"All Empires Fall" read the largest sign in the protest, an imposing
three stories tall.
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Watchful eyes overlooking Cornwallis Park. At one point the figure on the
right had what looked like a sniper rifle trained on the unarmed crowd, but
I was unable to get a clear photo of that. The observers also
took photos of the crowd using a large lens camera.
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The flag of Earth. Some day, sooner or later, there is going to
have to be a world government to cope with world problems that
go beyond nations and borders. When that day comes, we could
do a lot worse than to have this as our flag.
This was about as close as the crowd got to President Bush who was
at that moment sitting about 100 metres away listening to Prime
Minister Paul Martin speak. The crowd stood there for several minutes
then police told the protest organizers to start heading people back,
the protest organizers did, and the crowd began heading back towards
Cornwallis Park.
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Protester wearing a Corporate U.S. flag, where 50 corporation
logos replace the stars representing the fifty U.S. states. The
peacefulness of the crowd was impressive. Official estimates of the
crowd size ran from 3,000 to 6,000 people. My own jackleg calculations
put it at around 5,000 people.
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As the crowd headed back to Cornwallis Park, several people
with drums began an improvised percussion with a catchy beat
that got some folks dancing.
Many of the crowd stayed in Cornwallis Park to listen to
various speakers but most began to go back to their normal
weekday lives and dispersed without incident.
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