Five people arrested at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City will
remain in prison for at least another week. The five men were arrested
two days before the summit actually began, charged with possessing
weapons and explosives. [good!]
Tue 5/22/01 8:00 PM GROUP DEMANDS INQUIRY INTO "SUMMIT OF SHAME"
Anti-globalization activists including NDP MP Svend Robinson are calling
for a public inquiry into police behaviour during what they termed
Quebec City's "Summit of Shame."
May 7, 2001 Have your say
Does this weekend's violence at the Summit of the Americas drown out the message of opponents to free trade?
May 7, 2001 What a Gas
A film critic goes to the Summit and finds it more cinematic than anything onscreen
by BRIAN D. JOHNSON in Quebec City
www.macleans.ca/
April 2001
Tue 4/24/01 7:00 AM No one elected the protesters
When the protesters at the Summit of the Americas say that they want their voice to be heard, what exactly are they proposing?
Do they really think that they should be able to stroll into the conference rooms where the delegates are meeting and say their piece? Perhaps they should be let onto the floor of the House of Commons to spout their views on globalization?
Sat 4/21/01 9:30 AM
Are summit protesters idealists or are they old-fashioned xenophobes?
By: JAY BRYAN
Perhaps the saddest thing about the large-scale protests this weekend at Quebec City's hemispheric summit is the harnessing of so much youthful idealism to the hoary right-wing warhorse of xenophobia.
This reversal of the political map is one of the more bizarre elements of today's battle over globalization.
Sat 4/21/01 9:30 AM Fear of poverty real: Demonstrators
By: CATHERINE SOLYOM The Gazette
"Globalphobia:" the fear that an Americas-wide free-trade agreement will perpetuate inequalities among nations and increase the gap between the rich and the poor.
It's a common condition say Latin Americans in Quebec City for the Peoples' Summit - and the peoples' protest.
Friday, 20 April, 2001, 20:59 GMT 21:59 UK
Confrontation in Quebec There have been angry clashes involving police and demonstrators outside the conference venue in Quebec where hemispheric leaders were to open the third Summit of the Americas.
news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1288000/1288627.stm
April 20, 2001 nyt
Quebec Summit Gives Bush Forum to Promote Free Trade
The demonstrators tore down about 150 feet of the chain link fence about two blocks from the convention center where President Bush and the other leaders of the Western Hemisphere were gathering. Riot police in
Thu 4/19/01 10:58 AM Summit 'activists' arrested
By: NICOLAS VAN PRAET; DARREN BECKER of The Gazette, Southam News and CP contributed to this report The Gazette
Police have made their first arrests of the Summit of the Americas, charging seven young Montreal-area men with conspiring for several months to commit dangerous acts and break through the security fence.
"These guys didn't want to kill (U.S. President George) Bush," Capt. Michel Martin of the Surete du Quebec said yesterday. "But they wanted to commit a spectacular act that they would be remembered for."
Tue 4/17/01 7:00 PM
AMERICAN DISSIDENTS TO BE SMUGGLED ACROSS BORDER: REPORT
Radio-Canada says U.S. protesters with criminal records will be able to
make it to the Summit of the Americas by going through the Akwesasne
Mohawk reserve. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/04/16/reserve_010416
Tue 4/17/01 7:00 AM Afraid to lose woman's gains
By: CHARLIE FIDELMAN
A lot of angry women filled a waterfront fire hall yesterday with voices clamouring to be heard lest "they fall through the cracks" at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.
About 250 women attending the parallel Peoples' Summit - among them, grandmothers, teachers, environmentalists, union activists, farmers and labourers - stepped up to microphones at the fire hall with vigour and they didn't mince their words.
Tue 4/17/01 7:00 AMLandry soft-sells Quebec
By: PHILIP AUTHIER
Premier Bernard Landry opened the diplomatic games at the Peoples' Summit last night, soft-pedaling the separatist option but playing up Quebec's nationhood in a multitude of other ways for his captive international audience.
"I don't have to peddle such an obvious thing," Landry said. "Quebec is a nation and I say it. I have said it in Latin. I can say it in English. The thing is speaking by itself."
