----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 6:37 PM
Subject: Fwd: Quebec [STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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[It is kind of scarry when protest organizers have to study military history
and tactics in order to stage a protest in a "democratic" country like
Canada...]
In a message dated 08/01/01 13:29:37 Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Subj: Quebec
Date: 08/01/01 13:29:37 Eastern Standard Time
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Lucas Robinson)
Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Communications of York student action planning
committee.)
Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
(Communications of York student action planning committee.)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> January 7, 2001
> Quebec Fortress Prepares for Summit
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> QUEBEC (AP) -- Normand Houle's finger traces a line around the historic
> ramparts of this European-style fortress on the bluffs above the St.
> Lawrence River, showing the plan for a new barrier.
>
> The towers and walls built to repel invaders of centuries past no longer
> suffice for protecting 34 heads of state coming for the Summit of the
> Americas in April.
>
> So another wall will be built, this one of metal fencing around several
> square miles of old Quebec City, says Houle of the Royal Canadian Mounted
> Police.
>
> Riot police will stand guard along the fence in an old-fashioned show of
> force intended to prevent a burgeoning protest movement from disrupting
> the three-day summit that likely will be the first foreign trip for
> President Bush.
>
> It will be one of the largest security operations in Canadian history,
> with a perimeter security fence similar to the 10-foot wall of metal wire
> that surrounded the Organization of American States gathering in Windsor,
> Ontario, in June.
>
> "If somebody comes up with a better idea, we're going to take it,'' says
> Houle, the RCMP spokesman for the Summit of the Americas. "But so far,
> that is the best.''
>
> Preventing street clashes like the ones that derailed World Trade
> Organization talks in Seattle in December 1999 is the main goal, say
> police officials at the federal, provincial and local level.
>
> The planned security zone covers much of old Quebec City's upper town --
> both inside and outside the fortress walls. It will include six hotels,
> the Congress Center meeting site, the Quebec Parliament buildings and
> familiar tourist stops like the Terrasse Dufferin boardwalk, the Chateau
> Frontenac hotel and the Plains of Abraham.
>
> Access will be tightly controlled, with special passes required to enter
> the security zone and additional photo identification badges for each
> summit venue, including hotels.
>
> All the Western Hemisphere's heads of state except Cuba's Fidel Castro are
> coming to discuss expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement and
> other issues.
>
> Organizers expect more than 4,000 delegates and 2,000 journalists, along
> with thousands of protesters seeking to publicize their anti-free trade,
> pro-environment messages.
>
> "It's the big event of the year'' for activists in eastern Canada and the
> northeastern United States, says Michael Morrill of the Pennsylvania
> Consumer Action Network.
>
> A veteran of demonstrations around the world, Morrill is helping organize
> a ``Free Trade Caravan'' that will makes it way to Quebec informing people
> about what the protesters contend are the ills of expanding NAFTA.
>
> Morrill predicts police will harass demonstrators traveling to the summit
> and provoke violence, a charge protesters have leveled at other
> international gatherings since Seattle.
>
> Houle says police will identify and contact protest organizers before the
> summit. The goal, he says, is to block the small percentage of protesters
> who come to incite violence.
>
> "We don't have the intent to disrupt protests. That's a free right in
> Canada,'' he says.
>
> Representatives of the RCMP, Quebec Provincial Police and Quebec City
> police have been meeting for months to study security tactics at other
> meetings such as the recent European Union summit in Nice, France.
>
> "We're not bothered by 40 people demonstrating inside. That's easy to
> control,'' Houle says. ``We're concerned about thousands and thousands
> protesting.''
>
> Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier is troubled by the tough security plan. Speaking
> in his richly decorated office at town hall, L'Allier complains it could
> hinder city residents from moving freely, prevent peaceful protesters from
> being heard and make his city police look bad.
>
> "Summits have turned sour,'' he says with a sigh, noting such meetings now
> are being remembered mostly for televised images of street violence rather
> than agreements and diplomacy.
>
> Houle insists security forces will be ready for anything, even protesters
> trying to repeat the British tactic from 1759 of climbing the cliffs along
> the St. Lawrence to attack the bastion of what was then called New France.
>
> "If 2,000 people try to scale the cliff, we'll be there,'' he says.
> >>
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