Protestors mark countdown to olympics
"Around 100 anti-Olympics protesters marked the one-year countdown to
the 2010 Games with a noisy rally and march through downtown Vancouver
on Thursday night.The protest began with a rally in Victory Square around 7 p.m. and
continued with a demonstration up West Georgia to Burrard, with
marchers accompanied by police on bikes and motorcycles.
Worldwide protests urge end to attacks on Gaza
Demonstrations were held in cities around the world to protest
Israel's military offensive against Hamas as Israeli ground troops
entered the territory on Saturday.
In Canada, rallies were scheduled in Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
At least 1,000 people gathered in Dundas Square, in Toronto's central downtown business district.
Officers on foot, bicycle and horseback patrolled the area as
demonstrators for and against Israel gathered on either side of Yonge
Street.
The rally was passionate but peaceful as people shouted at each other from across the street.
Cops shutdown concert outside Vancouver's injection site
"We didn't get to feed as many people as we wanted to. We didn't get
to see a Juno-winning band that supports Insite. Hopefully they'll come
back."
The event, Play Music Not Politics, was shut down shortly
before it was set to start at 5:30 p.m. after organizers closed one
lane of the road.
City officials had asked police to support them
in enforcing a traffic bylaw after the PHS Community Services Society,
which operates Insite, was denied a permit for the event.
"We
spoke with the organizers and had discussions with city officials on
alternative locations . . . we offered them a permit on a location 100
feet away on Cordova where they could party all night if they wanted
to," said police spokesperson Const. Jana McGuinness.
"The organizers did not want that. They were adamant to stay on Hastings Street," she added.
Paramedics protest in Vancouver over underfunding of ambulance service
"We are now working in trailers for stations. The crappiest stations
are literally crumbling beneath our feet. We've been evacuated many
times because of safety hazards such as mould and leaking," Chute said.
"The B.C. Ambulance Service and the B.C. government don't seem to
want to properly fund the stations the way that paramedics deserve and
the patients of our province deserve."
The B.C. Ambulance Service, staffed by more than 3,000 members of
the paramedics union, provides public ambulance service under the
authority of the Emergency and Health Services Commission of the
provincial Ministry of Health.
Protesters disrupt Olympic Spirit Train kickoff
Police arrested two people Sunday as protesters armed with placards,
air horns and megaphones overpowered the kickoff of the Canadian
Pacific Spirit Train in Port Moody.
Shouting "Homes, no games!"
and drowning out the scheduled entertainment, the noisy protesters
chanted for more than an hour. The performers continually turned up the
volume, but were eventually unable to proceed.
"I think the idea
is to make some f---in' noise here," said Garth Mullins, a fixture at
anti-Olympic protests. "They're trying to drown us out, so let's drown
them out."
Elizabeth May likes protests..
Political wrangling almost barred the Green Party from an upcoming
televised leadership debate as Canadians prepare to elect a new
government on Oct. 14.
Green Leader Elizabeth May said public protests helped her gain a
spot on the national stage despite attempts by the ruling Conservatives
and New Democratic Party to shut her out.
TV debate officials
said Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton
threatened to boycott the event if May took part.
Having May
appear would be comparable to two Liberals on the platform because she
favors the election of Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, they said.
BC truckers protest high gas prices
Truck operators in B.C. protested the high cost of fuel on Labour
Day Monday by slowly driving their rigs from the suburban community of
Surrey to downtown Vancouver.
Trucks with flags roamed down Highway 91 across the Alex Fraser
Bridge, which connects Richmond and New Westminster, and then drove
along Knight Street into the downtown core.
Riot in Montreal after another Police shooting
- A riot broke out in Montreal on Sunday night and a police officer
was reportedly shot in the leg in the same neighbourhood where a young
man was shot and killed by police the day before.
Several blazes were set in the same neighbourhood.
Montreal police riot squad were sent out late Sunday to deal with the demonstrators.
The police officer is suffering from non-life-threatening injuries.
On Saturday, a police patrol in a Montreal park turned ugly when an
officer opened fire on three young people, killing one man and wounding
two others.
An 18-year-old man, identified by his sister as Freddy Alberto Villanueva, died from his wounds in hospital.
The other two, an 18-and a 20-year-old, are reported to be in stable condition.
Church group to protest funeral of Tim Mclean, counter protest to form human wall
Members of a fundamentalist American church group planning to stage
a protest at the funeral for a Winnipeg man brutally killed on a
Greyhound bus have managed to enter Canada, a spokeswoman told CBC News
on Friday.
Canadian border guards are under orders to prevent members the
Westboro Baptist Church, a controversial Kansas-based sect, from
entering the country.
The group intends to picket the funeral of 22-year-old Tim McLean to
tell Canadians his slaying on July 30 was God's response to Canadian
policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and divorce and remarriage.