Tue 4/17/01 7:00 AM Separatists slam deal
By: BASEM BOSHRA The Gazette
There's absolutely no contradiction in being officially supportive of free trade - as Premier Bernard Landry and past separatist governments have been - but leery of globalization, a group of prominent sovereignist leaders said yesterday.
"We're not against international trade," said Louise Paquet, president of the Mouvement National des Quebecoises et Quebecois, an umbrella group of 18 separatist groups throughout the province. "But we are against this trade being guided by big business and high finance."
Mon 4/16/01 10:30 AM 10:10
Demonstrators baffle delegates from Third World
By: PETER HADEKEL
"We're going to model ourselves after the Palestinians. We're going to lead our own Intifada." So declared Philippe Duhamel, spokesman for a group called Operation SalAMI, which plans to play a leading role in the protests at the Summit of the Americas.
Duhamel's angry and impassioned voice is typical of many in the anti-globalization movement. From Seattle to Washington, D.C., to Prague, protesters have descended on meetings of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund with the goal of impeding their progress or even shutting them down completely.
PROTESTERS CONVERGE ON QUEBEC FOR 'PEOPLE'S SUMMIT'
Hundreds of people opposed to global free trade gathered in Quebec City
Monday to mark the opening of an alternative summit in advance of this
week's official Summit of the Americas.
cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/04/16/peoplesummit_010416
POLL SAYS CANADIANS AMBIVALENT TO EXPANDED FREE TRADE
As Quebec City braces for the Summit of the Americas, a new survey shows
Canadians seem to sympathize with both sides in the debate.
cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/04/16/poll010416
Quebec City fence makes sense
Doesn't your heart just bleed for the self-serving immigration lawyers and civil-liberties activists who will be hurt financially because of the law to keep undesirables out of the country (Gazette, April 7)?
If this "arsenal of abusive measures" can prevent what happened in Seattle and other cities, where these so-called peaceful demonstrators caused riots and destruction, from recurring in Quebec City, then I am all for it.
Price to be paid for 'free' trade
By: BASEM BOSHRA
The true opposite of "corporate globalization" is "citizen localization." You (activists) know better than anyone that "free" trade deals have not been a free ride.
They have built sweatshops, cut back your wages or your jobs, contaminated your family's food, closed your neighbour's farm, poisoned the rivers and lakes in your communities and turned your elected officials into pawns of Big Business in the seven years of NAFTA.
We could cash in on hemispheric trade: experts
By: KEVIN DOUGHERTY
By 2020, Canadians could be listening to more samba CDs from Brazil, sipping champagne from Chile and maybe even buying their life insurance in Argentina.
At the same time, consumers from the Rio Grande to beyond the Straits of Magellan will be importing just as much from Canada as the 15 countries of the European Union combined do now.
STOP THE SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
wtoaction.org/ftaa.phtml Lots of links to HELL
The pre-Summit of the Americas' events are numerous and quite interesting.
Carrefour Amérique latine displays a list of meetings that will take place
from now up to the Summit at the following address: cal.fsa.ulaval.ca/nouveau_new_novo_nuevo.html
Further details about all sorts of activities concerning the Summit are
posted in our special section dedicated to the Summit 2001:cal.fsa.ulaval.ca/sommet/Autourdusommet.html
April 2001
14/Apr/2001 GROUP COMPLAINS OF 'CAGED CITY' HOSTING SUMMIT
A group of leading Canadian artists and activists spoke out against the
government's security arrangements for next week's Summit of the
Americas. cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/04/13/summit_010413
[The 34 heads of state can read.. write, if you can, to the your news paper ]
Thu 4/12/01 7:31 AM Speaker's remarks draw harsh words
By: NICOLAS VAN PRAET The Gazette
Just days away from the Summit of the Americas, the speaker of the National Assembly has made controversial comments about the leaders of 34 nations in the Americas, writing that they act like "elected monarchs" with no real concern about real democracy outside election time.
Liberal leader Jean Charest said Jean-Pierre Charbonneau's comments are embarrassing and called on the government to excuse itself to leaders coming to Quebec for the summit.
