Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 09:59:29 -0500
Subject: AUT: Ottawa Actions
From: Enda Brophy <eobrophy-AT-connectmail.carleton.ca>


Hey all-

A short description of the actions here in Ottawa.  Friday was the scene of
a sit-in at our War Dept, and a larger march took place on Saturday
beginning across the river in Hull (and thus across the provincial boundary
between Ontario and Quebec).

As others on the list from this part of the world will be able to tell you,
our winter climate is no friend to demonstrators, no matter what the cause.
On top of that we verged on breaking records on Friday in Ottawa, with a
morning low of -27 c.  Nevertheless, a few hundred marched to the war dept.
at dawn, the rough plan being to shut down as many entrances as possible.
Organized by Homes Not Bombs and local individuals from NOWAR, it went off
ok considering the circumstances.  I was particularly impressed with the
medics, who did an impressive job warding off frostbite and hypothermia.
The crowd for this action was drawn from the less confrontational quarters
of Ottawa's activist community.  At the same time the local Raging Grannies
blocked one of the entrances for a long while, demonstrating that direct
action isn't exclusively the prerogative of younger groups in the community!

Saturday's march was roughly 2-3000 strong (maybe Michael Handelmann has a
more accurate estimation though), and the rise in temperature to around -15
was certainly welcomed.  There was a wide variety of groups present.
Especially encouraging was the fact that there was a strong Francophone
presence at the event, something not at all guaranteed at local actions
(Friday's action was almost completely Anglo).  The crowd marched across the
bridge to Ottawa, by the US embassy, and, after a confused detour around the
other side of the embassy, to Parliament.

All in all it was refreshing for a town of technocrats and public servants,
and provided a small antidote to the dreariness of current events.

e.      



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