Canadians protest Bush visit
By G. Dunkel
Canada and the United States are the world's biggest trading
partners--goods valued at over $1.2 billion cross their border
daily. Canada is the world's largest country in area, but 90
percent of its people live within 100 miles of the U.S. border.
Its economy is totally dominated by U.S. multinational
companies.
Yet when President George W. Bush decided to visit Canada
Nov. 30-Dec. 1, he was greeted by major protests in the
capital, Ottawa, Ontario, and in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
When 20,000 people came out Nov. 30 to challenge Bush in
Ottawa, it was the biggest protest there in years. Hundreds
even showed up to demonstrate in a snow storm at 6:30 the
following morning when Bush left town.
The 7,000 who came out in Halifax on Dec. 1, a work day,
made it the largest protest that city had ever seen.
Some 25 cities had smaller rallies in solidarity with Ottawa
and Halifax.
Although Canada has major trade disputes with the United
States--including bans on beef and softwood lumber exports that
have cost that country billions of dollars--the focus of the
demonstrations was opposition to U.S. imperialism and its
illegal, unjust war in Iraq.
Protests started even before the visit. Michael Mandel and
Gail Davidson of the Canadian group Lawyers Against the War
sent a letter to the country's immigration minister Nov. 26,
outlining reasons why Bush should be excluded from Canada as a
war criminal. LAW then filed a criminal complaint against Bush
on Dec. 2.
In Ottawa, cops were out in great force, with helicopters,
SWAT teams and all the paraphernalia of repressive crowd
control. There was a short, sharp scuffle with police and some
protesters were arrested.
There was a broad range of speakers at the rally in Ottawa,
including politicians from the New Democratic Party, a
social-democratic electoral party; leaders of the Canadian
Labor Congress; Arab Canadians; and religious figures.
Denise Veilleux of the Union of Pro gressive Forces in
Quebec (UFP) linked the war in Iraq to imperialism as a system
of exploitation and oppression. She got some of the warmest
applause and cheers.
Many in the crowd were French-speakers from nearby Quebec,
across the Ottawa River from the capital city.
Carolyn Parish, a parliament member expelled from the
Liberal Party after she trampled on a Bush doll on a satirical
television show, expressed her solidarity with the Palestinian
cause.
The political strength of these demonstrations will make it
harder for Prime Minister Paul Martin of the Liberal Party to
openly support the U.S. war in Iraq. They also showed the world
that the U.S. empire is highly unpopular--even with its closest
neighbors.
Reprinted from the Dec. 16, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page