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After a tumultuous weekend of tension and confrontation betweendemonstrators and fans of Formula One racing in Montreal, theprotest movement is taking aim at a new target -- the InternationalEconomic Forum of the Americas. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Bank of Canada Governor MarkCarney are among the speakers scheduled to appear at the conferenceMonday afternoon. Protesters were already heckling delegates arriving Monday morning,and police had set up a security line at the downtown Montrealconference centre where the four days of meetings are being held. There were only a handful of protesters on hand early Monday, butthe riot police forming a cordon around the hotel and the twonearby mini-buses packed with heavily armoured provincial policesuggested cops were prepared for many more. A scheduled speech by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman AllanGreenspan is expected to be the focus of a more boisterous protestWednesday. Protester Priscillia Laplante told The Canadian Press whydemonstrators are taking what began as a protest against planneduniversity tuition hikes in Quebec to a forum of political,economic and regulatory officials from around the world. Singling out the policies of Prime Minister Harper, Laplante saidhis and similar policies from leaders around the world are taking adisproportionate toll on poorer people. He goes completely against what the middle and lower classesbelieve right now," Laplante said. "It's no longer just a question of education, it's a question ofrights, it's a question of social class and we believe it should befair for everybody. I think that if we look for solutions together,it will be possible to find them." Grand Prix Protests Monday's protests come after a weekend that saw dozens ofprotesters detained and arrested throughout the city -- and havenow prompted calls for an independent inquiry into the policehandling of the event's security. Montreal police expelled 40 people and arrested 34 others onSunday, in a security crackdown that encompassed both theSte-Helene Island site of the Canadian Grand Prix and the nearbyunderground metro transit system. The police search and detention operation involved officers andsniffer dogs conducting random searches of people on the subway andamong the crowds entering the race grounds. An estimated 110,000 spectators made their way to the island siteof the Formula One weekend's final race. But the fact many stopped on the metro or turned away from JeanDrapeau Park were wearing the red square emblem of the province'sstudent protest movement fuelled charges of police profiling. At a press conference Monday morning, the Quebec student groupCLASSE said it had heard from approximately 100 people who saidthey were victims of preventive detentions and political profiling. "What we've been seeing these last few weeks, and what we saw thisweekend in particular, is really without precedent," CLASSEco-spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois told reporters, condemning whathe said were illegal searches, many conducted by police who hadhidden their ID numbers. "We're talking about systematic searches in the subway and in thestreets of people who were wearing the red square. It's extremelyworrying for our democracy." At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Montreal police respondedthat some of those arrested were carrying potential weapons, andothers were recognized from earlier protests in the city. "Some of those arrested were people police recognized from earlierstudent demonstrations that had been deemed illegal," districtcommander Alain Simoneau said Sunday. "In the interest of public safety, we decided to detain thesepeople." Most will be released without charges, police said. Demonstrators -- some opposed to proposed tuition fees in theprovince and others to capitalism in general -- had taken aim atthe weekend racing event, promising to disrupt the festivities. Police arrested 28 people Saturday night, when protesters targetedF1-related parties in the popular Crescent Street bar and clubdistrict. Several police cars were vandalized and business premisesdamaged. The damage Sunday night included one vandalized police cruiser,smashed windows at a bank and a damaged front door of a governmentbuilding. It was the 48th consecutive night of demonstrations. The actual race went off without a hitch, although Grand Prixpromoter Francois Dumontier admitted ticket sales were down. "It's been a tough one this year," Dumontier told reporters afterLewis Hamilton and his McLaren Mercedes had claimed the checkeredflag. "I think we had a good weekend overall here, we weren't perturbeddespite all threats, people had no trouble getting onto the site,and the warm temperature helped our attendance.". I am an expert from black-masterbatch.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Plastic Master Batch , Masterbatch Black, Plastic Masterbatches,and more.
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