It s not easy to upstage the opening of meeting with 34 leaders including U.S. President George Bush. Despite what seemed like endless volleys of tear gas, mostly peaceful protesters came back again and again to Rene Levesque Boulevard in Quebec City to face down the police and in so doing captured the attention of world media. The battle lasted almost two hours as police chased demonstrators off the plateau with heavy use of tear gas and demonstrators came back after recovering from the stinging pain in their eyes and throats. The most poignant moment was a sit down of about 20 people, flashing peace signs in the midst of a fog of tear gas.
Most media attention is on the perimeter breach and it was an impressive action.
First a few then more climbed up the chain-link, surrounded the center of the city to protect the Summit of the Americas, and in a rocking action pushed it down. By my watch it took less than five minutes for the hated fence to come down. The amazing thing was that only about 100 people rushed through the fence. The rest held back. It was the protesters not the police who controlled the crowd.