Canada's Capital Braces for Anti-G8 Protests
    By Robert Melnbardis
    Reuters
    June 25, 2002

    OTTAWA (Reuters) - Ottawa covered up Canada's centennial flame for the first time since 1967 and battened down the hatches on Tuesday, bracing for anti-capitalist protests timed to coincide with a meeting of world leaders.

    As the heads of the world's richest countries arrived at a remote resort in western Canada, 1,680 miles (2,700 kilometers) away, a group of some 30 organizations promised to disrupt the Canadian capital with marches and protests on Wednesday and Thursday.

    "Both marches will be action-oriented, and will redecorate the bureaucratic core of the city with colorful and creative symbols of resistance as they slide through Ottawa," the "Take the Capital" committee said in a message on its Web site.

    The committee, which includes self-styled anarchists, promised the marches would draw thousands, winding through Ottawa's business district to government buildings and the British and U.S. embassies.

    Ottawa was originally tipped as the location for the Group of Eight summit, but host Prime Minister Jean Chretien chose the resort of Kananaskis in the Canadian Rockies to avoid protests like the ones that disrupted last year's meeting in Genoa, Italy.

    The leaders of the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- are expected to discuss the Middle East, global terrorism and a plan to reduce poverty in Africa at the two-day summit.

    In Ottawa, three provinces and a time zone away, security was evident even as tourists ambled around the quiet downtown.

    On Parliament Hill, the public grounds in front of the legislature, workers shuttered the gas-fired centennial flame, which was lit in 1967 to mark 100 years of Canadian confederation. They also took down lamp posts and dismantled a tourist pavilion.

    About 1,000 employees of Export Development Canada were told to stay home on Wednesday and Thursday and the federal government funding agency's two downtown offices were to close. Officials said they had information that protesters planned to target the offices.

    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the committee had rejected offers to talk with security officials about their protest plans.

    "Snake marches are highly unpredictable so it's impossible to say what the route might be or where they might end up," Sgt. Marc Richer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told reporters.

    The capital is just across the Ottawa River from the province of Quebec, home to a number of anti-capitalist activists. Street protests at a gathering of leaders from North and South America in Quebec City last year turned violent, disrupting meetings and resulting in dozens of arrests.

    Protest organizers said they targeted Ottawa because it is the center of "G8 administration" for Canada and they wanted to express their discontent with international polices on trade, refugee rights and third world development.

    Organizers of the Ottawa marches declined to say whether participants planned to spray-paint buildings or how they would react to what is expected to be a heavy police presence.

    "We know that the police want to provoke us, the very people who stand up for justice and dignity," committee spokeswoman Brenda Inouye told reporters.

    "As many ways as the G8 oppresses people every day, there will be that many forms of resistance," said Amanda Dorter, a protest organizer.

    Outside Ottawa, traffic on Canada's busiest roadway was disrupted on Tuesday afternoon as protesters on their way to Ottawa from Toronto slowed traffic on a stretch of Highway 401 to half its speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour). Police said about 20 cars drove two-by-two on the freeway to impede other vehicles. (additional reporting by Wency Leung)


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