The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit has wrapped up in
Vancouver, but not without a series of protests levelled at both the
economic agenda of globalisation and the human rights records of many of
the leaders.  Things really came to a head on Tuesday, when APEC met at the
University of British Columbia.  In part, the protest there centred on the
inappropriate use of University space.  The result was mass arrests and
pepper spraying.  Attached are some eye witness accounts from
demonstrators, that seem fairly close to the media portrayals of the event.


I should add that when the Canadian PM, Chretien, was asked about the
demonstration, he made a joke about pepper.

Nick Blomley

Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 19:02:16 -0800
From: [log in to unmask]
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: Victor Sherman <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask],
    [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
    Jon Napolitano <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Tuesday Late-Afternoon

Hi all,

If I may, this is my account of the events following the rally/march on
Tuesday Nov.25th at UBC where 2000-4000 people were in attendence.
It's
based on personal and first person witnesses.

After the numerous arrests and brutal use of pepper-spray at the flag
pole
during the main rally/march/protest, a large number of people walked
down
to the security gate at N.W. Marine Drive where the "Leader's
Murdercade"
(Bryce, PATH) entered that morning and were expected to leave from. A
group
of about 20- 30 decided to head to the other end of the security zone,
S.W.
Marine Drive to blockade the other security gate.

There were about 200-250 people at N.W. Marine when large RCMP
forces
arrived from the previous scene. There was a stand-off for about 1 hour
during which police grabbed a percieved "organizer" and refused to
reveal
charges against him. The RCMP futher aggravated the crowd by stealing
a
mega-phone being used to communicate with the large group and also
arresting another person for allegedly hitting a news-camera even
though
the camera-man denied it was hit.

Parts of the group had realized the potential for using side-streets
nearby
for the getaway and some moved into two other positions just north of
the
main blockade. The inital groups were small (10-15) and one was
pepper-sprayed when they apparently didn't "get up fast enough" when
a
police vehicle was passed. More joined until the two secondary routes
were
blocked by two groups of aprox. 50 people. After some time it became
clear
we had effectivly blocked all ways out of their "Lunch with Dictators" at
UBC.

We sat for more than 1 hour when we first heard reports that the smaller
group at S.W. Marine had been attacked with pepper-spray. Some left to
reinforce the blockade at S.W. Marine, many media members were
reluctent to
travel the 15mins. to the site and almost all stayed with the main blockade
at N.W. Marine Dr.

At S.W. Marine Drive, the intial 20 RCMP were backed by another 20-30
that
arrived on the scene. One person from the small group recalls an officer
stepping forward and shouting "Move!" only seconds before the whole
group
was persistantly pepper-sprayed, some didn't hear the warning at all. No
one was spared as highschool students, first year university students
from
the nearby residence and the few media members were sprayed. The
RCMP
continued to spray the protesters as they backed-off, even chasing a
few up
a hill. Reports vary at this point but a second group (some from the first)
also numbering about 20 returned to sit in the public road outside the
security gate at S.W. Marine Drive. Apparently a number of riot police
arrived to support the 50+ RCMP already present and quickly began to
heavily pepper-spray the protesters while physically pushing them back
around the corner. The police continued to pepper-spray this group and
push
them back as the Leader's Murdercade made their escape, leaving by an
unplanned route. Most of the pepper soaked protesters only heard the
cars
as they either had their eyes shut or were prefusely tearing and hurting
from the spraying. No one was arrested at this scene, especially not the
dictators or their RCMP security force.

For those not at the earlier rally, the large amount of pepper-spray came
from fire-extinguisher size containers strapped to the backs of many
officers. Police dogs were reported at S.W. Marine as well as
machine-guns
in the hands of some riot police. A small group of 5-6 appeared late on
the
scene at S.W. Marine as the protesters were to one side and the limos
were
leaving. They were apparently violently threatened using obscenity and
one
minor had a gun pointed in his face.

All in all, the arrest total for the day was 51, bring the total arrest
count since Sept.22 to 68 arrests. No one, except for the precieved
organizer, was charged.  I won't even get into the harrassment and
delay
tactics experienced while waiting for their release that night at the RCMP
station in Richmond. Those who were arrested prior to Tueday had been
charged and released after signing agreementents not to participate in
future protests, one of those was rearrested and remains in jail after
breaking his agreement.

