The first major protest of the G-8 summit passed peacefully yesterday as nearly 3,000 people marched through heavily patrolled downtown streets.
But the anti-G-8 venom flew hot and heavy with some protesters accusing the world's most powerful leaders of economic genocide in places like Africa.
"They want to make profits from people suffering from HIV and AIDS," Davie Malungisa, an activist from Zimbabwe, shouted to a receptive, colourful crowd in Olympic Plaza where the 80-minute march concluded. "We demand from the gang of eight what they looted from (Africa)."
Police and neutral human rights observers reported no problems as the noisy, chanting throng championing causes ranging from global warming to the Iraq embargo made its way slowly down Riverfront Ave. and then Macleod Tr.
The police cordon thickened around the Harry Hays federal building and in front of the entrance to the U.S. consulate on Macleod Tr.
Inside a clamped-down Municipal Building, a platoon of helmeted and shielded riot police waited for any signs of trouble.
Greenpeace spokesman Jamey Heath said the large police presence was more than was needed.
"What we see is an overreaction -- again," Heath said.
He called the high-profile police presence "justification for the unprecedented clampdown on the ability of people to disagree with them."
But, said Heath, the show of force didn't dissuade protesters.
"Clearly they have not stopped people coming out to disagree with them," he said.
Gordon Christie, of the Calgary and District Labour Council and a march organizer, suggested claims violence could break out is simply "fear-mongering" by the authorities.
"I see it as an intentional attempt ... to try to dissuade people from coming to our city," Christie said. "That's absolutely wrong, we have a long history of welcoming people ... in a friendly way."
Some protesters said the route on the fringes of the downtown core was designed to marginalize the march.
"It's completely skirting the corporate towers," said Paul Armstrong, clad in a "Canadian Oil Out of Sudan" T-shirt. "It keeps us out of the public eye."
Only a skeletal audience paused to view the march, with most hailing the demonstration as an exercise in democracy.
From the deck of his Eau Claire townhouse, Rod Conklin watched the parade start.
"I think it's a hoot," said Conklin, who wasn't bothered by the throng marching past his home.
"There's more media, police and (official) observers than there are protesters," he suggested.
But others, such as one man held up in traffic by the parade at 5 Ave. and Macleod Tr., lashed out at the marchers.
"I'm not impressed ... if they've got something to say, why don't they write a letter to the government," said Dan Tremblay.
"These people don't have anything better to do, so they disrupt other people's lives."
AWARENESS GROWING
But marcher Randy Klippenstein said the protest movement is making a positive difference, and scolded conservative Calgarians' reluctance to get behind it.
"There's an international awareness growing, and if Calgary doesn't want to believe it, they can stay in their shell," said Klippenstein.
Social studies teacher Alex Turner said he took part in the protest because it represents democracy at work.
"I thought: 'How can I teach these kids to talk about democracy and how it works without being here?' "
At Olympic Plaza, speaker Peggy Morton of the Canadian Union of Public Employees noted the peaceful nature of the march, adding the threat of violence remains from police.
"We know where violence comes from -- the state -- so we remain very vigilant for police provocation," said Morton.
Meanwhile, police made their first two G-8-related arrests Saturday, charging a pair of Americans in connection with the spraypainting of two Canadian Pacific Railway cars at 9 Ave. and 6 St. S.E.
Police estimated damage to the rail cars at $7,000.
Charged with mischief to property over $5,000 are Fransico Kiko Singh, 22, of San Diego, and Lindsay Rider MacKinnon, 21, of New York City.
The Legal Collective, claiming four people have been arrested since Saturday, said they will be helping those taken into custody, said spokeswoman Sarah Dover.
Of the four, one is a Canadian whose offence may or may not be G-8-related, Dover said, and the other three are visitors who now face immigration issues.
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