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CNN Sunday Morning

Protesters Remain Vigilant at Summit of the Americas

Aired April 22, 2001 - 08:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A free trade zone that stretches from the top of Alaska to the tip of Argentina seems like a good idea, but not to thousands of people who have gathered in Quebec City to express their vigorous disapproval of such a plan. For more insight into what the protesters object to and what they hope to accomplish, we'll turn now to Mike Armstrong of Global Television. He's been covering the story since the very beginning.

Good to see you Mike.

MIKE ARMSTRONG, GLOBAL TELEVISION REPORTER: Good morning.

PHILLIPS: Personal perspective here, are there some folks with whom you've met that have sort of, I guess, tugged at your heart strings and helps you to see the perspective from the side of the protesters?

ARMSTRONG: Absolutely, some of the marches have actually started at the University of Lavalle (ph), which is far -- several -- couple of miles past where the perimeter is. And out there, you get a feel for a lot of the issues -- the anti-globalization and the anti-free trade, genetically modified foods they are fighting against -- all those issues.

And then the closer you get to the perimeter fence, the less of those arguments you hear and the more you see rocks being thrown, bottles being thrown and rioting.

PHILLIPS: Anything stick out in your mind? Any specific person with whom you've chatted?

ARMSTRONG: Well, it's kind of interesting. Yesterday, probably around two, 3:00 that was when -- for a couple of hours, we had just seen the volleys of tear gas coming from police and the rocks going back and forth, the -- you know, all the tear gas being thrown back. And then just behind our satellite truck, because we were sort of stuck to the satellite truck, there were these two older ladies who'd come several hundred kilometers to be here. And they were here for environmental issues.

And we sort of went to the site of it and talked about why they were and why there were taking part in what was so violent right there. And they were saying, "Well, we're not here to be violent. We're here to talk about the environment. But we don't feel it's our place to tell them that by being violent and by going against the police that that's not a way of getting their opinion heard." And it was a very interesting discussion.

PHILLIPS: Now, with your experience covering these protests, how much of an impact do you think these protesters truly make?

ARMSTRONG: Well, the beginning, Jean Chretien, our Prime Minister, was sort of saying most of these protesters are just coming for a fun weekend. And his blah, blah, blah was the reference he made and that a lot of people didn't -- weren't too happy about hearing the blah, blah, blah comment. And now he's still saying that to this point, he doesn't think that they've gotten their message across, at least the violent one.

There have been other marches that have been less violent in other parts of the city. And actually organizers of those protests have made it a point to stay away from the security fence so as to not be any altercations. And I think most news organizations have tried to show both sides -- both the violent side and we've seen a lot of that, the tear gas and things like that and then further down the hill, the peaceful marches. And there were thousands and thousands of people taking part in those peaceful protests.

I heard that it took an hour for that march to get past you. That shows you there are quite a few people.

PHILLIPS: When you compare those two, do you think the leaders actually listen to one group more than the other?

ARMSTRONG: It's hard to say but I know -- the feeling I get is that they see the peaceful marches and if they're trying to argue against what those people are saying, they point a lot to the violence on the front lines. And it makes it easy to discredit just about all the arguments against what they're doing.

PHILLIPS: Mike Armstrong of Global Television. Thanks for giving us a little personal insight this morning.

ARMSTRONG: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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