The Globe and Mail reports, “About 200 protesters chanting ‘Arrest Bush’ were outside the Sheraton Guildford Hotel Thursday morning, where former U.S. President George W. Bush (spoke this) afternoon. …A couple dozen protesters from Occupy Vancouver took transit from downtown Vancouver to Surrey together, chanting ‘We are the 99 per cent’. …Surrey RCMP shut down 104th Ave between 152nd and 154th Street to make room for the protesters, which quickly grew at 11 am PT.”
“Mr. Bush’s appearance at the Surrey Economic Summit has ignited controversy. Groups including Amnesty International and Lawyers Against the War have called on Canadian authorities to arrest Mr. Bush for torture and war crimes. They allege his support of the use of torture by U.S. forces in Guantanamo Bay and in international conflicts is a crime under Canadian law.” On October 13, the Council of Canadians endorsed the call from Lawyers Against the War to the Surrey economic summit organizers to cancel George W. Bush’s invitation to speak in Surrey, for the Canadian government to bar him from entering Canada, and failing that for the police to arrest him upon his entry into Canada.
“About 20 minutes before Mr. Bush and (former president Bill) Clinton were set to speak, protesters began to gather at a barricade at the back of the hotel. Police officers stood silently as protesters yelled ‘Shame on you!’ (for not arrested Bush). The crowd was co-operative as one police officer asked them to move back. …As the former presidents spoke to summit attendees inside, the protest fell silent. Demonstrators (then) sat in a line on a median facing police on 104th Ave. Others formed a circle in the centre of the 152nd Street intersection. ‘George Walker Bush, we have the building surrounded…’, one protester yelled into a megaphone.”
“In her opening speech at the summit, Premier Christy Clark addressed ongoing Occupy Vancouver protests and those gathering outside Thursday morning. ‘I think the folks outside, and outside in Vancouver and around the world, make one important point. We do need to be concerned about the middle class,’ she said. ‘But how do you do that? You don’t do that by being outside. You do that by being in here. Job-creators,’ including those attending the summit will have the greatest influence on the B.C. economy, she said.”
Related blogs can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=11111, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10726 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10755.
