OTTAWA (CP) - As anti-G-8 protesters roused themselves for another day of demonstrations Thursday, police arrested one man outside an abandoned house a group of demonstrators has seized to back up their demands for more social housing.
The house, in downtown Ottawa, has become a rallying point for protesters who marched peacefully Wednesday in support of an array of social and anti-globalization causes. About 50 protesters stayed in the house Wednesday night. Police kept a careful watch before picking up a man for a probation violation, city police said Thursday morning.
Only one arrest was reported during Wednesday's marches, which saw more than 1,000 demonstrators rally on Parliament Hill and burn the U.S. flag outside the American embassy to protest the Group of Eight summit in Alberta.
Police said they were pleased the first day of the two-day protest stayed low key.
"The vast majority of protesters were in fact peaceful," RCMP Staff Sgt. Marc Richer said.
"They marched around. They chanted their messages out and at the end of the day, yep, we've got a few vehicles damaged and some spray-painting but other than that, no violence. And that's what we were looking for."
No one quite knew what to expect Thursday.
Protesters including a gay coalition and the Bikesheviks, who protest on wheels, said they intended to resume demonstrations through downtown Ottawa past the Department of National Defence and the Israeli embassy.
Some planned to focus on Canada's new immigration law, which the umbrella protest group called Take the Capital says is too restrictive.
How many protesters would turn out was unpredictable.
The previous day, a heavy cloudburst just as demonstrators began a snake march through the downtown dampened enthusiasm for protests against the power of the world's richest countries.
Some dropped out then and there.
Others hurled paint bombs against two downtown bank branches and damaged a few police cruisers - though other protesters booed their actions - before marching onto the front steps of Parliament Hill.
At least half a dozen stripped off their rain-soaked clothes to dance naked under the shadow of the Peace Tower.
Some scrawled Not for Sale on their torsos, others smoked marijuana as a police helicopter clattered overhead.
The RCMP said they hope a new trend in peaceful protests is developing.
"We applaud the vast majority of participants yesterday who chose to demonstrate peacefully," Richer said Thursday.
"We are hopeful this signals a new trend for major demonstrations in our city."
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