Those arrested included people from UBC, SFU, UVIC, Langara,
Evergreen
College (Olympia, Washington), ETAN, international students, the
concerned
public,  a member of the BC Civil Liberties Assocation and many others,
in
other words, many humans participated and willingly (and a few
unwilling)
sacrificed their bodies to protest against APEC and it's "leaders".

The thousands who witnessed and participated in these protests will
never
forget what happened and what they saw.


                                        Peace and Love,

                                                        Yang

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 1956 16:25:39 +0000
From: Chris Trueman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Oh Canaduh, what's wrong with you?  Tuesday, Nov. 25, an
account.

I'm sorry the following message is so disjointed and poorly written,
but I'm still reeling from yesterday. Never before have I felt so
helpless and broken-hearted.  Please keep me posted:

	Being a direct witness to police brutality at the SW Marine Drive
blockade I thought I would share my story (all of which is completely
accurate and can be mostly corroborated by video taken by the lone
media- a CBC camera man)  Please watch CBC's Broadcast 1 news
report
on Wednesday for this footage and an interview with the cameraman:

		After the stalemate and arrest of Jono and another
individual at the
larger road blockade (after the Rose Garden protest), I wandered to
see what was going on at the other gates- particularily the SW Marine
Drive protest. It seemed to be the only available route that could
logically be used by the motorcades leaving UBC, since NW was heavily
blockladed.
	I arrived to see a group of 20-30 people sitting with more standing

on the adjacent sidewalk.  In a frightening display, RCMP officers
jumped out of a train of vans and began moving quickly toward the
barricade saw horses.  A gray-haired, stocky man introduced himself as

STAFF SERGEANT STUART and proceeded to inform the people sitting
on
the road that he was prepared to use force to clear the road in any
fashion he saw fit. This angry warning was so quick and sudden that it
took many by surprise, though most everyone got up, realizing violence
by the RCMP was inevitable in this particular situation. While
everyone was getting up, a man with the megaphone-  a blond-haired
individual that had led the protestors from the NW to SW sites- stated
that "people have the individual choice whether to leave or..."  This
was cut off by an immediate and constant pepper spraying by STAFF
SERGEANT STUART and his fellow officers.
	There was virtually seconds between the warning and the
abuse.
Nearly all the protestors- almost all of which were moving- were
soaked with spray. The barricade saw horses were pushed into people
and people on the sidewalk blaketed with spray- despite not being
involved in direct civil disobediance.  What made matters worse was
that they kicked and pushed the disoriented protestors who were
stumbling to the edge of the road- blinded. This further brutality can
be seen on the CBC cameraman's footage during a cloudy haze in which

he was also sprayed. This is before the footage seems to be cut off.
	There were awful screams and crying.  I saw one female pushed
to the
ground as an officer decided she wasn't moving fast enough.  She was
blinded and tears streamed with mucus from her eyes and nose.  The
RCMP then chased us up the side road spraying people at random.  I
screamed at Staff Sargeant Stuart to look at what he had done and what

he was doing and he angrily growled he was "going to spray
everybody".
He was a man possessed and I will never forget his face- his rage.
	As my friend Ivan poured water into the cameraman's eyes, The
RCMP
pushed up even further, chasing protestors down the road.  It was this
surge that saw the attack of the blonde-haired man with the megaphone.

There was complete spraying of his body and further barrage of arms,
fists and legs as he was dragged to the other side of the line.  An
ambulence was allowed through the line shortly after, but the RCMP
said nothing.  They stood in lines, three or four deep- some with
smirks and smiles, few with clear regret and sadness for what they had
done.  Behind them, riot police with guns and shields stomped by.
	An image engraved in my mind is one protestor calmly stepping
backwards saying "shame, shame, shame, shame, ....." softly and
fearlessly- staring directly into the eyes of a burly RCMP officer
holding a cannister of pepper spray exactly 6 inches from his eyes.
	I demand to know why we were handled in this way; why I was
sprayed
indirectly four times during the (entire) protest, when I never once
confronted an officer or was a threat to anyone. I simply wanted to
practise my constitutional right to protest and have these "leaders"
see that APEC does not have my support. We were swept under the
carpet.  Our voices were silenced.






	Chris Trueman




	[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
N  i  c  k         B  l  o  m  l  e  y

Associate Professor
Department of Geography
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6,
CANADA

(604) 291-3713 (tel)
(604) 291-5841 (fax)
[log in to unmask] (email)




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