Hundreds of protesters rally in downtown Calgary ahead of G7 summit

They walked, chanted, agitated flags and signs, and have distributed brochures on the problems that are dear to them, in the hope that G7 leaders would take note.

Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators joined the city center of Calgary while leaders around the world began to arrive for the start of the Summit G7 In Rocky Mountain Resort in Kananaskis, Alberta, about an hour west of the city.

The Summit’s site closed to the public, the organizers have created three “designated demonstration zones” in Calgary and one in Banff and promised that the live video flows of the events will be broadcast on large screens of Kananaskis to the chiefs present.

Apart Certain traffic disturbancesSunday protests were largely peaceful.

Carol and Mike Schmidt held a small Canadian flag as they stood in front of Calgary’s town hall – one of Calgary’s protest zones – to denounce Donald Trump’s desire to make Canada on the 51st state.

“We never become the 51st state. We are proud of the Canadians and it is a very strong message that we want to give, ”said Carol Schmidt.

“We are very proud to live in a free democratic country and that we can come and use our voice today and which can be heard like that.”

These comments were taken over by Lesley Boyer who described the demonstrations as “a unique opportunity, to put myself and to mark me on the right side of history”.

“My two grandfathers fought fascists and I am very disturbed by the comments of the 51st state,” said Boyer. “I am very afraid that he can really try something, so it’s my way of saying, in a Canadian way, go. We are not interested in being your 51st state. Come on Trump, we don’t want you here. ”

The environment and indigenous rights have also been an objective for many demonstrators.

“Water is life, water is very important. Without water, we would not be here,” said Josie Augr, of the first nation of Bigstone Cree.

“Our planet is made up of water, our bodies are made up of water-without water, we will stop existing as people-with the rarity that occurs with water around the world and drought and the climate change that we live, it makes it more precarious for us to think of the needs of our children, our grandchildren, our grandchildren and our grandchildren”, added Augr.

“Climate change is largely absent from the agenda,” said Jared Blustein, executive director of Calgary Climate Talk. “You know that this is in a nominal form, but I do not think that leaders take significant measures on climate change.”

“We are increasingly experiencing impacts of climate change, more serious storms, more serious heat domes – our world is changing and we have to take a collective position to make sure that we do not destroy our world for future peoples and for us today,” added Blustein.

With global affairs such as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East which should appear prominently in the discussions of G7 leaders, there were also several larger protest groups to add their voice to the debates.

They included a noisy pro-Palestinian march around the city center of Calgary who disrupted traffic, forcing the police, who kept attentive eye on the demonstrators, to intervene so that the flow of traffic can resume.

With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mod, also invited to the summit by Prime Minister Mark Carney, a group of people calling for an independent cashmere – who was at the center of a recently renewed military conflict between India and Pakistan – also gathered in front of the Calgary city hall.

“We need the law of self-determination, whether we were going to India or Pakistan and remain independent,” said Nazir Asif.

Some demonstrators, such as members of the revolutionary communist party, have little hope that the G7 summit will achieve something significant.

“We believe that these G7 world leaders have led the world to a crisis. We have a cost of living crisis, we have an environmental degradation, growing tariff wars, rising wars around the world, and they have no solution because their system has no solution, “said Jordan Chyzowski.

“Capitalism is in an impasse. What we need is the working class to take control of the economy and manage it democratically by our class and allocate resources if necessary instead of a few billionaires. And we are trying to build a revolutionary party which will be necessary to direct this struggle. ”

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