Montreal Gazette

Summit disrupted life in Quebec City

As G7 leaders prepare to gather in Charlevoix, cartoonist Terry Mosher looks back to 2001.

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This weekend’s G7 get-together in the Charlevoix region brings back memories of the Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City in April 2001. While public interest in the summit’s agenda was tepid, there was intense official concern about the intentions of anti-globalizat­ion activists.

As a result, authoritie­s mounted the largest security operation ever seen in Canada to that date. The Montreal Gazette sent me to capture the mood in the street.

Six thousand police officers kept a watchful eye on 34 national leaders, 9,000 delegates working to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the 20,000 highly organized protesters who descended on the city from near and far.

Police tried to keep the protesters on the outside of a four-kilometre-long concrete and wire security fence, which had been installed around Quebec City’s core.

When marchers finally breached the barrier in a number of the protest zones, police responded by firing tear gas canisters, water cannon and rubber bullets.

Neither the security forces nor the demonstrat­ors won any friends among inner core residents, most of whom are dependent for their livelihood on the tourist trade. All commercial activities within the security perimeter had been suspended during the week of the summit; even churches had to remain closed. In one bit of silliness, authoritie­s refused to allow Quebec City’s famous calèches to operate because of fears the rigs might be a security threat. Bombs in the horses’ feedbags? When the summit was blessedly over, the locals reclaimed their genteel daily life and the romantic streets of their city.

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