Thousands of protesters on Monday clashed with riot police at this log cabin inn near Ottawa, decrying a summit of North American leaders on bolstering security and economic ties.
With bursts of drums and kazoos, demonstrators taunted host Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, at this third installment of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit.
Dressed as clowns and guerrillas, protesters chanted "Bush go home!" and waved "No to Americanada" placards along the tree-lined shores of the Ottawa River, 80km east of Canada's capital.
Riot police, using tear gas, pepper spray and batons, blocked an estimated 5,000 demonstrators at the gates of the historic cedar Chateau Montebello, where G7 leaders met in 1981.
Louis Banal, a Quebec police spokesman, said one protester was arrested, and two officers were injured in the melee.
The summit aims to harmonize North American trade rules and security following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US, when closed US borders cost all three countries billions of dollars in lost trade.
Calderon was forced to clip his visit to Canada short as powerful Hurricane Dean roared toward the Mexican coast.
Calderon said he would depart after the summit and return to his country yesterday ahead of schedule to monitor the advance of the giant storm, which was expected to hit the Yucatan peninsula early yesterday.
On Monday night, the three leaders dined together and would hear from the North American Competitiveness Council yesterday on proposals to boost the continent's competitive edge in key sectors.
On the summit sidelines, Bush and Harper discussed border inspections, bilateral trade, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, and Canada's disputed Arctic claim, a senior Canadian official said.
Harper also informed Bush that Canada would only extend its troop deployment in Afghanistan beyond February 2009 with "parliamentary endorsement," she said, adding, "That doesn't preclude that that endorsement wouldn't be forthcoming."
The summit was launched in March 2005 in Waco, Texas, as the "Three Amigos" summit.
But it has been criticized since by a range of activists, labor groups and academics as having an excessive focus on business interests, with 30 top executives from Canada, the US and Mexico invited to take part.
"Society is not represented at this summit," protester Guillaume Tremblay told reporters. "Bush, Harper, Calderon and a handful of businessmen are making important decisions about our future and we're not even consulted."
"We want a public debate," he said, surrounded by demonstrators jostling with officers outside a fence, 3m high and running 2.5km around the meeting place.
A perceived lack of openness in the negotiations has provoked the ire of anti-globalization activists, environmentalists, peace activists, and civil rights groups -- united in their suspicions of the outcome.
Several of the demonstrators, refusing to remain in a forest clearing set up for them by summit organizers, vowed to try to get closer to Bush, Harper and Calderon to make their views known.
But they were far outnumbered by police with dogs, in aircraft and on river boat patrols.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS