They marched, chanted, waved flags and signs, and handed out pamphlets on the issues dear to their hearts, in hopes the G7 leaders would take notice.
Hundreds of protesters rallied in downtown Calgary on Sunday as leaders from around the world began arriving for the start of the G7 summit in the Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis, Alta., about an hour west of the city.
With the site of the summit closed to the public, organizers have set up three “designated demonstration zones” in Calgary and one in Banff and have promised that live video feeds of the protests will be broadcast on big screens in Kananaskis to the leaders in attendance.
Aside from some traffic disruptions, Sunday’s protests were largely peaceful.
Carol and Mike Schmidt held a small Canadian flag as they stood in front of Calgary city hall — one of the protest zones in Calgary — to denounce Donald Trump’s desire to make Canada the 51st state.
“We’re never becoming the 51st state. We’re proud Canadians and that’s a very loud message we want to give,” said Carol Schmidt.
“We’re very proud to live in a democratic country that’s free and that we can come and use our voice today and that can be heard like this.”
Those comments were echoed by Lesley Boyer who described the protests as “a once in a lifetime opportunity, to put myself and mark myself on the right side of history.”
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“Both of my grandfathers fought fascists and I’m very disturbed about the 51st state comments,” said Boyer. “I am very afraid that he might actually try something, so this is my way to just say, in a Canadian way, go away. We’re not interested in being your 51st State. Go away Trump, we don’t want you here.”
The environment and Indigenous rights was also a focus for many protesters.
“Water is life, water is very important. Without water we wouldn’t be here,” said Josie Augr, from the Bigstone Cree First Nation.
“Our planet is composed of water, our bodies are composed of water — without water, we would cease to exist as people — with the scarcity that’s happening with water throughout the world and the drought and the climate change that we’re experiencing, it’s making it more precarious for us to think about the needs of our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren and our great great- grandchildren,” added Augr.
“Climate change is largely absent from the agenda,” said Jared Blustein, executive director of Calgary Climate Talk. “You know it’s there in a nominal form but I don’t think the leaders are going to take meaningful action on climate change.”
“We’re experiencing more and more of the impacts of climate change, more severe storms, more severe heat domes — our world is changing and we need to take a collective stand to make sure that we’re not destroying our world for future peoples and for us today,” added Blustein.
With global affairs such as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East expected to feature prominently in the G7 leaders discussions, there were also several larger protest groups on hand to add their voices to the debates.
They included a loud pro-Palestinian march around downtown Calgary that disrupted traffic, forcing police, who were keeping a close eye on the protesters, to intervene so traffic flow could resume.
With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mod, also invited to the summit by Prime Minister Mark Carney, a group of people calling for an independent Kashmir — which has been the focus of recently renewed military conflict between India and Pakistan — also gathered in front of Calgary city hall.
“We need the right of self determination, whether we are going to India or Pakistan and remain independent,” said Asif Nazir.
Some protesters, such as the members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, have little hope the G7 summit will accomplish anything of significance.
“We think that these G7 world leaders have led the world into a crisis. We have a cost of living crisis, we have environmental degradation, the rising tariff wars, the rising wars around the world, and they have no solution because their system has no solution,” said Jordan Chyzowski.
“Capitalism is at a dead end. What we need is the working class to take control of the economy and run it democratically by our class and allocate the resources for need instead of profit of a few billionaires. And we’re trying to build a Revolutionary party that’s going to be needed to lead that struggle.”
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