Protest puts another sleepy town, this time, Montabello, Canada on the map - sort of...

by Kate Hermelin | August 21, 2007 at 08:16 pm

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Thousands of protesters, gathered in Ottawa and Montebello to denounce
the Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting between George Bush,
Stephen Harper and Felipe Calderon which took place between Aug. 19th
and 21st. The protesters, made up largely of unions,
environmentalists and peace groups converged in the nations capital to
demonstrate their opposition to the S.P.P. plan that would essentially
sign away the sovereignty of all three North American Nations and
submit us to complete corporate rule.

In Ottawa nearly 10 000
protesters, converged on Parliament Hill for a rally that was followed
by a march to the Mexican and U.S. embassies which were heavily guarded
by police in riot gear. Another institution that boarded up its
windows and had heavy police protection was McDonalds Restaurants.
Although there was a heavy police presence, most officers were
respectful and did not violate the protesters rights, and the protest
was peaceful ended peacefully with several teach ins and political
discourse at Ottawa University.

This was quite different from the reaction given to protesters in the small town of Montebello Quebec. No one was allowed to protest in front of the posh resort where
Bush, Harper, and Calderon were meeting with the leaders of 30 of the
biggest corporations in North America on Monday August 20th. Police
officers from Surete du Quebec, the RCMP, O.P.P. and other local
detachments used brutality, attacking peaceful protesters with clubs
and batons, arresting a prominent union leader from London, Kevin
Lomack, as well as many others for simply speaking their mind and of
course a handful of provacateurs graced the crowd and encited the crowd to act violently and then proceeded to get arrested, in the Green Zone. Later it was clarified with
the president of the Canadian Energy and Paperworkers union, Dave
Coles, whenhe confronted what could be rock-throwing police agents
posing as legitimate protesters.

Video footage by Paul Manley of the events can be seen from a different angle shows what really happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow

Later on in the evening, when they failed to disperse
the crowd force, the police re-used their APEC tactics,
shooting tear gas and pepper spray. Rubber bullets were also used and
ended up badly wounding some.

Kate...thanks for the contribution... but you say

"The protesters, made up largely of unions,

environmentalists and peace groups converged in the nations capital to

demonstrate their opposition to the S.P.P. plan that would essentially

sign away the sovereignty of all three North American Nations and

submit us to complete corporate rule."

These are all special interest groups that I wouldn't want to represent me and are not capable "by purpose" in representing a community or society. There is no indication that either the Canadian or US governments have lost authority to govern the private sector. The private sector is a creator of value and wealth in our societies that our governments depend on to support public programs... why the drama about corporate rule?

No press pass for me. No going behind enemy lines - so to speak.

I flipped between a 28mm-70mm lense and a 75mm-300mm - depending on what I wanted to capture and how quickly I was able to flip back and forth depending on what 'effect' I was going for.

I dropped off some of my and gave an interview to Indymedia and a few other places/sites. Someone actually 'found' some of my photos from my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/katerkate/ and suggested I write here.

Any overlap is unintentional. Thank you thank you for linking the highlighting tool. I'm actually in the middle of writing a response to the person who replied before you.

Best,

Kate

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Protest puts another sleepy town, this time, Montabello, Canada on the map - sort of...

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