Nando Times

Police seal off heart of Quebec City for summit

By TOM COHEN, Associated Press

QUEBEC (April 19, 2001 8:12 p.m. EDT) - Police sealed off the heart of old Quebec City on Thursday and created a heavily guarded security zone to keep protesters and possible violence away from a summit of 34 leaders, including President Bush.

Forklifts hoisted concrete blocks topped with wire mesh into busy intersections, and hundreds of police in bulletproof vests stood guard at spots along the 2.3-mile fence encircling meeting sites of the Summit of the Americas.

More than 6,000 police officers will patrol the security zone Friday through Sunday to guard against incursion by the expected 10,000 or more protesters.

Quebec City residents and demonstrators from around the world watched as the final pieces were dropped into place. Police are letting through only residents with special passes and delegates, journalists and workers accredited for the meeting.

Protesters have dubbed the barrier the "Wall of Shame" and liken to it to the Berlin Wall as a symbol of oppression and division. Thousands of anti-globalization activists have come to this picturesque 17th-century city, and organizers fear the kind of violence that derailed trade talks in Seattle in December 1999.

But the first march of the week was peaceful. About 150 people marched Thursday outside the Quebec provincial agriculture ministry and presented a list of concerns about genetically modified food. A minister accepted the document.

The protesters represent a diverse range of activists - organized labor, human rights organizations, environmental groups and other who say the talks on creating a free-trade zone should be in public instead of a locked-in conference center.

"The fence is a symbol of the destruction of our rights," said Clara Fogal, a director of the Defense of Canadian Liberty Committee, a human rights group.

Her group and others supported a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the wall. A judge agreed Wednesday that the wall restricts personal rights, but he said it was justified because of the security risks.

Police cite concerns of Seattle-like violence to defend the fence, which surrounds several acres of landmarks like the Chateau Frontenac hotel that dominates the old city skyline and the provincial Parliament building.

Seven men have been arrested on charges of planning violence at the summit, and police seized military smoke grenades and small explosives.

The closest protesters can get to the convention center where the summit is being held is 100 yards across a cemetery, on Rue Saint-Jean.

Along the streets, shop windows were covered with plywood or metal screens Thursday in anticipation of unrest.

"The whole situation is deplorable. I'm going to keep my kids inside the whole time. I may even leave town," said Patricia Hamel, owner of the Collection Lazuli gift shop.

To stay open on Friday and Saturday, she said, she would need to hire security guards, and the protests would probably scare away most customers anyway.

Local activists have made the wall a kind of bulletin board for anti-free-trade and anti-U.S. sentiments. Among the slogans spray painted throughout the city are "Bush Go Home," "Berlin" in reference to the wall that divided East and West Germany for decades, and "Viva Cuba" in support of the only hemispheric country barred from the summit for its lack of democratic elections.

Plastic flowers and colorful balloons are attached elsewhere.

Protests also are planned far from Quebec City, with marches or blockades threatened in other Canadian and U.S. cities and in Tijuana, Mexico, near the border with California.

Cyberprotests also could occur. The Electrohippie Collective says it is targeting Web sites connected with the summit for protest activity - most likely a flood of e-mail that would hamper operation of the sites.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), April 20, 2001

Answers

Canoe

Friday, April 20, 2001

Violence erupts at summit By ALEXANDER PANETTA and JENNIFER DITCHBURN-- Canadian Press

QUEBEC (CP) -- Riot police and protesters clashed in an eruption of violence and clouds of tear gas Friday near the spot where world leaders were gathering for the Summit of the Americas.

Crowds tore down big sections of a three-metre-high security fence enclosing U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and others, then began tossing hockey pucks, bottles, rocks and smoke bombs at police.

Dozens of officers armed with batons and guns stood in a long line, forming a huge human shield to guard the area where the barricade was ripped down.

Many protesters were crying and covering their faces with handkerchiefs to ward off tear gas. Police fired off canisters of the gas only to have demonstrators toss many of them back.

"There's no problem inside the perimeter," said Quebec provincial police spokesman Daniel Lamirande.

"The summit events will continue as planned. No protesters are getting inside."

Smoke rolled over blocks in the heart of the old city, spreading quickly around the area near the legislature. The wind pushed much of it back at police, who were intent on maneouvering demonstrators away from the centre.

Some protesters had taken a metal gate and used it as a battering ram to crash through the fence.

Others urged an end to the melee.

"Please, please, no violence," someone pleaded with the crowd through a megaphone.

"This is what they want you to do."

The violence, which broke out near the convention centre and hotel where 34 leaders of Western Hemisphere countries gathered, was exactly what led authorities to set up the 3.8-kilometre-long fence.

Police were trying to disperse people into side streets as helicopters circled above.

One man was hit directly in the face with a tear gas cannister. Others were being treated by paramedics.

Merlin Barrette, a resident in the area inside the perimeter, was angry about the massive police force as he left to escape the suffocating tear gas.

"I think people are right to revolt against this," Barrette said. "Why do they need all these police officers to protect 30 people?

"I have to go around the entire city to get to my house."

Another resident, Martin Lavoie, said he was really angry at the protesters.

"It's just a gang of Communists in black boots and wool hats," said Lavoie. "Only one per cent know why they're here."

Earlier on Friday, a Ste-Foy, Que., police officer was injured by a group of protesters as he watched them head toward the perimeter.

He was hit with a blunt object after being surrounded by several demonstrators.

The officer was taken to hospital.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and 32 other leaders were set to begin three days of talks aimed at promoting the world's largest free-trade zone.

Bush met almost immediately with Chretien. The two discussed the controversial missile defence shield that the United States wants to build to protect itself against attacks from rogue states.

Several countries are wary about the plan, concerned that it might prompt a new arms race. Bush revealed that he intends to send officials to allies to consult on the matter, federal officials said.

Chretien raised two trade sore points -- potatoes and softwood lumber -- with no concrete results.

Bush has had only one previous face-to-face meeting with Chretien, who is playing host to hemispheric leaders from countries rich and poor in the third summit among the nations.

Chretien and the federal government had faced fierce criticism from citizens' groups, city residents and civil liberty activists who say the perimeter enclosing the heart of the city, protected by 6,000 police, was going overboard.

Many stores and restaurants were boarded up or even closed completely in anticipation of up to 25,000 protesters.

The Quebec government conducted its own protest by using a giant electronic billboard across the street from the meeting to promote its culture and trade ties with participating countries.

The screen is Quebec's response to the federal government's refusal to allow Premier Bernard Landry to attend the summit as a full-fledged participant.

Delegates at a parallel People's Summit this week expressed deep concern over the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) they say does not fully guarantee the protection of human rights, the environment and labour rights in the hemisphere.

But Chretien said leaders will work to include a democracy clause in a final declaration calling for the expulsion or suspension of member states if they did not maintain basic democratic institutions.

Leaders also planned to discuss strategies for fighting corruption and the drug trade and devise a declaration on expanding Internet connectivity.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), April 20, 2001.