A military commander's warning that soldiers will use "lethal force" to protect world leaders at the G-8 Summit has one local protester predicting a repeat of the last summit in Genoa, Italy, when police shot and killed a protester.
"I've been thinking ever since Genoa: someone will die at this protest," said Erin Thompson, who's helping plan the G6B, an activists' conference in Calgary before the G-8. "I would not be surprised in the least if that happened."
Brig.-Gen Ivan Fenton said Friday that protesters and "limelight seekers" will be risking their lives if they test security at the June 26 and 27 meeting in Kananaskis of the leaders of the seven major industrialized democracies and Russia.
Fenton said terrorists could easily use peaceful protesters as cover to get at diplomats and he's worried his soldiers may mistake a protester for a terrorist in the dark, forested terrain.
Activist Tess Elsworthy, who ran for mayor in Edmonton's last civic election, said Fenton's comments are veiled threats against legitimate protesters.
"It's obscene," said Elsworthy, 18, who occupied former justice minister Anne McLellan's constituency office in December to protest Bill C-36, the anti-terrorism bill. "That's basically saying, 'When the stuff goes down, we're not accountable.' Look at the history of the other G-8 summits: In Genoa they did kill a protester, and this is just inviting a situation where that could happen.
"You've got all these young guys (soldiers) there who are pumped up on adrenaline. They've been told that the protesters and the terrorists are going to be mingling...."
About 300 protesters were arrested or detained during the three-day Genoa summit. Elsworthy said she expects similar tactics in Kananaskis.
"They (the military) have a strategy of how they do this. They wait until right before a summit then start issuing these loud threats, like, 'Come demonstrate your democratic rights at your own risk.' "
"I'm very, very angered by it," added Thompson, 25, who protested at the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999. "Beginning with Seattle, these types of conferences have way too much security. The amount of security really, really angers the people."
Government and military officials have said the summit will be protected by a security perimeter that will cover a 6.5-kilometre radius around Kananaskis Village. The ground will be patrolled by hundreds of RCMP officers and likely several thousand soldiers.
RCMP Chief Supt. Lloyd Hickman, the officer in charge of G-8 security in Kananaskis, has also warned protesters to steer clear of the summit area, "for their own good."
Fenton said soldiers will use an "absolute minimum" of force when assisting the RCMP in dealing with protesters.
Activists are planning a conference June 21 to 25 in Calgary called G6B -- The People's Summit. It is billed as an alternative forum that will address the concerns of the earth's six billion people, not just those who reside in the eight most powerful countries.
Meanwhile, no site has yet been named for the Solidarity Village, a proposed tent city to house as many as 10,000 protesters for eight days around the G-8. The Stoney First Nation band council nixed a deal to rent reserve land near the summit, and organizers are having trouble securing an alternate site.
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