By Donna Ortega,
News Editor
QUEBEC CITY, CANADA , April 24, 2001:
AS THE Third Summit of the Americas closed on Sunday, officials started the tally of costs for staging the largest hemispheric event to date in historic Quebec City. It is a task which is likely to take another three months while the bills come in but already there are unofficial estimates that security has taken a big chunk, from the budget, of $100 million.
Officials said that they did not know how much the damage wrought by protesters had cost and neither did they know at this stage exactly how much the entire Summit organisation had cost. They would not confirm the $100 million estimate for security which involved the erection of a three-metre high fence around the conference zone.
The federal government is expected to pick up the tab and Quebec City mayor Paul L'Allier told reporters that businesses which had suffered damage during the Summit would be compensated.
Canadian Air Force Colonel Chris Hadfield took off for a historic spacewalk by a Canadian astronaut as 34 leaders of the hemisphere brought the curtain down on a three-day Summit of the Americas which they described as making concrete progress toward a more prosperous and democratic hemisphere. Within hours the fence was being dismantled, clean-up crews were at work and protesters were on their way home, bringing back calm by Monday morning to this historic city.
"It was a great success," declared Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien despite the fact that Venezuela refused to sign on to two important sections of the Summit Declaration. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wanted "participatory democracy" instead of "representative democracy" and said that he could not commit to completing negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005. "We don't know that it can be done because we all have to go to our Congresses," he told reporters after the Summit.
Freedom
US president George Bush said he had been impressed by the discussions they had had. "Ours is a hemisphere defined by freedom and strong partnerships that will help us achieve what we want," he said. Mr. Bush, who was attending his first Summit, said he "listened a lot and learned a lot".
He said that the Summit had been an opportunity for sceptics to see that "wealth can be dispersed throughout the hemisphere." Mr. Bush was confident of having the US Congress approve trade promotion authority (fast track) so that the US could move on free trade agreement. "Most presidents have had it and I intend to get it," he said.
Asked whether the Summit had suffered a credibility and legitimacy problem, Mr. Chretien said all the heads of government were democratically elected and they had made considerable effort to give civil society the opportunity to participate in discussions "such as never seen before". He said that more than 20,000 people had demonstrated peacefully but the people who wanted to promote disorder were known to travel from one Summit to another.
"The best way to oppose," he advised them, "is to be elected in Parliament."
The parallel Summit the People's Summit sponsored in part by the Canadian government to the tune of Cdn.$1/2 million also wrapped up its discussions concluding that the FTAA meant little more than negatives for the hemisphere and would be destructive of the environment.
Civil society
Some sixty civil society groups attended the Civil Society Consultation during the Summit. Representatives of civil society who had complained about being unable to meet with the leaders were offered a chance to speak with Canadian and foreign ministers from the region to air their views on globalisation and free trade. Not all of them took up the offer but those who did made forceful statements of their own for advancing the "human agenda" during the talks which were broadcast live.
Protesters, were for the most part peaceful though others especially the so-called 'Black Bloc" so-named because of the colour of their attire taunted security personnel and gave vent to their disagreement with violence. Police geared up with masks and shields, teargas, rubber bullets and water cannons to meet them while another 25,000 people marched peacefully on Saturday while delegates on the inside faced each other in a debate aiming to harmonise their differences and build a community of values. The march turned into a street carnival as costumed demonstrators massed to wildly diverse music and yelling.
Business writer for The Sun Sentinel Doreen Hemlock told The Gleaner how she had encountered a woman protester draped in the Jamaican flag among the thousands marching through Quebec City on Saturday. The woman who lives in Canada told Hemlock that she was against free trade. She said her mother who worked with the Ford Motor Company was losing her job as the company pulled out for Mexico. Hemlock's report in The Sun Sentinel identified the woman as 28 year-old Karen Tomlinson.
One hundred protesters were arrested and five policemen slightly injured according to unconfirmed reports of the clash on the streets as protesters hurled rocks at police who returned their fire with tear gas on the opening night. By the end of the three-day meeting the number of those arrested had almost quadrupled and about thirty more policemen among those injured. There were complaints that the police used excessive force but Prime Minister Chretien praised the police for their restraint and discipline. "We will not tolerate the breaking of the peace of the people," he stressed.
