Trade protest to target Ottawa in April
Anti-free trade activists hope to shut down Foreign Affairs HQ

Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa Citizen

Peter Dejong, The Associated Press / Demonstrations in Seattle against the World Trade Organization succeeded in bringing the U.S. to its knees. Now, according to a detailed strategy paper, Ottawa will be the target of a large scale demonstration held for two days in early April at
the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on Sussex Drive prior to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

Itsu Inouye, The Associated Press / Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Seattle in late November 1999 in a successful effort to disrupt the opening ceremonies of the 135-nation World Trade Organization. In Quebec City, one of the largest security operations in Canadian history is under way in preparation for April's Summit of the Americas. Ottawa will be the first target for the mass of protesters now plotting strategy for April's Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.

According to a detailed strategy paper prepared by a Montreal-based group, a large scale demonstration will be held for two days in early April at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on Sussex Drive. As part of "Operation SalAMI" -- designed to overcome the huge police presence in Quebec City -- protesters will on April 1 demand that Foreign Affairs turn over a copy of the legal text being used to negotiate the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

Operation SalAMI organizers -- sal ami, in French, means dirty friend -- hope to capitalize on the same kind of public fears that eventually torpedoed the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

If the text is not released, the strategy paper says, "a non-violent blockade will shut down the Lester B. Pearson Building and attempt a 'search and rescue' operation -- a citizens' raid to obtain the documents." "Strategically, it is crucial for us to reclaim the offensive," concludes the 17-page document, two years in the making.

Plans for the demonstration and other "direct actions" are part of an elaborate chess game. With less than three months before the summit -- a meeting that will bring together 34 heads of state including U.S. President George W. Bush to discuss a hemisphere-wide free trade zone -- both activists and security officials are plotting strategy.

Both sides have taken to heart hard-earned lessons from earlier clashes in Vancouver, Seattle, Washington, Windsor, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In Quebec City, one of the largest security operations in Canadian history is already under way. A two-metre chain link fence, anchored in concrete, will mark the perimeter of the summit's "security zone," which will include much of old Quebec City. The zone will include six hotels, the Congress Centre meeting site, the National Assembly and part of the Plains of Abraham.

Access to the zone will be carefully controlled with special passes issued to the 6,000 summit participants and those who live and work in the area; a photo ID badge will be required to enter each summit venue, including the hotels.

"We've really looked closely at all of the different security measures that were taken at other events and essentially it's helped us in managing our plans," said Const. Julie Brongel, the RCMP's spokeswoman for the summit. A team of officers has studied encounters between activists and police at meetings of the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. In Quebec City, she said, all of that expertise will be used to ensure enough intelligence information, police manpower and steel fortifications are in place to allow the three-day meeting to proceed without interruption.

"If we look at the past events that have happened, our expectation is that there's going to be some protesters that are going to turn violent," Const. Brongel said.

"But we know for the majority of them, they're not necessarily violent. Our mandate is to try to prevent the ones that are violent from breaking businesses and vehicles while trying to maintain a certain equilibrium to allow the protesters to voice dissent."

Four police forces -- the RCMP, the Surete du Quebec and the municipal forces of Quebec City and Ste. Foy -- will take part in the security operation. Both the RCMP and Surete will have riot police in place. But protesters, too, have studied the history of the new global activist movement, which was effectively launched in December 1999 when rioting protesters in Seattle managed to shut down a critical meeting of the WTO. Since then, however, security forces have built large protection zones around all international trade and monetary meetings.

"The so-called Seattle model has been attempted in various cities against various events. ... Unfortunately we must acknowledge that these attempts at duplicating the Seattle model have met with limited success," the Operation SalAMI strategy document reads. "We will not checkmate a fast-learning opponent twice with the same move, much less if we repeat this move three, four or five times."

More than 300 activists from across North America held a meeting in Quebec City last weekend to discuss new gambits and walked the city's fortifications to scout venues for "direction actions" that will likely include everything from teach-ins to street theatre to vandalism.

"It's the biggest security deployment in Canadian history so it's definitely making our work harder," said Rachel Sarrasin, a spokeswoman for the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, a Montreal-based group formed last year to prepare for the summit.

While Ms. Sarrasin contends the police have gone overboard, she said activists will not be deterred by the fortifications, by the difficulty of finding accommodations or by an expected border crackdown against protesters flooding north for the summit.

"I think we have to change our strategy, definitely, for the summit," she said. "Because what happened in Seattle was something that was never really seen before in North America, but now it's old. "This time, our focus won't be just to bring people to confront this big wall."

Ms. Sarrasin declined to discuss specifics of her group's strategy for Quebec City, but did not rule out acts of vandalism or violence as part of the protest. "We don't need to tell people what to do when they want to express their angers and fears," she said. "We respect the diversity of tactics."

The question of tactics, specifically the use of violence and vandalism, has deeply divided activist groups as they plan for the Summit of the Americas.

"There's lots and lots of anger out there and the question is to what degree do you allow that anger to manifest itself," says Gaetan Heroux, of Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, who attended last weekend's organizational meeting in Quebec City.

"Some people feel it should never go beyond the principle of non-violence, and others feel that's a very limited way of organizing and mobilizing people especially when the state is willing to go to a much further extreme."

Mr. Heroux, 45, is among those who believe that violence is a legitimate form of protest in the face of "provocations" like poverty and police aggression.

SalAMI, the group organizing the protest at the Department of Foreign Affairs, is among those that reject violence. SalAMI organizers have rejected violence of any kind and have issued "action guidelines" to govern their demonstrations. They've asked people who take part in their actions in Ottawa and Quebec City not to wear masks, carry weapons, consume alcohol or swear.

In their strategy paper, SalAMI organizers contend that shutting down the summit through violent means is impossible given the security arrangements. Instead of the Seattle model, they want to employ a more tactical approach, one that relies on informing the public about the perils of extending free trade.

"What is the Achilles' heel of the Summit of the Americas in general and of the FTAA in particular?" they ask. "It's secrecy."

For their part, the RCMP say they're ready for anything that comes their way.

"We have contingency plans that will allow us to pick up and change our methodology in an instant to adapt to the threat," said Const. Brongel. "We're pretty confident we're going to have the proper plans, the proper procedure, to deal with whatever may happen."

It is understood by the police, she said, that some protesters will arrive with the sole intention of wreaking havoc: "We have to maintain a certain police presence to be able to deal with those individuals so it doesn't become mass hysteria.

"So it's very important we have people in place to be able to deal with those individuals so it doesn't become more than an individual act.

"It's quite the dynamic; it's quite the challenge for us ... It's not easy to please everyone on both sides."