From the 27th to the 30th of July, Protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) took place during the pre-ministerial meeting held this year in Montreal. After concern surrounding” the upcoming protests, the hotel in which the meeting was to be held backed outat the last minute, forcing a new mesting area to be found. In the end, it had decided that it could be held at the Sheridan in downtown Montreal, afid:the. incident simply showed just how worried. they actually were over this proiest, And really, I'm just curious, butt worried about’a protest, at'what people-think that perhaps they don't quite like W being done with it? But I'm just aren't you?

The first day of protests began

July 27th, which was intended to be a © :

peaceful demonstration in which alf could attend, including children. Peaceful it was, and children.there were. This protest included a large number of signs of vari-

ous sizes carrying a host of different mes- —

sages, and arranged speeches were given (where) to mark the beginning of the three days of dissent. During these speeches, persons of various race and ethnicity rep- resented themselves by means of a speak- er. One quite memorable speech was given by a Palestinian man - a stateless Palestinian man - who, upon noticing police helicopters circling the crowd in the sky, became slightly agitated, explain- ing that the last time he'd seen or heard a helicopter he was back in his home coun-

where many people were dying. I'm sure tes S

it was full of nostalgia for this stateless

By Brad Deighan |

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Protesting the WTO in Montreal

who face danger for their lives if; heading off to a protest, and even to do

to return to their home countries, some scouting the nights before-hand. new federal policy, are refused e: Once this occurred the protesters Canada, othets facing deportation b had been split up into smaller groups,

to unsafe countries. making it easier for the police to snatch

them, but also easier for these smaller

first day w: groups to hide and sneak, and coordinate relatively their movements - through a mess of quiet and excited and unsure protesters, which can upbeat, the actually be quite confusing at times. The second day police then basically began arresting any- turned into a one and everyone who may have been a mess when thé’ protester. This did not stop after the

ee mass protest had finished either.

For the rest of the day and night After what had happened the day before we were worried it was simply a mouse-trap of arrests for us, and it felt like the group consisting of four of us were walking into a trap as we crossed the lines of police and riot squads

as part of the protest

medical aid to those i in

need of help, be it any: thing from tear gas to | heat exhaustion. Luckily such help was not in \ great need, though one individual - an individual | from the island - did go 3 unconscious due to the 7/to 8 hour wait stuffed in a Sf police van with a number of\ X

walking the streets was dangerous, one could be arrested, as the police had been taking pictures during the protest in order to single people out and make it easier to catalogue who was there. While talking in a telephone booth a friend was arrested when a police vehicle pulled up and two officers jumped out, reached into the booth, and hauled him off. It was approxi- mately 7:00 pm and just getting dark out. He was also simply a street medic, and I believe I have mentioned that a street medic is not actually a part of a protest? On this subject I could fill a whole paper, especially after my experi- ence hiding and plunging through the woods for over an hour and a half on Mont St. Laurent with a group of other individual protesters. Snatch squads, con- sisting of 16 passenger vans containing riot police in full gear, had been spending the remaining time roving the city streets looking for smaller groups of protesters who could be surrounded and carted off to a holding cell, which we'll talk about later. We were lucky (ha). After watching a friend from the island get jumped by four officers from behind, along with the fact that he was also... well, a street medic (and visibly) heading to the washroom

or washroom, and had to-be “ fushed to the hospital: A few tourists y were also arrested, and simply be

ov

own nae ier agem then closed in for the kifl, w mately 150 arrests were made.

At one - a day, after reachi cades lined with officers ran along th as they were stuck i na attempting to block t behind. Along with the use of helicopters and advanced com- munications technologies, were able to coordinate in such a way so as to follow the protesters one street over, parallel, and on each side. Upon realizing what was happening, the group shifted and began to quickly turn and move back down the street, taking a left up another street... and meeting more police. Luckily however, there was an alley to the left of this street, which was used as an escape - it pays to know your way around the streets before

red protesters, "street hospi- tals", and various workshops designed to

a in which under- s could and did roam, but also an area in which permission for a "chill zone" for the protesters had been granted. The green zone was also 10 blocks away from where the dispersal of protesters occurred

An interesting detail here is that

there are three general areas during a protest of this sort, and during the second day those areas basically reversed roles. First off, there is a "green zone", a "yel- low zone", and a "red zone". As can be assumed - noting that the green zone is