The Quebec Summit... It Was a Gas, Then a Disappearing Act.

Report: Linda Dawn Hammond
PUNK OKA
Friday, April 20, 2001


Masked Avengers©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001


Shortly thereafter I became separated from my friends. I heard from someone that a riot squad over 300 strong (a slight exaggeration!) was engaged in a direct (ie.wall-less) face-off with protesters, in a small street adjacent to the plaza. I hesitated, then journalistic instincts and not of the self-preservation variety, overcame reason and I headed towards it.


Masked Avengers
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

I found myself on Rue des Soeurs-de-la-Charite, or, Sisters of Charity Street. Perhaps they picked this area for its ironic potential. First the ramparts. Now this. Even the street signs where we were being gassed proclaimed appropriately, FIN (END) and LIGNE D'ARRET (LINE TO STOP). Down a dark narrow street, lines of riot police were head to head with protesters. At the end, more rows of SQ were blocking another exit- leaving only one street effectively open as an escape route.


PUNK OKA?
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Now EVERY special interest group's got to have one of these! Hell, why not?!!


Punk Couple©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001


SQ Videographer (Upper R.) ©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

The atmosphere was extremely tense. Everyone knew that a volley of gas canisters in such an enclosed area would be devastating and it was suicidal to remain. The protesters bravely stood their ground and pressed their political points to an immobile and unresponsive police, who videotaped the whole procedure. So did some of us.


SQ Videographer (Upper R.)©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001
I shooting us shooting them shooting us before they, well,... shoot.

Web videos at the Toronto Video Activist Collective Video Cops on Video: Yeah they're watching us... And we're watching back! 192k, 17 secs

Then the SQ began to execute an exquisitely choreographed shuffling dance, which I recognized from the OKA stand-offs I'd witnessed in 1990. They began arresting protesters squatting passively on the ground between their lines. At this point, reluctantly and with feelings of guilt, I retreated, in order to face another day unincarcerated and more or less intact. To dream of the day when I too own a gas mask. To plan for it.


Passive Resistance
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

NOTE: I once asked an MUC cop after we were arrested for protesting against police violence, 'WHY did you beat us? We were engaged in Passive Resistance! Haven't you ever heard of Ghandi?' ' Ah yes,' he replied, 'but the KEY word here is RESISTANCE!" (Well, now you know that at least SOME of them have a sense of humour...)


FOOTNOTE:

Raphaël and I are writing stories in the press office with other journalists. It's 12:30 pm. CS gas is seeping beneath the doors and we're effectively trapped. Reports of the absolute chaos outside are coming in regularly. Injuries, arrests, billowing teargas attacks, fires, people being corralled on to dead end bridges by riot squads and forced to jump off heights of several metres in order to escape. Raphaël has been volunteering to cover interviews on the street for CMAQ in French.

Actually, WHERE IS Raphaël?


Continue to
Sat. April 21st, 2001


Masked Avengers©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001


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