Quebec Diary
by Jennifer Berkshire
April 20
Too Much Trouble
More details continue to surface regarding
the six `activists` seized by Canadian police earlier this week.
According to a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
the six are ``leaders of a violent anarchist cell,`` and may
belong to an anarchist movement that wears black uniforms and
has a special logo: a capital A in a circle with a slash through
it.
Police found several items
of interest within the seized anti-globalization swag. A helmet
decorated with a hammer-and-sickle symbol was all it took to
convince the Mounties that they were on to something big. Then
they found stacks of an anarchist propaganda sheet called `Trouble.`
The black rag is printed by
a collective in Montreal; `Trouble` is short hand for the group`s
self professed mission - the `search for trouble.` The journal
- which has an on-line version - specializes in lengthy critiques
of the state, the police and capitalism. ``Smoke a joint, smash
the state!`` screamed one headline.
In response to an interview
request, a National Post received the following e-mail from a
member of the `Trouble` collective. ``Oh so you think we`re so
intriguing like a wild animal in a cage. Why don`t you come to
Montreal to feed us peanuts? After that, maybe we will have an
elephant riot. Maybe just maybe we`ll talk to you ... we're
all total junkies and selling `Trouble` hardly covers da cost
of our drug habits.`
April 19
Borders
The border that separates New England
from Quebec is a busy place these days. The volume of trade between
the two regions has skyrocketed since the passage of NAFTA, and
major crossings are choked with commercial truck traffic.
But at the main border crossings
this week, pedestrian traffic all but ground to a standstill.
Canadian immigration officials have routinely held for hours
activists heading up to Quebec City for protests against the
Summit of the Americas.
Don Rama, a pipefitter at the
Bath Iron Works in Maine and a member of the Machinists union,
spent 3 hours being searched and interrogated at the crossing
in Jackman, ME on Monday night. ``They spent hours just going
through my truck,`` said Rama, who volunteers as a firefighter
in his hometown of Wiscasset. Rama`s firefighting equipment ?
extinguishers, a helmet, and protective blankets were enough
to tip off the officials. This man was trouble. They eventually
let him over the border, but only after he agreed to leave his
firefighting equipment behind in Maine.
On Tuesday, officials at the
Derby crossing in Vermont found more suspects in the form of
union members from IUE-CWA Local 201 the union representing workers
at the GE aircraft engines plant in Lynn, MA. The group was held
for two hours while officials conducted extensive background
searches. Their search proved fruitful: Jeff Crosby, the President
of the Local had been arrested for participating in a protest
against the Vietnam war in 1971. A rank-and-file union member
had been caught with LSD in his possession 25 years ago. ``We
love Canada,`` said Crosby. ``We come up here all the time.``
The two finally made it across
the border on Thursday, but only after union activists in Canada
and the US launched a major public campaign. The bad news: the
`Derby 2` had to pay $200 to get into Quebec. The good news:
that money is refundable.
Fame Pays
Weeks ago, immigration officials announced
that an `all-points bulletin` had been sent to all of Canada`s
ports of entry, warning staff to be on the look out for Jose
Bove, the famed French opponent of `malbouffe.` But on Wednesday,
the `moustachioed sheep farmer` appeared in the flesh, surrounded
by dozens of photographers and TV cameras.
``Isn`t he handsome?`` a reporter
from a Quebec City daily asked me. ``He looks just like that
French cartoon character.`` I nodded, sending Jose a friendly
smile.
During his press conference,
Bove defended the `breaking of windows` by those protesting free
trade and assailed the `true violence` of the market. He made
his point. A Montreal daily announced today that all McDonalds
restaurants near the security perimeter in Old Quebec will be
closed during the Summit Protests.
The Battle of Kursk
Among those items `discovered` by Royal
Canadian Mounted Police in their roundup of six protesters yesterday
was a copy of `the Battle of Kursk,` an account of the biggest
tank battle in world history. Police are apparently still searching
for the tanks themselves.
April
18
Canadian Border Crackdown May Keep
Bush from Trade Summit
QUEBEC CITY -- Tough new enforcement
of immigration laws at the Canadian border has prompted concern
that President George W. Bush may have trouble entering the country
for the Summit of the Americas, scheduled to begin on Friday.
In preparation for the Summit,
authorities have implemented unprecedented security precautions
at the border, including checking the arrest records of every
entrant into Canada. Now, say some officials, those measures
may even be extended to Summit participants including George
W. Bush.
"We are looking for any
history of criminal activity, any
evidence that a certain individual may be harmful to himself
or the Canadian people," said Francois de Rigaud, an immigration
official in Quebec.
Yesterday, border police at
the Derby crossing in Vermont refused entrance to a prominent
New England labor leader, on the grounds that he had been arrested
during a Vietnam-era protest in 1971.
The exclusion of the labor
official, who was to have
participated in an international pre-Summit meeting starting
last night, has triggered speculation that President Bush himself
may have difficulty crossing the border, due to a conviction
for drunken driving in 1976.
"We`re obviously concerned,"
said one Republican party leader close to the President. "We
weren`t aware that the Canadians were going to be checking records."
Asked earlier this year about
the DUI arrest, President Bush expressed sorrow over the incident.
"I regret drinking while intoxicated," he said, "but
I was never under anybody`s influence at the time." CP
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