Group of Eight protesters chanted and drummed their message round downtown yesterday in a happy, colourful, carnival mood -- like Stampede Parade a week early.
It was a "win-win" situation for police and activists, with about 1,000 protesters disrupting and stopping traffic, successfully getting their anti-G-8 message out loud and clear.
And later in the day, more than 100 protesters used their own cars to drive their grievances to the back door of the G-8 summit in Kananaskis, but weren't allowed much further than the first RCMP checkstop.
During the morning disruption, delayed motorists, forced to wait in traffic on a stifling hot day, were patient and understanding. Like Dwayne Forseth, who unwittingly became a historical figure on Calgary's main G-8 demonstration day.
At the exact moment the first wave of protesters left Fort Calgary and stepped into the street at 7:07 a.m., and the first police officer put up his hand to halt traffic, it was Forseth who was at the head of the line -- the first motorist stopped by the protesters.
"Absolutely incredible," he said.
His passenger, Lori Meads, could see the funny side of the situation, as hundreds of protesters slowly marched across the road behind the police officer's arm, making her late as she was heading for work in the downtown police headquarters.
Others used the situation as the perfect excuse.
"When my boss asks why I was late, I'll just hand him this anti-G-8 literature one of the protesters handed me," said Sherry Graves, an employee at Holy Cross private health centre.
For four hours the protest turned into a predictable pattern, with protesters choosing which street or avenue they would turn into, police shutting down the traffic and demonstrators sitting on the road to "claim the street."
The longest stop in the parade came outside Gulf Canada Square at 9 Ave. S.W. when, with hundreds of protesters forming the crowd, about 20 women took part in a soccer match.
When the protest moved to Stephen Avenue, the day's only moment of tension arose when protesters surrounded a ring of mountain bike police outside a McDonald's.
A momentary scuffle broke out when one protester grabbed a bike, and reinforcements strengthened the line of police outside the restaurant.
Around 5 p.m., a colourful caravan of activists proceeded up Hwy. 40, planning to deliver a petition to G-8 leaders. After being briefly questioned by RCMP, the convoy was allowed to proceed over Hwy. 1.
They sang, shouted and waved flags, but after a couple of hours of sitting in a line of vehicles more than 1 km long, they were only marginally closer to the ears of G-8 leaders.
'UNION REP' ARRESTED
A bus full of postal workers with letters for the G-8 leaders had driven as far as Barrier Lake around 10 a.m., waiting until 2 p.m. for a Canadian G-8 rep to receive their letters.
Before the bus left, one adult male, described by police as a "union representative," was arrested by RCMP for obstructing a peace officer.
Police said the busiest day of G-8 protesting so far had gone smoothly and safely for those involved.
"This has been very successful; I don't think it could have gone off better," said Insp. Murray Stooke, who praised the co-operation between protest leaders and cops.
That was echoed by Stephen Jenuth, one of a team of observers who followed the morning march to note how police dealt with protesters.
"It's impressive to watch, the police are working well with the protesters."
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