Fears of violent G8 protests prove unfounded
More than 2,000 demonstrators marched in the rain shouting ‘‘Free the people, not the market’’ and ‘‘G8, shut it down!’’ at the end of a G8 summit in Canada, free of the kind of violence that left a protester dead last year.
The leaders at the secluded summit in western Canada never heard the protesters, who were half a continent away in the capital, Ottawa.
The summit was held in the Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis, about 65 miles west of Calgary, because its secluded setting made it impossible for protesters to get close, avoiding a repeat of violent protests at last year’s meeting in Genoa, Italy.
‘‘Each protest is becoming more and more impotent,’’ grumbled a protester in Ottawa.
Nonetheless, under the close watch of police, the protesters took to the streets in the Canadian capital.
‘‘It’s a march of 1,000 flags of resistance against war, imperialism, capitalism, genocide, and racism,’’ Lisa Freeman of protest coordinators Take the Capital said.
‘‘It’s pro-indigenous, immigrant and refugee rights, and people’s right for self-determination.’’
Police kept their distance; the protesters were less belligerent than a crowd the day before that hurled golf balls and paint-filled balloons at buildings.
In Calgary, dozens of protesters rolled in the mud at a park and sang songs celebrating Mother Earth at a festival-like gathering.
‘‘This has really been a lot of fun,’’ said Terri Kirby, an anti-globalisation activist who travelled from Vancouver, British Columbia, to take part. ‘‘We got our messages across, hung out together, heard some decent music and we’re free. No one I know has been thrown in jail.’’
The lack of violence had police claiming success for their response.
‘‘We need to treat each and every summit on a case-by-case basis,’’ said Staff Sergeant Mike Gaudet of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. ‘‘We’re very pleased that there’s been this commitment obviously from the police, but also from those large numbers of protesters who came here to be heard and seen in a peaceful way.’’
On Wednesday, some protesters angered by the lack of access to the leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US tried to approach Kananaskis. They were turned back at a police roadblock, with one man arrested for interfering with a peace officer.
Police later allowed a separate caravan of about 100 vehicles from Calgary through some of the initial roadblocks to protest before turning them around.
Also Wednesday, about a dozen people danced nude in front of Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa and some black-clad demonstrators threw golf balls and paint-filled balloons that damaged street lamps, a bank window and a police car.
One man was arrested when protesters stopped the police from apprehending another man.
