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Anti-G8 protest near Olympic cauldron site ends with six arrests
By Rhiannon Coppin, Vancouver Sun
Six protesters were arrested early Friday evening after trying to block a bus of delegates from leaving the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel located at 900 Canada Place Way.
The three men and three women were in a group of “about eighty,” the Vancouver Police reported, who had begun a peaceful demonstration earlier Friday outside the Vancouver Art Gallery.
According to the police, the rally was part of a movement called “the Peoples Street Summit in Opposition to the G8.”
A meeting taking place inside the hotel was the protest’s target. Vancouver Police spokesperson Constable Jana McGuinness said in a statement that the group marched to Canada Place where the protesters “repeatedly pushed against a police line that was erected to prevent them from forcing their way inside the hotel.”
“When their attempts failed, the protesters turned their attention to blocking the roadway in an effort to stop a bus containing delegates from leaving the hotel,” McGuinness said.
Up to 60 officers were eventually called in, McGuinness reported, and “significant damage” was done to police bicycles and equipment.
McGuinness noted that a number of the protesters were ‘the usual suspects’ and that a handful of those present were dressed in black and wearing masks.
Raw video shot and posted online by CTV showed an uneasy and even brutal confrontation between the protestors and the police.
The 20 or so officers in the frame were attempting to clear a path for a charter bus that was attempting to leave the area of the Vancouver Convention Centre.
The three-minute video was peppered by the high-pitched screeches of several distressed women. Early on, a police officer appeared to grab onto a protester’s bicycle and used the metal frame to launch the cyclist backwards.
At one point, a Vancouver Police officer dragged a woman across the pavement by her shirt collar as she cried out. Another officer shoved a cameraman halfway across the street onto the sidewalk.
At one point the shooter of the video that had been posted online with CTV was approached by an officer who asked him: “What media are you with?”
Once the bus started moving, a few protesters ran ahead and stood in fro of its path again, at which point the police shoved them away again.
Officers ran down the street alongside the bus until it was clear of the scene and could leave with its motorcycle escorts.
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/Anti+protest+near+Olympic+cauldron+site+ends+with+arrests/3059621/story.html