Police jostle with protesters, arrest two
MONTEBELLO, Que. (CP) - An attempt to broadcast images of protesters into the site of a North American leaders' summit ended on a grim note Monday when the cameraman taping the event was assaulted, summit organizers said.
"He was roughed up pretty badly, but his injuries weren't bad enough to require a hospital visit," a spokesman said. "As a result, the camera crew won't be coming back. It's unfortunate that the protesters chose to express their views through violence."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are holding two days of talks at Chateau Montebello in western Quebec.
The attempt to install a so-called 'protest cam' had been billed as a way of respecting demonstrators' constitutional right to be heard by beaming their protests from outside a security fence into the lavish hotel.
The crew was threatened and the private company taping the protests declined to release the name of the cameraman.
Screens in the hotel lobby went blank by late-afternoon.
Riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray to hold back demonstrators outside the summit.
Harper shook hands with Bush as he greeted the U.S. president, dismissing the protest as a "sad" spectacle.
"I've heard it's nothing," the prime minister said when asked whether he'd seen the protesters.
"A couple hundred? It's sad."
Bush looked over his shoulder and smiled when asked the same question, but remained silent and walked with the prime minister into the building.
The men discussed border issues, trade and Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic, said Canadian officials.
Harper drew the president's attention to comments made last weekend by the former U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, who said it makes sense to recognize Canadian sovereignty over Arctic waters.
The president was unpersuaded.
A White House official said the meeting left Bush with a better understanding of Canadian concerns but does not change the traditional U.S. view: that Canada owns the Arctic islands, but not the vast and potentially resource-rich waters that surround them.
"We continue to believe that the Northwest Passage is an international waterway," said State Department official Dan Fisk. "There is an international navigational right through the Northwest Passage."
Harper also used the meeting to remind Bush of a promise he has made to Canadians: that he will not renew the country's military mission in southern Afghanistan beyond 2009 without some sort of parliamentary consensus.
But, as Canadian officials noted in a briefing Monday, a military pullout from Kandahar would not necessarily stop Canada from making other contributions to Afghan reconstruction.
Officials said Harper also told Bush that he regretted the U.S. withdrawal from talks to establish border pre-clearance rules that would speed up traffic at land borders, and added that he hoped to relaunch them.
Harper and Bush are to meet Tuesday with Calderon, who arrived later Monday afternoon, to discuss the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).
With Mexico bracing for the potentially disastrous effects of hurricane Dean, Calderon planned to leave immediately after the summit on Tuesday instead of remaining in Canada for an extra day as expected.
Sources have told The Canadian Press that the leaders will wrap up their summit with a call Tuesday for a new border disaster protocol to avoid a repeat of the crippling tie-ups that occurred after 9-11.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe confirmed that the issue is up for discussion, but he downplayed expectations about the summit.
"I don't expect any major announcements to come from the meeting," he said. "I think it's a continuance of discussions that we have regularly with our two closest neighbours."
While the meetings inside were cordial, it was far less cozy outside the massive Nordic-style log hotel and the surrounding estate.
Lines of police in riot gear jostled with dozens of demonstrators - the vanguard of hundreds who marched on the front gate of the summit compound shouting taunts.
Officers used pepper spray and tear gas to hold off the protesters, who responded by flinging rocks and branches. Two people were hauled away in handcuffs.
The confrontation settled into a face-to-face standoff between a hardcore group of protesters and police until demonstrators began to drift off in the late afternoon.
As about 200 demonstrators lingered, police pushed them back, firing many rounds of tear gas to clear the road. By early evening, only a handful of protesters remained milling about.
Angry anarchists and family-friendly activists converged on the hamlet of Montebello by bus to protest the summit, but concerns about huge, violent demonstrations fizzled.
Early in the afternoon, about 1,500 people marched along the road toward the gate of the summit compound which is ringed by a four-metre-high steel security fence. They chanted slogans and carried banners, including one reading: "Say No To AmeriCanada."
Riot police lined up in front of the front gate as the marchers - some wearing anarchist red-and-black flags and carrying signs condemning Bush as a war criminal - approached.
Despite the jostling, the tear gas and the pepper spray, it was a far cry from previous meetings - such as the G-8, APEC and the Summit of the Americas - when thousands of people turned out and demonstrations turned violent.
Protesters were barred from the compound but their activities were relayed to the hotel lobby where they could be viewed on two video monitors.
There are seemingly as many causes as protesters, who condemn North American integration, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the leaders' performance on the environment, the plight of aboriginals, and human-rights abuses committed in the war on terror.
One common complaint echoed by all is the secrecy surrounding the meeting.
Susan Howard-Azzey, a homemaker from St. Catharines, Ont., criticized what she called the lack of transparency and consultation in the SPP process.
"I'm not impressed that the SPP is making such big decisions on behalf of Canadians without consulting us and when we go out to the streets we're criminalized."
A group of powerful business executives has been invited to make a closed-door presentation Tuesday at the summit on changes they believe the continent needs. No such invitation was extended to scientists, environmentalists or other social activists.
While the aim of some protesters was to disrupt the summit, most were orderly. A few hundred labour activists from Ottawa called for a "family-friendly" demonstration and stood back from the police lines.
In Ottawa, things were remarkably calm. There were no demonstrators at the heavily-guarded U.S. Embassy and the only strangers on Parliament Hill were camera-toting tourists.
The final communique from the two-day summit will include an order from Harper, Bush and Calderon to their respective cabinet ministers to create new border regulations for emergencies, said sources in two countries.
The leaders want to see rules on who and what would be allowed to cross North American borders amid crises like a terrorist attack or an outbreak of avian flu.
The move is the latest effort to increase security while allowing goods to flow freely, and stems from the chaotic aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. The security clampdowns and protracted lineups six years ago cost the North American economy billions of dollars.
The border announcement is one of several expected at the summit.
The leaders also plan to announce that they will recognize the research of each country's food and drug regime in an effort to reduce costs and avoid duplication.
A Canada-Mexico deal is also brewing that would allow more Mexican migrant workers into Canada under an expanded program for agricultural labourers.
Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians said people shouldn't be fooled about who really sets the agenda at these summits: the 30 business leaders who sit on the North American Competitiveness Council and advise the three national governments on facilitating trade.
Barlow called for a moratorium on the "profoundly anti-democratic" SPP until the citizens of all three countries are consulted and their elected representatives are given oversight over the business-driven initiative.
Flanked by U.S and Mexican opponents of the scheme and Canadian labour activists, Barlow told a news conference on Monday that big business is trying to create a competitive North American trade bloc.
"And for this they need regulatory, resource, labour and environmental convergence to the lowest common standards," she said, predicting that it will ultimately include a common passport, common currency and free trade in resources, including oil, gas and water.
"This is not about security for people, social security, security for the poor, environmental security or job security. This is about security for the big corporations for North America."
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