A sense of fore Boding As G7 summit set to Begin
There is a familiar sense of foreboding as Canada gets ready to host the G7 summit in the remote, picturesque Charlevoix region of eastern Quebec at the end of this week.
A security perimeter has walled off much of La Malbaie, the small town on which leaders of the world’s richest countries will descend for their annual meeting — and potentially the contingent of protesters who typically converge on such international events.
Quebec City is also battening down the hatches — in case demonstrators decide to skip the distant summit site to press their point in a more populous location. Should Montreal do so, too?
Remember when Canada hosted the G20 in 2010? The so-called Black Fly Summit had Huntsville, Ont., deep in Ontario cottage country, sealed off like a fortress. So protesters ransacked more accessible Toronto instead. The torching of police cars was met with volleys of tear gas from riot cops — and many unsuspecting bystanders ended up being caught up in the chaos.
International gatherings like these have followed a familiar pattern for nearly two decades now, ever since the so-called Battle in Seattle in 1999. The unprecedented mass mobilization surrounding World Trade Organization talks taking place there was the coming-out party of the anti-globalization movement.
This term has been used to describe the diverse groups of NGOs, unions and activists on the political left who espouse a range of causes from human rights to environmentalism. They frequently team up to take aim at what they see as unaccountable and undemocratic supranational institutions that further the cause of centrist, capitalist elites. They are often joined by anarchists and radicals who infiltrate the large crowds of peaceful protesters to vandalize property, attack corporate targets like banks or fast food restaurants, and throw projectiles at police.
Law enforcement has responded in kind with security fences, plastic bullets and tear gas. And both sides point the finger at the other to justify their tactics and level blame when things get out of hand.
I witnessed this phenomenon firsthand in the spring of 2001, when Quebec City played host to the Summit of the Americas. World leaders from across the Western Hemisphere gathered to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas, and the protesters showed up by the tens of thousands. For weeks beforehand, I wrote about the buildup, the announcement of security measures, the demands of civil society, the world view of anarchists and the implications of globalization.
Then I helped cover the protests, which started off peacefully enough, until suddenly a black bloc (a tactic, not an official group) approached the supposedly impenetrable fence, climbed it and breached it within minutes. Then all hell broke loose. My colleagues and I spent a long afternoon dodging volleys of tear gas and steering clear of the water cannon to observe the skirmishes between police and protesters.
It was both shocking and entirely predictable, with the clashes having been foreshadowed months in advance. And as I recently read some of the Montreal Gazette’s reporting at the time, I started to get a strong sense of déjà vu as the looming G7 approaches.
But I also started wondering: what has changed since April 2001?
“Everything has changed and nothing has changed,” quipped Barry Eidlin, a professor of sociology at McGill University, who observes the evolution of such big protests and the social movements behind them.
The same issues — income inequality, workers’ rights, human rights, women’s rights and especially the environment, with climate change a bigger threat than ever — continue to motivate demonstrators’ actions, he said, although now the unifying banner is more anti-capitalism than anti-globalization. The protests themselves continue to follow a similar “repertoire.”
But there are many differences as well, Eidlin said.
“The right used to be unified behind free trade,” he said. “The right is now split on free trade.”
A case in point: U.S. President Donald Trump slapping tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel last week and forcing the renegotiation of NAFTA.
Meanwhile, he said, the left is organizing and beginning to embrace the formal political processes it once eschewed.
And, Eidlin noted, many of the NGOs like the International Monetary Fund or the World Trade Organization have “walked back” some of their dogmatic stances on labour rights and the environment in recognition of the fallout of global capitalism.
Is this progress? Regression? Or is it simply as the world turns?
The world seems more polarized, dangerous, unfair and uncertain than ever. But that’s probably what people felt when protesters took to the streets in April 2001, until things got even more frightening a few months later on 9/11.
Plus ça change...