Call it the new, friendly face of protest.
Activists claimed victory on Day 1 of the G-8, despite mustering only scant crowds compared with past summit protests.
The "victory" in this case, however, was the almost total lack of violence, said Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians.
"We put the word out that we didn't want anybody to get hurt, so we didn't push for big numbers," Barlow said at a People's Picnic at Riley Park on Wednesday afternoon.
"I'm not disappointed. I'm actually quite pleased because this is the tone we wanted.
"I would rather have peaceful protests, to show people what we're really about, than have large numbers that might frighten people," Barlow said.
Only 800-odd activists took to the streets of Calgary Wednesday, far fewer than the 200,000 anarchists and radicals who marched at last year's G-8 summit in Genoa.
Critics of the movement will be tempted to call these demonstrations a bust, but Barlow said the smaller crowds and relaxed attitudes of activists are all part of a bigger plan to mould the movement into something more palatable to the mainstream.
Signs this would be a peaceful summit began appearing earlier this week.
On Sunday, 2,500 activists paraded through downtown Calgary in a family march that was praised by both police and bystanders for being peaceful, creative and well-organized.
On Tuesday night, protesters outside the Roundup Centre managed to stop a small group of radicals from trying to tear down a chain-link fence protecting G-8 delegates and journalists at a city-sponsored hootenanny.
And on Wednesday morning, during a downtown "snake march," some activists actually stopped to apologize to motorists for disrupting their morning commute.
G-8 security officials said police and protesters both deserve credit for keeping the demonstrations peaceful.
Calgary police Insp. Al Redford attributed the absence of violence to two things: two-way communication between the protesters and police and the use of police officers on mountain bikes rather than in riot gear.
"We're committed to a balanced, measured and appropriate response to any activity or incident and we will not be provoked into any unnecessary escalation," Redford said.
Barlow said activists everywhere have been forced to re-evaluate their tactics and goals in the wake of two recent, terrible events: the shooting death of a protester at the G-8 summit in Genoa and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
"Post-Genoa, we all realized we had to take the issue (of violence) seriously," Barlow said as she signed autographs for star-struck activists at Riley Park.
When Prime Minister Jean Chretien chose Kananaskis for the summit site, it forced many activists in Eastern Canada and the United States to rethink their protest plans.
Most activists there, believing it too difficult to travel to Calgary, instead chose to have their own protests on Parliament Hill.
An estimated 4,000 protesters took to the streets in Ottawa on Wednesday, and the demonstrations there were also relatively peaceful.
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BACK IN Calgary, several hundred protesters sat on the grass at Riley Park, listening to a set by activist folk singer Bruce Cockburn.
Cockburn won worldwide fame for singing of his yearning for a rocket launcher so he could "make somebody pay."
On this day in the northwest park, however, he sang a different tune, praising G-8 activists for avoiding confrontations with police. "I am very pleased to see there's been peace on all sides," he said.
Cockburn said he hopes the non-violent protests in Calgary will become a "template" for future anti-globalization demonstrations.
"The test (will be) if, at the end of it all, whether our voices have been heard," Cockburn said.
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A GROUP of novice radicals got a first-hand taste of G-8 policing Wednesday afternoon after they were detained and interrogated for possessing a "dangerous weapon."
The "weapon" in question was an '80s-style, studded heavy metal bracelet.
One by one, the five teens, some of them wearing bandanna face masks, were interrogated and frisked by several burly cops outside the Fairmont Palliser hotel. Their backpacks were searched for contraband and the bracelet was confiscated.
"You could use it to smash someone in the face," an officer explained to the shaken teens.
After they were released, Rob Ling, one of the young activists, called the police shakedown an act of oppression.
"They should be praising us for protesting," Ling said. "Most teenagers my age are out getting drunk. At least I'm trying to make a difference."
David Counts, a 70-something lifelong activist from British Columbia, said he has been re-energized by young activists such as Ling.
However, he said he also worries their fervour for change is misplaced.
"It sure is refreshing to see young people who care," Counts said. "But I think they need to be organized into a more active political force.
"I suspect (activists who refuse to take part in the system) are in some sense crying into the whirlwind. They're not being listened to."
Experts on the anti-globalization movement say it's becoming more difficult for even peaceful protesters to be heard.
Marc Doucet, a political scientist at St. Mary's University in Halifax, said civil society seems to be less tolerant of public protest in the wake of the September terrorist attacks.
"Protesters are more and more being painted with the same brush, associating them with violence," Doucet said.
"There is now a real sense that the government has been given a licence to react more forcefully to any forms of dissent."
He said governments should take care not to push peaceful protesters too far.
"There's a risk to closing off dialogue and suppressing legitimate expression," Doucet said. "It can egg on protesters, making them more antagonistic. It creates a much stronger feeling of us versus them."
Barlow agreed wholeheartedly, and has a warning of her own: the security crackdown may keep some protesters from coming to Calgary, but it can't kill their ideas.
"The security has made it very, very difficult to do anything here," she said.
"They've scared the people of Calgary half to death. But I can tell you, the movement hasn't gone away."
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