> JANUARY 07, 13:16 EST
>
> Quebec Fortress Prepares for Summit
>
> By TOM COHEN
> Associated Press Writer
>
> QUEBEC (AP) - Normand Houle's finger traces a line around the
> historic ramparts of this European-style fortress on the bluffs
> above the St. Lawrence River, showing the plan for a new barrier.
>
> The towers and walls built to repel invaders of centuries past no
> longer suffice for protecting 34 heads of state coming for the
> Summit of the Americas in April.
>
> So another wall will be built, this one of metal fencing around
> several square miles of old Quebec City, says Houle of the Royal
> Canadian Mounted Police.
>
> Riot police will stand guard along the fence in an old-fashioned
> show of force intended to prevent a burgeoning protest movement from
> disrupting the three-day summit that likely will be the first
> foreign trip for President Bush.
>
> It will be one of the largest security operations in Canadian
> history, with a perimeter security fence similar to the 10-foot wall
> of metal wire that surrounded the Organization of American States
> gathering in Windsor, Ontario, in June.
>
> ``If somebody comes up with a better idea, we're going to take it,''
> says Houle, the RCMP spokesman for the Summit of the Americas. ``But
> so far, that is the best.''
>
> Preventing street clashes like the ones that derailed World Trade
> Organization talks in Seattle in December 1999 is the main goal, say
> police officials at the federal, provincial and local level.
>
> The planned security zone covers much of old Quebec City's upper
> town - both inside and outside the fortress walls. It will include
> six hotels, the Congress Center meeting site, the Quebec Parliament
> buildings and familiar tourist stops like the Terrasse Dufferin
> boardwalk, the Chateau Frontenac hotel and the Plains of Abraham.
>
> Access will be tightly controlled, with special passes required to
> enter the security zone and additional photo identification badges
> for each summit venue, including hotels.
>
> All the Western Hemisphere's heads of state except Cuba's Fidel
> Castro are coming to discuss expanding the North American Free Trade
> Agreement and other issues.
>
> Organizers expect more than 4,000 delegates and 2,000 journalists,
> along with thousands of protesters seeking to publicize their
> anti-free trade, pro-environment messages.
>
> ``It's the big event of the year'' for activists in eastern Canada
> and the northeastern United States, says Michael Morrill of the
> Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network.
>
> A veteran of demonstrations around the world, Morrill is helping
> organize a ``Free Trade Caravan'' that will makes it way to Quebec
> informing people about what the protesters contend are the ills of
> expanding NAFTA.
>
> Morrill predicts police will harass demonstrators traveling to the
> summit and provoke violence, a charge protesters have leveled at
> other international gatherings since Seattle.
>
> Houle says police will identify and contact protest organizers
> before the summit. The goal, he says, is to block the small
> percentage of protesters who come to incite violence.
>
> ``We don't have the intent to disrupt protests. That's a free right
> in Canada,'' he says.
>
> Representatives of the RCMP, Quebec Provincial Police and Quebec
> City police have been meeting for months to study security tactics
> at other meetings such as the recent European Union summit in Nice,
> France.
>
> ``We're not bothered by 40 people demonstrating inside. That's easy
> to control,'' Houle says. ``We're concerned about thousands and
> thousands protesting.''
>
> Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier is troubled by the tough security plan.
> Speaking in his richly decorated office at town hall, L'Allier
> complains it could hinder city residents from moving freely, prevent
> peaceful protesters from being heard and make his city police look
> bad.
>
> ``Summits have turned sour,'' he says with a sigh, noting such
> meetings now are being remembered mostly for televised images of
> street violence rather than agreements and diplomacy.
>
> Houle insists security forces will be ready for anything, even
> protesters trying to repeat the British tactic from 1759 of climbing
> the cliffs along the St. Lawrence to attack the bastion of what was
> then called New France.
>
> ``If 2,000 people try to scale the cliff, we'll be there,'' he says.