Masked Avengers©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

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

Report: Linda Dawn Hammond

Saturday, April 21, 2001

AFTER THE BIG TOP, a PARADE...
(The Unions, once again, conspired to hijack the protest and went STRAIGHT on down the road. Haven't they ever heard of LEFT?)

Raging Granny, Peggy Land of Ottawa
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Peggy Land's Report

These grannies are all the RAGE!
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

L-R, Debbie Leighton (a Portland Green), Alma Norman and Jeanette Pole (of Ottawa)

Public Education Isn't For Sale
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Everybody's Business©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Nobody's Business©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Coughn for Demockery©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

GreenPeace©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Hey What About ME?©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Stefan Verna and friend©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Norman Nawrocki©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Web videos at the Toronto Video Activist Collective Many octupi grace the A20 protest with their many tentacles. 604K, 1.75 mins

Why We're Here Five pro-democracy demonstrators share why their participating in the A20 protest. April 21. 604K, 1.75 mins

Excerpt from Arthur Neslen's article, NOW magazine (Toronto), APR 25- MAY 2, 2001, VOL. 20 NO. 34

Richard Brooks describes how at 1 pm Saturday he attempted to join the union march with Morgan Stewart, an NDP student leader from Victoria, and another friend, when he was stopped by Federation de Travailleurs Quebec (FTQ) marshalls. "They were big, burly men, and they pushed us aggressively to the side of the curb, saying, "You have no part of this. This is not your struggle.' They looked like they were about to hurt us, so we walked off, and almost instantly a white van screeched diagonally to a halt in front of us. "The passenger door opened and a number of men in flak jackets piled out, identified Morgan and pulled him to the ground. Morgan didn't resist, but a crowd formed a semi-circle, shouting "Shame!' and "Grab him.' Someone threw a boulder through the window of the van, and the men pulled him inside, slammed the door and accelerated rapidly up the road. "It was an abduction. There seemed to be a pattern of assumed troublemakers being picked out and detained or driven out of town and dumped." Indeed, a number of assumed troublemakers -- usually good public speakers with megaphones -- are abducted around the trade union demonstration. At about noon, I see one activist wrestled to the ground by cops, bundled into a van and spirited away. An officer initially tells me the activist had a gun, but refuses to answer questions when I say I'm a journalist.

Abductions aren't the only surprise at the workers' protest. As the police break out their water cannons against activists who had again ripped down the fencing on the hill above the union demo, some 50,000 marchers are being sent in the opposite direction, four kilometres out of town. "I didn't come all this fucking way to march to a parking lot," one protestor complains. A deal the Party Quebecois and local trade union leaders stitched up with the authorities sees the demonstration led to an industrial complex miles from the fence. FTQ stewards link arms to prevent disgruntled unionists from leaving the official march to join activists around the fence. Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians says, "I've heard complaints about the behaviour of some FTQ stewards, but that's shocking. The confrontation between activists and police was bound to ensure police brutality, and that's what they would have been worried about, but to stifle people's rights like that is shocking." Jacques Theoret, an organizer of the FTQ demonstration, says, "There was no problem with individuals leaving the march. The problem was small, extreme-left-wing groups of students like CLAC, who tried to arrange a detour for the main parade. Our responsibility was to allow the demonstration to march peacefully. The only people excluded from the march were those wearing masks or carrying big flags that could hurt people." Carol Phillips of the CAW and march organizers Common Frontiers resigned herself to the turn of events. "It was their backyard and their call. They were afraid of becoming part of a violent young people's demonstration. Hopefully, the Quebec union movement will learn the lesson. We have to learn from the new movements."

GO LEFT Young Warriors!
UP AGAINST THE WALL!

Masked Avengers©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001