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QUEBEC CITY, CANADA - Sixty thousand people gathered in Quebec City April 20-22 to raise their voices against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Although motives and actions differed, everyone agreed: the FTAA would be harmful for many of the people in the 34 countries it wants to embrace.

Expecting large demonstrations against the FTAA, officials built a three metre high, four kilometre long fence around the entire downtown area where the leaders were meeting. The fence became a focal point for people's anger. Many of the media images from Quebec City were of angry, violent, protestors being tear gassed. But that was only one small part of what was happening. I saw many other images.

***On April 20, 11,000 people marched into downtown Quebec City. My affinity group of Christians from KitchenerWaterloo ON, met up with Catholic Workers from Toronto ON. As we walked together, we sang "Freedom is Coming" and "We are walking in the light of God" in English, French, Swahili and Spanish.

***Two friends and I went up to a section of the fence. Behind the fence were fifty police in full riot gear gas masks, helmets, shields, batons. On our side of the fence, a thousand people sang, danced and drummed. My friends and I prayed at the fence as police photographed us.

***Our group of seventeen met with the three CPTers bound for Esgenoôpetitj (Burnt Church, New Brunswick). Together we sang a hymn whose words struck me in a new way:

"Not in the dark of buildings confining,
Not in some heaven light years away,
But here in this place, the new light is shining;
Now is the kingdom, now is the day."

***On April 21, near the fence, I passed a house where a resident had a hose coming out of her second story window. The water was running down, accessible to all people who needed it to rinse their eyes and clear their throats from tear gas. Her house was two blocks from the fence. I'm sure it will smell like tear gas for weeks.

***As police fired canister after canister of tear gas at the thousands of people gathered near the fence, the people held hands and chanted "walk walk walk" to remind everyone not to panic and run, which could have led to a stampede and people getting hurt.

***Six of us in a park, 150 metres away from the fence, planted corn to remember the people of Chiapas, Mexico and how "free" trade has hurt them. As we prayed, the police threw tear gas to disperse us.

***During the marches and actions the crowd chanted, "This is what democracy looks like", "Ain't no power like the power of the people 'cause the power of the people won't stop" and "So-So-So-Solidarité".

Quebec City left me with a profound sadness because I will never look at my country in the same way again. Excessive force, in the form of tear gas and rubber bullets, was used against nonviolent people who were exercising their right to disagree with their government. But it also left me with the hopeful images above and the chant which came alive again and again, "The people united will never be defeated."

The CPTers in Quebec City included: the CPT Esgenoôpetitj team--Anne Herman (Binghampton NY), Rebecca Johnson (Parry Sound ON), Jane Pritchard (Toronto ON)--as well as--Art Arbour, Jim Loney, Diego Mendez, William Payne (all from Toronto ON), Chris Buhler, Natasha Krahn, Krista Lord (all from Waterloo ON) and Angela Freeman (Kitchener ON). For CPTnet see MennoLink instructions or send the word INFO to server@MennoLink.org.