Sun 4/8/01 8:00 PM CEGEP SUMMIT STRIKE?
CEGEP student associations are threatening a general strike in protest
against the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. The
associations think it could be necessary for them to show their
disagreement with the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Thu 3/29/01 8:00 PM FREE TRADE IS DESTRUCTIVE TO ENVIRONMENT: PROTESTERS
About 200 activists blocked traffic in front of the Omni hotel in
downtown Montreal on Thursday.
May 26, 1998 MONTREAL: 100 arrested as globalisation conference delayed several hours ...But in the opinion of constitutional and civil rights
lawyer Julius Grey, the authorities must be able to show that that in
Popovic's case, the demonstration was no longer peaceful, and that
he did not leave a demonstration that was supposedly turning
violent. see also our files on
MAI and
Donald Johnson SG OECD
May we recommend that we parade the demonstrators into a Gym full of desks, invite them to answer Multi choice list of questions. If and when they pass they are invited to explain their thoughts in essay form. We will publish their ideas and then if they pass they will be allowed to enter a demonstration area. The others will bussed away ..far away! DTN
March 2001
Tue 3/27/01 8:42 AM No way to run a summit
By: DON MACPHERSON The Gazette
One Montrealer remembers two images of the 1976 Olympics, neither of them of heroic athletic feats.
The first is of men in the street dressed up as athletes, their decidedly unathletic bodies stuffed into skimpy Speedo tank tops and Adidas jogging shorts. ....In the future, such meetings might be held by a teleconference linking the participants. If a meeting isn't held anywhere in particular, where does one go to protest against it?
Wed 3/21/01 cbc FTAA WON'T PROTECT ENVIRONMENT: CRITICS
The Free Trade in the Americas Agreement has no side agreement on
environmental protection, according to people familiar with the
negotiations.
Wed 3/21/01 10:02 AM
Gearing up for Quebec City protest
By: BASEM BOSHRA
For 72 hours next month, normally placid Quebec City will become ground zero in an increasingly fierce ideological battle over who, if anybody, benefits from dropping barriers to international trade.
On the surface, it's just the latest in a long line of skirmishes fomented by the forces of anti-globalization. ...Warren Allmand, president of the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, also criticized the secrecy in which the pact is being negotiated. ...Pettigrew says he's handcuffed by the fact that the documents are the property of all 34 countries, and several countries want to keep them private.
"democraticy is rule by commity!" DTN
Wednesday 21 March 2001 Security perimeter illegal: lawyer
By: KEVIN DOUGHERTY
A Montreal lawyer who specializes in bankruptcies - and says the most subversive organization he belongs to is the Liberal Party of Canada - is seeking an injunction to block a 4-kilometre security perimeter cutting through Old Quebec during the Summit of the Americas next month.
Fri 3/16/01 7:00 PM NOT WANTED AT THE SUMMIT CUBA WON'T BE INVITED TO QUEBEC
After years of saying the hemisphere should be one big family including every country, Canada has turned its back on Cuba just before the Summit .."There's not a consensus among the 34 countries that Cuba should participate," Manley said. kowtowing to the United States. ... "John Manley has made it clear his top priority is the bilateral relationship with the United States, and the States wants to leave Cuba out," Robinson said. "Frankly, it's appalling and hypocritical." [lets get with it Canada should lead not follow! DTN]
of the Americas in Quebec City. Manley said on Thursday that Cuba should not attend the summit.
cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2001/03/16/summit_cuba010316
Sat 3/17/01 THOUSANDS PROTEST AT ITALIAN GLOBAL FORUM
Thousands of protesters converged in Naples Saturday to protest against
a global forum on information technology. It didn't take long for the
scene of the demonstration to turn into a battle zone.
Mar 13 2001 SUMMIT PROTESTORS WILL HAVE PLACE TO SLEEP: MAYOR
Quebec City has decided to help find places to house demonstrators at
the Summit of the Americas.
Tue Mar 13 15:04:49 2001 ANTI-SUMMIT GROUPS PLAN PROTESTS
People opposed to globalizaton are preparing to stage major
demonstrations during the Summit of the Americas, to be held in Quebec
City in April.
