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BATTLEGROUND: QUEBEC CITY

A small band of radical protesters known only as Germinal, 7 men dedicated to fighting the FTAA and globalization in the front lines in any way they could arrived in Quebec City on April 18th 2001.. They were arrested on the spot. On them, police had found fireworks, gas masks, grappling hooks, smoke bombs, flashbangs and equipment to take down the peremeter fence. It had turned out that the police had infiltrated two moles within the group. They were the first scape goats of the medias, they were labelled as terrorists. The fight was over for them before it had even started.

On April 19th, the majority of protesters arrived in Quebec City. A march organized by the ACC told people why they were here, and why they wanted to fight off the FTAA. By midnight, hundreds of shuttle busses arrived in the city, letting protesters from various groups loose in the city. The sheer number of protester loose in the city was a prelude to the intensity of the protests that were to come...

On April 20th, the infamous alklied march took place... The delegated leaders of the 34 countries arrived one by one in Quebec City, while all protesters marched together towards the peremeter, hand in hand, regardless of ther ideals.. Black Bloc and ACC marched with SalAMI, solidarity was there for a moment until the first spark flared between the Bloc and a Civil Disobedience protester, when Black Bloc members attacked a Shell Station during a small stop atthe march...( Shell, If I have to remind you, are a multinational that has been known to disregard human life all in the name of profit.. .) However, the intersection where the march would seperate into the Green, Yellow,and Red zone was at hand soon enough, and protesters seperated into three groups.

At the front lines of the Red Zone, the Black Bloc charged the main entrance of the Peremeter Fence. On various areas of the fence, the Bloc members would throw a grappling hook at the top of the fence, the hook beiong attached to two seperate ropes. The one who had thrown the hook would keep one of the ropes and throw the other rope at another Bloc member. People would run up to them and grab parts of the rope and start pulling. As they all pulled, another Bloc member would run up to the fence with plyers and cut off stronger parts of the fence so that pulling it down would be this much easier. Within a few minutes, the fence was down at the main entrance and protesters charged within the peremeter. They were met by the Anti-Riot squad of the RCMP an the QS...

Citizens of Quebec City litterally cheered from their houses as they saw the "Berlin wall of Canada" go down at one spot...The cops sent a can of tear gas, wich was picked up by amember of the black Bloc who sent it back at them...Cops sent another tear gas bomb, and it was sent back right at them again... They sent 3 shots at the same time... All sent back at them again... The medias had labelled the Black Bloc as a rioting bunch of anarchists at a certain point, but nobody understood how well prepared these people were all, this wasn't the acts of a rioting crowd, this was an extremely well planned move... They were all fully equipped with gas masks and gloves (to send those heating projectiles back)( the next day, they were labelled as "ruthless anarchist terrorists" by the media... Ooooohhh...)... Add shields for the defense teams... Water,vinegar, lime, bandages, and disinfectants for the medics... slingshots and marbles for the distance atack teams.. .

The Black Bloc, as pathetic as they looked with their toys compared to the anti-Riot squad, were quite ready to take them head on...

And the fight had begun...

The Bloc didn't count on one thing though... The order was given to open fire on the Yellow and Green Zones then, to destabilize the whole thing, even though they had all respected their engagements... Tear gas plucked away the ranks of the people in the Yellow and Green Zons in seconds... In solidarity with the people atthe green zone ( they didn't give a damn about the yellow zone's people), a few defense teams were sent to help them out, as well as a medic team or two... other zones also had their own medics, but none with the gas masks that the Black Block had, wich meant that the Bloc's medics could go in the frontlines to help those who had trouble getting out, while the medics at the Green zone would stay in the back to care of the people getting out...

As organized as they were, the Bloc were losing ground on their zone however because of the people sento help the greens out...Tear gas bombs managed to stay on the spot, driving people away slowly, but surely...Until they were all out of the peremeter...

A catapult arrived on the scene at the red zone at a certain point, and people were watching it with amazement..however, when the first projectile was sent, it was clear that this was a way to mock the RCMP.. The catapult sent...teddy bears...

Jaggi Singh, a spokesperson of the ACC was on the front lines of the Red Zone calming people down in a microphone ( on a side note, Singh had been arrested in the past for speakingto loud in a microphone in a protest...).

The Bloc and Singh managed to keep protesters calm and kept on leading them... But tear gas kept coming in as medics and defensemen were in a total rush... That was when the rubber bullets came in... All block members had enough padding so that it would only knock the wind out of them for a few second, and they'd get back right up.. it wasn't the case for everyone... The Bloc sounded a strategic retreat, leaving only a team of defensemen there and a team of medics in case other protesters stood their ground anyway...

The Black Bloc along with other protesters attacked the fence on various other fronts for the rest of the day, but were all pushed back slowly but surely towards the lower part of the city.

An enormous amount of tear gas was sent at protesters, even peceful ones all along. The higher part of the city reeked tear gas as protesters and citizens of the city were affected by its effects. Somewhere along the line, the anti-riot squad simply went nuts with the tear gas and fired away atthe crowds without hesitation whatsoever, wether the protesters were peaceful, were practicing civil disobedience, or were indeed hostile either towards the fence or the law enforcement agents.

Throughout all of the confrontations, citizens of the city of Quebec came out and lent a hand to the protesters, by ditributing water for those affected by the tear gas, or putting vinegar on protesters' scarves so that they could breathe better through them.

A pathetic anedote was when a gril, obviously a peaceful protester, screamed into the microphone atthe cops "Please don't hurt us! Please don't hurt us!". Obviously, the cops sent a tear gas can... directly at her...

And so, for the most part, protesters called it a day when the sun set. There was not much left to do for the day. Some would go to their contact's house in Quebec, but quite a few decided to go to l'Ilôt Fleurie where many protesters would go to relax, get medical care if needed, eat free vegetarian food provided by "Food Not Bombs", enjoy the music provided by live performers. During that time, a van passed by and police officers got out of it quickly, grabbed Jaggi Singh ofthe ACC, threw him in the van and took off... And thus, Jaggi Singh was out of the picture.

But the highlight of the evening at l'Ilôt Fleurie was Jello Biafra's appearance over there. He went to the stage, took up the microphone, not with bodyguards, without any security measures whatsoever, a few feet away from the protesters, and spoke to us all. Here was a living legend, in front of us all, a man who has been true to his principle in what feels like an eternity, the man who defeated Tipper Gore in the court of law and in turn ,won a major blow in the battle for freedom of expression in the U.S.A..

After Biafra was done with his speech, a few more bands played, and finally, a DJ went on stage, and a techno party was on. Protesters present at l'ilôt Fleurie danced to the music and partied. How many more of us would be arrested the day after? In a way, for many of us, this could possibly be our last night of freedom for a little while, so we all enjoyed the evening at its fullest.

As the party went on, it was noted that the Anti-Riot squad was approaching the perimeters of l'ilôt fleurie, and a few protester went back to the borders of the high city to defend l'ilot Fleurie... To defend our home... And so another confrontation with the cops sparked. For about 2 hours, some people defended our home, while others kept on partying... Being very few in number, the protesters who defended the peremeter were pushed back slowly.

And the innevitable had to happen. The cops sent tear gas directly at l'ilot Fleurie at midnight. The party was over. The crowd dispersed knowing ful well that the day after would be another day...

An amusing anecdote would be that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien declared on national television that the protesters were anti-democratic in their actions when they tore down the fence... Let me laugh atthat comment because that fence was anything but democratic in the first place. That fence was litterally there to shut the people up. The right to express our opinion is the basis of a democratic society, and that fence was there to repress that right...

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE QUEBEC 2001 PICTURE GALLERY