| Activists prepare for peaceful G8
Local activists are shrugging off threats from Premier Ralph Klein and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and are already preparing for next year's G8 meeing in Kananaskis – but they have more than protests on their mind.
Only hours after Chrétien announced the meeting during last week's controversial G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, a co-ordinating Web site and e-mail list had been set up through the Activist Network – a Calgary clearing house for local and regional social justice issues.
Grant Neufeld, the organizer of Activist Network, said he doesn’t yet know what to expect from the meetings, but the first order of business for local activists is to try and have the world community rethink the meetings.
"They’re taking the tactic that there were protests in Genoa…and their way of dealing with that is to find a way to (ensure) there aren’t any protests," Neufeld said.
"That isn’t dealing with the problem."
Neufeld, who, along with many other local activists, helped plan the peaceful protests at last year's World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, added he doesn’t know if the protests that have greeted every major international economic meeting over the past several years are appropriate in Kananaskis.
"I’m not certain protests are the way to go. I don’t know what’s going to happen,"Neufeld said.
The ultimate goal for activists is to be invited to the table of the G8 meetings. Neufeld said protesters have legitimate issues that need to be addressed by the world economic community.
Aside from that, Neufeld said activists may push to have the meetings cancelled or relocated to a location that isn’t hidden away from the public.
"The idea of the isolated fortress, secluded, out of the public eye…It isn’t addressing the problem."
The Activist Network’s G8 Web site is www.g8.activist.ca. |