The group, called salAMI, was originally formed to fight the Multilateral Agreement of Investment. One of its leaders, Corey Legassic, says direct action, or "creative confrontation," is necessary to drive their point home. 25,000 demonstrators
Mon 3/12/01 7:02 AM Landry's agenda of resentment
By: L. IAN MACDONALD
Bernard Landry wants a seat at the Quebec Summit of the Americas. He wants the youth of Quebec "to march under their own colours" at the Olympics. He finds it insulting that Quebec should be classified a have-not province, but will take the equalization money, anyway.
It's the politics of humiliation, as distinct from the politics of grievance practiced by his predecessor, Lucien Bouchard. Landry has always walked around with a big chip on his shoulder, never forgetting the linguistic slights of his youth in the army, when someone told him to speak English.
Mon 3/12/01 7:02 AM Landry looking for fights: Charest
By: PHILIP AUTHIER
Premier Bernard Landry is satisfied only if he's picking fights with the federal government, and that's too bad for Quebec, because the province is missing out on a chance to make a good impression on the world at the Summit of the Americas, Quebec Liberal Party leader Jean Charest said yesterday.
Even though he personally would trust the federal government's delegation to the summit to defend Quebec's interests, Charest said he believes, as a federalist, he would be a better representative at the summit than Landry, who only wants scandal, confrontation and to make Ottawa look bad.
Thu 3/8/01 7:02 AM Summit spat is waste of time
Frankly, if anyone's going to gag over the battle between Ottawa and Quebec City over who is to address the Summit of the Americas next month it will be the general public. Even in the overheated context of the jurisdictional dispute between the federal and provincial governments, for provincial International Affairs Minister Louise Beaudoin to complain that Premier Bernard Landry has been "gagged" is a bit histrionic.
When the heads of state of 34 countries from the Americas descend on Quebec City April 20-22 to discuss extending the North America Free Trade Agreement to include the entire western hemisphere, most taxpayers would prefer the economy be front and centre of everyone's preoccupations.
Thursday 1 March 2001 Summit won't bind Quebec, Beaudoin says
Draft documents shared with MNAs by ELIZABETH THOMPSON ..The battle between Quebec and Ottawa over the Summit of the Americas escalated yesterday, as Quebec warned it will not be bound by Canada's signature on a new free-trade agreement for the Americas.
If Quebec disagrees with any part of an accord that touches provincial jurisdiction, it simply won't respect that part of it, said Quebec International Relations Minister Louise Beaudoin
"The Quebec government will not accept:
February 2001
Wed 2/28/01 8:00 PM
BYLAW LIMITING DEMONSTRATORS HAS SOME FURIOUS
A new bylaw in Ste-Foy, Que. has civil liberties union outraged. Earlier
this week, the city council passed a law which bans any demonstrator
from wearing a scarf, masks or veil.
Fri 2/23/01 7:02 AM Rights must accompany trade: PM
By: ELIZABETH THOMPSON
Prime Minister Jean Chretien served notice yesterday that protection of human rights and democracy has to go hand in hand with the creation of a new Free Trade Area of the Americas when leaders meet here in April for a hemispheric summit.
"The summit is much more than a vehicle to promote economic growth," Chretien told a business lunch on the site of the summit yesterday.
from Wed945 The problem, as in Seattle, is that there are the genuinely concerned individuals and groups who feel shut out from the talks, and there are the "rent-a-crowds".
CBC a/v Riot police in Washington swarmed down on peaceful protesters late Saturday, April 15, 2000, on the eve before a meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 200 people were arrested, many handcuffed [Good, make them walk home. We should not report on the mobs but on the leaders DTN]
What is next? see WEDNESDAY-NIGHT #835, March 4th, 1998
23/Dec/2000 No gift for PM
By: JOSH FREED The Gazette
From the office of Santa Josh:
It's almost Christmas and I'm way behind schedule, what with my reindeer stuck in a snowbank, the price of gas going up, and my elves on another work slowdown. And you try to find a decent chimney to fit into these days.
Full Menu of Josh Freed works
