Ottawa

Ottawa is Canada's capital city and seat of government. It is Canada's fourth largest city with a metro population of more than 1.1 million people. Ottawa is located in the Ottawa Valley in the eastern portion of the province of Ontario. The city was established as Bytown in 1850 but renamed Ottawa in 1855. The current mayor is Bob Chiarell, however there is an election in November 2006 which could elect a new mayor.

Activism

Ottawa has a large activist community. The activist community in Ottawa gained momentum through several large protests being held in the capital between 2001 and 2006. There are many groups in the capital representing various political philosophies. These include NoWar-Paix, Under Pressure Collective and the Ottawa Panhandlers Union.

G20 Protest

In September 2001, the meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20) and annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank was scheduled to be held in Washington, DC. Citing security concerns after September 11th, the meeting could no longer be held in Washington. Ottawa was selected as the host after then Canadian finance minister Paul Martin made the offer.

Several thousand people showed up to demonstrate the meeting and protestors were met with the first examples of state repression after September 11th. Peaceful protestors were beaten by police and arrested without provocation. Many members of the media were also targetted by the police. As a result of the actions by police, the city created the Major Events Liason Team (MELT).

Take the Capital

Canada was chair and host for the year 2002 in the Group of Eight (G8). Before 2001, Ottawa had been considered a host city, but after the violence which erupted in Genoa in July 2001, the events of September 11th and the events of the G20 protests, Canadian officials decided to hold the summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.

The Kananaskis site was only open to the leaders of the G8 nations, their personnel and some members of the media. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) formed a security zone in the park and protestors were not allowed in the park for the duration of the summit. The security zone was extensive and cost Canadian taxpayers upwards of 100 million dollars.

Protest organizers in Ottawa had already been planning for Ottawa as site of the G8 summit instead shifted their strategy to holding a direct action whereby they would shut down the city's downtown core. The motto of the protest was "Take The Capital!" ("Prenons le Capital!" in French) referring to activists shutting down the core of the city for two days in June.

The protest was held in on June 26th and June 27th, the same days as the summit was being held in Alberta, and was endorsed by many activist groups across Ontario and Quebec. Members of OCAP in Toronto as well as members of CLAC in Montreal were present during the protest. Similar protests were held in Calgary, which was the nearest city to the Kananaskis resort.

The June 26th actions featured a snake march through the city's streets. It also featured the creation of a squat in the city's core by a group of activists who were calling for a Seven Year Squat to assist those without housing to find it, or take it if necessary. The squat was violently shut down by police early on the morning of July 7th 2002.

The Take The Capital protests were important for the evolution of Ottawa's activist community. The protest helped showcase Ottawa as a city capable of hosting a major demonstration against the government. Ottawa Indymedia had high activity at the time of the protests. The protest also assisted with the development of several Ottawa groups including Anti-Capitalist Action which is now defunct.