Canada G8: The rocky road to justice

A team of Scottish cyclists have pedaled 1000 miles across the Canadian Rocky Mountains to bring the debt issue to the attention of G8 leaders at their Kananskis Summit meeting. Along the way they wore T-shirts and carried banners decorated by people in developing countries with messages for the G8. Ken Morrison describes the experience.

If there is one word canadians use a lot, it is "awesome". But really, no other word comes close to describing the experience of cycling from Vancouver on the Pacific coast, to Calgary near Kananaskis, the site of this years G8 Summit. Canadians use awesome to describe all sorts of experiences, like riding on a bike dressed as a frog to campaign against global warming, but for me its been the grandeur of the scenery which has dwarfed everything. A close second would be the incredibly Canadian hospitalty and warmth, which has sustained us through 13 days of fairly tough cycling.

Before we turned up, the Debt was yesterdays news, particularly as the Canadian PrimeMinister is supportive Debt reduction. I think we have made an impact, as much as one small group of cyclists could do. We were 7 to begin with, but joined by 1 Alaskan, and 2 Canadians as we went along. (One of them was so inspired by our Merchant of Venice & discussion, that she phone in work saying she was taking the rest of the week off to cycle with us for the last leg!) The media has also been interested in a supportive , non cinical way. We (I) have been on national news twice on CBC (The equivalent to BBC and Ben once on local tv. We've also had articles in local papers: one young journalist in Princetoun was so inspired that he set up his own Debt relief campaign from his newspaper. And we've had our photos taken more than once (including a nice one of me in the Calgary Herald, which I now like more than the Glasgow Herald)

Canadians are concerned people. they care about the environment, and want their government to ratify Koyoto. They are anti big (USA) business, and have a basic sense of justice and liberty. The equivalent of Jubilee in Canada is Karios, and they produced a good paper for the summit, linking debt to the South wiht debt to the environment, debt to our dissaffected youth and debt to the first nation canandians. Their best camapigning group I've seen is "The Raging Grannies" , a king of political singing kettle; this idea has to take off in the UK! Unfortunately, their government has been acting scared leading up to the summit, and 58 out of 60 African delegates to the alternative G6B summit (the Group of 6 Billion not invited to the summit) were refused visas. One of our group was arrested on an immigration technicality and spent over 30 hours in jail before being freed, so the atmosphere has not always good. If there has not been many people from the South here, their voices have been hear, and we have done our best to convey their message. Many are deeply suspicious or antagonistic towards NEPAD, and speak passionately about what the west owes them rather than the other way round.

We have taken part in two small but exciting demonstrations since arriving on Calgary: the first was a critical mass cycle ride round the city when we arrived. There were about 300 cyclists bringing the city to a temporary standstill, and letting us admire the views without worrying about care. Then on Sunday 23rd there was a family march, attended by 2,500. This was such fun, with imagination and humour in place of the violence and confrontation we saw in Genoa last year. Pity the poor police marshalling the walk: they had to cycle round in bullet proof vests with the temperature over 30 degrees! That's the demonstrations over for us, although we're off to the University for the G6B conference today discussion Africa & Globalistaion and liberty. On Tuesday there is a die-in and Wednesday there is a anti logging "I'd rather wear anything than GAP" protest outside the GAP shop where everyone is taking their clothes off. Don't worry, we won't embarrass you or Scotland by taking part in this!! Its been a wonderful humbling mind expanding experience, and one I hope you can feel a little bit in touch with.

But the highlight of the trip for me was on Friday 21st when we went up to Kananaskis. we made a human chain round the first sign "Kananaskis improvement ares (!)" I had hoped just to get to the road end to get our photos taken, but amazingly found the first metal gate open so we just cycled on, and on. 21 gates later, we made it to the site of the conference, and proudly waved our banners & tee shirts under the flags of the G8 and the Kananaskis summit. We went out to the rim over the newly carpeted platforms awaiting the great and good and took in the view. And really, if that cannot inspire our leaders to act with humility care and compassion then nothing will.

Ken Morrisson
October 2002