""We
can say: mission accomplished," added the Minister, according
to whom Canadians will have to pay a total bill exceeding 100 million
$. Mr. Ménard believes that each one of the police
mandates was brilliantly carried out, whether it be the security
of VIPs, the population, their properties or the peaceful demonstrators."
(François Cardinal,
"Police harshly criticized - Minister Ménard is nevertheless
satisfied with security", Le Devoir, Montreal, April
23, 2001.)
The Québec
Professional Federation of Journalists (FPJQ) and the League for Rights
and Freedoms expressed a point of view quite different from the Minister's.
League President André Paradis described as "brutal
and inacceptable" the methods used by the police forces on Saturday,
April 21 and during the following night. According to Mr. Paradis,
there was excessive use of tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets.
That's a lot closer to my own perceptions... The FPJQ reported
that at least three photographers and one journalist
were arrested while doing their work. Another photographer and
a radio reporter were hit by rubber bullets. "This is
worrisome," said FPJQ President, Hélène Pichette.
Let's not worry:
in their final declaration, the 34 heads of state who were meeting
inside the Perimeter Wall, comfortably protected from the people,
adopted a democratic
clause. Isn't that reassuring? I end this story with a
quote from journalist Jean Dion, from Le Devoir's April 23,
2001 issue:
"Since
bombs, rubber bullets and water cannons are not very effective at
tempering the zeal of "those who would destroy this very
good democratic system" (as put by Jean Chrétien),
the world leaders have to rely on generalized public passivity which
always ends up taking over. Passivity, isolation, and the
disgust expressed by the hosts of such events. The next meeting
of the World Trade Organization could take place in Qatar, the only
country who has offered to host it. In Qatar, demonstrations
are forbidden - like a few other things, presumably. That's
a security perimeter the size of a whole country. It takes
what it takes to make the world advance towards the glorious future
that the world itself is too stupid to foresee."
(Jean Dion,
"For outdoor use only")