Hundreds of people dropped dead at Olympic Plaza at noon yesterday while puppet vultures swooped overhead and the Grim Reaper -- on stilts -- strolled amid the corpses.
The 400 or so people who played-dead in a "Di-In for Life" demonstration did so to bring attention to the HIV-AIDS crisis around the world while testing their democratic right to protest publicly.
"The (G-8) summit leaders are not doing enough to ensure access to treatment for people around the world living with HIV and AIDS, and this action was in protest of that," said oline Twiss, who emceed the event (and spells her first name with a small "o").
For a half an hour, participants lay frozen -- some with G-8 headstones -- as a message to world leaders to make AIDS funding a priority.
Organizers didn't get the city's permission to host the Di-In, which went uninterrupted by the few police officers who watched.
Twiss said one reason for the event was to see if the right to assemble peacefully under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms actually has teeth.
"Apparently, we still have some rights," she said.
At 1 p.m., the dead awoke, and many moved on to a picnic at Riley Park, leaving behind only chalk outlines of their bodies.
Sixteen-year-old Cindy Grant said she practised her "dead-pose" a few times to make sure she'd be comfortable lying motionless on the ground for a half an hour.
"The cement wasn't too bad for comfort, but the sun was a little hot, just lying there basking in it," she said.
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