Grizzlies, Guns and the G8 Summit
June 26 -- It was once called the best kept secret of the magnificent Alberta Rockies, a region blessed with majestic evergreens on snowcapped mountains dotted with sapphire lakes, hot springs and situated gloriously far from the maddening crowds.
But today, the Kananaskis natural reserve in western Canada is playing host to a high-profile gathering of the leaders of some of the world's most powerful countries as they get together for the 2002 G8 summit.
Of the protesters, demonstrators and sundry activists who these days routinely congregate alongside police barricades at international gatherings, there will be precious few.
A year after the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy saw violent clashes between protesters and police resulting in the death of one demonstrator, delegates at this year's summit are more likely to see grizzly bears than anti-globalization anarchists.
And that's just how the organizers of the 2002 G8 summit want it, although they couch it in more diplomatic terms.
"What we really want to do here is get back to basics with a retreat-style meeting," Michael O'Shaughnessy, spokesman for G-8 summit organizers, told reporters last week, citing the relative informality of the first G8 meeting in Rambouillet, France, in 1975.
Activists Bemoan Remote Venue
But activists and rights groups are not thrilled with the G8's return to nature.
For one, the summit is being held in a protected natural reserve, making it especially difficult for environmental rights activists and many demonstrators who, while rallying for and against different causes, generally consider environmental issues a part of their agendas. Past international meetings have, in some cases, involved violent rampages by protesters which has left a trail of destruction.
"We decided not to organize events at the venue of the summit because it's a sensitive environment, a natural park," says Melissa Scaman, a spokeswoman for G8 ACT (Action Coordinating Team), an umbrella group coordinating various rights organizations.
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