronconnier said Calgarians will not be frightened by protesters who intend to cause chaos to reap publicity for their anti-G-8 views.
"Calgarians are not going to be intimidated by a group of people who think they are going to . . . blockade roads and not allow people to get to work," Bronconnier said. "Those who wish to disrupt (the city) do so at their peril."
Anti-globalization activists are preparing final details of their dissent against the G-8 summit in Kananaskis. With the summit just over a week away, major protests are planned for both Calgary and Ottawa.
On the Internet -- the activists' main communication and organizing tool -- anti-G-8 Web sites are urging protesters to join a "march to blockade downtown Calgary" on June 26, the opening day of the summit. Activists will launch marches from three Calgary locations: Shaw Millennium Park, Fort Calgary and Eau Claire.
The G-8 Activism Web site says, "Moving blockades (otherwise known as snake marches) will be used to disrupt business in the downtown core," and adds that "a diversity of tactics will be respected."
Security officials interpret "diversity of tactics" to mean civil disobedience and protest-related property damage.
On June 25, the day before the summit, activists will march from Memorial Park in downtown Calgary to the Roundup Centre to protest the city's gala delegate party.
The protest is meant to "expose the other side of Calgary and Alberta's glowing image," highlighting such alleged problems as:
Grant Neufeld, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Knitting Circle protest group in Calgary, said activists taking to the streets during G-8 are facing an overwhelming amount of oppression and discrimination from authorities.
He accused Bronconnier of "arrogance" and said the mayor is suffering from "a lack of information on what democracy is all about."
Neufeld said activists are being attacked for daring to speak out against the forces of corporate globalization.
"We are working very hard against a world where things are not done properly," Neufeld said. "You're free to do what you want, as long as you do what the corporations want you to do.
"If you're in opposition or you even question that, you're an enemy of the state."
Activists have published detailed maps of downtown Calgary on the Internet to help protesters target corporate head offices, G-8 member consulates and other "institutions and companies that profit off exploitation and oppression."
Calgary police Insp. Al Redford, a G-8 security spokesman, said peaceful protests are welcome during the summit. He said police will be prepared to deal with demonstrations that get out of hand.
"None of this surprises us. We have no angst about these things," Redford said. "We, as police, will deal with each incident based on its merits."
Security troops at the G-7 foreign ministers meetings in Halifax last weekend used tear gas and stun guns to quell crowds of anti-globalization protesters. Last year's G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, featured running battles between police and activists, culminating in the shooting death of a young protester.
Police are setting up an information line, at 268-G8G8 (4848), to advise citizens about road blockades and other protest-related disruptions.
Redford said there is no need for Calgarians to panic over planned G-8 protests.
"I don't think anybody should be unduly concerned," Redford said. "It's just normal, in the lead up to an event like this, to hear these kinds of things."
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