Here is a report on June 18 in Ottawa
Hats off to all those who made it a memorable day everywhere.
People met in Confederation park and began the march with songs courtesy of the Raging Grannies. The grannies are a group of seniors who use song and humour to highlight social and economic injustice. The day before, in a local tabloid, the cops were quoted as saying they might "over -react" since paraders didn't "have a permit". In other words, the cops might break the law and/or not follow procedure. The grannies, however, were too much for them to handle and they maintained a safe distance, less they be scolded.
Next, marchers (varying from 60-100) throughout the afternoon set off. The marchers were made up of greens, trade unionists, anarchists, disarmament folks, students, a human cow, the cat in the hat, etc, etc for our first target, the Bank of Nova Scotia. Auditors were sent into the bank to conduct their moral audit of the institution. This target had been chosen given it's recent profiteering on the backs of students, many whom wind up bankrupt and jobless after graduation. Suits from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce kept close watch but didn't seem as interested when we suggested they might be next in line for an audit.
After highlighting bank abuse for a half hour or so, marchers then went on to the U.S. embassy. The RCMP (mounties for Disney) were a little freaked out and told marchers they were not allowed on the sidewalk because it was U.S. "property". This was news to us. When we asked for clarification, Mr. disney mountie pulled the usual neanderthal militarist reply:"I'm not arguing, this is an order". Visitors to Canada beware. You cannot ask a mountie a question. They are not programmed to answer.
Oh, but silly us. Since the cops closed off the area in front of the embassy we were forced to take part of Wellington Street (it runs in front of our parliament). I guess they really did want to help. Thanks to the disney mounties for helping us reclaim Wellington for awhile.
From the embassy of the new world order we stopped off at the National Press Gallery. Heck, we knew the media were hiding from us anyway and were stone cold silent about June 18. Those poor reporters. Nothing to do but wait around the bar for the latest message to be delivered to the people on behalf of their sponsors. Poor things don't get out much. So, we hung at the gallery awhile and offerred to even come up to the bar, in order that they wouldn't have to rise off their lazy pathetic arses to find a story.
After a while, we spotted two camerapersons making a run for it. We followed for awhile in close pursuit informing them that "the story is behind you". Upon closer scrutiny, we realized that one of these people carried golf clubs rather than journalistic type equipment. The weekend starts early at the National Press Gallery.
Next, we stooped at illustrious parasites "Anderson Consulting." Our British friends would likely know a little about this group. In Canada, they are well connected to government and actually profit greatly on showing the government how to cut social assistance.
From there, the march continued to our friends Monsanto. Auditors (including the cow) conducted their review of Monsanto. Sidewalk chalk was used to the maximum. The Western Canada Wilderness Society treated us to some street theatre showing how Monsanto uses it's influence to see that investigative journalists are fired or harrassed for highlighting the onerous and sinister side of Monsanto.
From there, marchers went on to target the Shell filling station in a very busy part of town. On the way there we were joined by two Pakistani shopkeepers, clearly pissed off at global capital. The filling station was shut down while the owner went nuts. "It's my busiest time of the week!", he screamed. We thanked him for this valuable bit of intellegence which will assist us in future actions. He couldn't have been all that upset, however. We noted that the Shell sign had been converted to $hell$. Maybe, like the disney mounties before him, he was actually helping us out in his own way with this new and unexpected logo. There was also a huge billboard for Captain Morgan Rum towering over us, which, instead of saying "the captain was here", now reads "the capitalist was here". The rum bottle had a $ sign on it followed by the statement "people before profit." Wow, even the Captain is questioning this greedy system!
Onward to to the Mexican Embassy. This was a last minute addition in light of more ethnic cleansing in Chiapas. The disney mounties, feeling smug that they were successful in blocking our path into the embassy were startled to find one of our own find another entrance He actually asked the disney mounties to let him out of the embassy. The brave mounties must have been a little astonished to see that they hadn't managed to close the gap. So sad. They could learn much from their colleagues in Chiapas regarding crowd control. In the meantime, a contact from the embassy was invited to speak to the crowd about the latest cleansing. He declined, but did agree to meet with the Chiapas Solidarity network the following Monday, which is another story.
Finally, marchers wound up at Raytheon, an arms manufacturer that makes laser guided missiles. Raytheon stands to make over a billion dollars in new weapons contracts. They were also the most rude of our targets. They were quite clear they would have nothing to say to us. After all, we don't have a billion bucks. Jack MacDonald, country manager of Raytheon, Inc., said he wouldn't talk to protesters. He was quoted in local media saying "I'm not interested in speaking to anyone about it, it doesn't really matter." How fitting that an arms profiteer would not desire any kind of dialogue. Must be bad for business. However, if you are thinking of asking for more details on laser guided missile systems you may want to contact Jack. He can tell you how effective these weapons are, how many people can be killed with one hit, how effectively they destroy the environment, whether water and sewage systems can be destroyed, how much money it costs per dead body, do they make cluster bombs, etc, etc, etc. His number is 613-567-3017. Those calling from overseas will need to look up the appropriate country code for Canada. The Canadian head office of Raytheon is located in Waterloo, Ontario (great location name for an arms dealer). That number is: 519-885-0110. They also list another number for Raytheon International at 613-233-4121. Raytheon business ethics dept can be contacted at: ethics-comments@raytheon.com
I'm sure Jack would love to hear from anyone interested in knowing more about their products and what they can do to human life, notwithstanding our animal friends.
David Bleakney
National Union Representative
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Ottawa