FTAA RALLY Quebec City

my legs hurt from all the running, climbing, and avoiding. the police all dolled up in their green riot gear, the rcmp in their dark blue. behind jersey barriers with a nine foot fence erected, they stood in a line. shields and bats at the ready. every so often a dude with a 37mm hand held launcher would either run up and shoot tear gas at the feet of people. as well as shooting at the people close to the fence, the police shot pop flies, the gas creating an arch, like the exhaust of a plane in flight. they were using a few different CS gas devices. hand held grenade style, 12 GA shotgun, 37mm launcher. there were a few different sizes shapes and methods for each type of can.

the whole city smelled of tear gas. at once point i was trapped in a corridor of death and got blasted in the back with a water cannon, protecting my camera by folding myself over it. as soon as the water had bee shut off, a cs gas cannister blew up right beside me covering me in white dust. immediately i began to go blind and my nose began to run, snot running down my face. i ran to a safe distance, sat down and took off my sweater and pants and shook them out. covering myself in vinegar and other mixtures people would kindly spray on me i felt better after about 15 minutes. i was wet and sand and dirt had washed up into my cloths. i went back. continued to take pics.

the water cannon
the water cannon, from what i can gather inst even meant to hurt you. its meant to wash all the cs gas up off the ground and into liquid form, so that it penetrates cloths and send skin hurling into itcy madness.

i shot nine rolls of film. i think i shot more, but in all the running a few rolls were lost.

for the most part people were not violent. by the time we left tho, madness had started. frustrated, and out of water, people began to drink beer. a few hours before we left i was at an intersection where about 500 protesters were hurling rocks at police blocking a road. the water cannon shifted from spot to spot, however gas was being launched all over. from afar you could see huge clouds of white smoke rising through all the buildings. protesters were hitting whatever they could to make noise and drum up support. every time a cop was hit with a rock cheers would spread.

we saw a lot of black bloc (anarchists) running around. being French, they were automatically crazy. these were the dudes id would have liked to follow. they were crazy. i saw a few filling up red gas cans at a petrol station. and a few were playing with butterfly knives.

all in all it was a very intense time for me. i got up close and took pics. i was nervous but that didn't hold me back from taking pics and being where the action is. i hope my pics turn out. there were a lot of really good signs, nice people from all over the world, and for the most part the majority of the demonstrators were kinds and non-violent.

the only draw back to the ftaa rally was the infighting that occurred between all the groups there to protest. it made me mad and frustrated and many of the people there did not know what was happening and where.

as tokens of the mission i have two empty cs gas cannisters and a rubber bullet.

Meow

woke up in the middle of night and played with the feather that lay beside me. i had forgotten or lost interest in it a long time ago. the feather is purple and is connected to a black rod of some sort or another. dave uses it to tease me. i know what he's doing, but running after a feather is a lot better than watching him play AO all day long. I see him in the garden from time to time. smoke comes out of his mouth so i keep a distance. when he comes inside i rub up against his leg and purr so that he knows im on the same team.

during the day i sleep. nothing much goes on in the house during the day. the old lady lies in bed and doesn't do much. i often think she's one of us, but her shape is more like daves, and she doesn't have a very nice coat.

i like to sit on the big bed when dave isn't home. a lady is there too and dave comes to visit us a lot. when i hear him at the door i jump off the best and go wait for him. he always talks to me when he gets home. imitating me and telling me im cute.

this house was so scary when i first got here. it had been the third house in six months. at the first house the people were mean and yelled at me a lot. the second house had a lot of other cats and some of them were very anti social and violent. a lot of them teased me because i was fixed. i didn't like them.

i slept for a good 9 days behind the furnace. it was warm back there and some of the spiders made for good conversation. dave hates spiders and bashes them with his fists and rolled up things. he talks to their dead bodies often.

i got tangled up in the curtains today. it doesn't happen a lot but the voices in my tail were taunting me so i tried to kill them and ended up winding myself up into the curtains. dave saved me and the voices went away for the time being. what scares me is that i know they will come back...i know.

stretching, i look at the clock. what a bright object. i think ill go sniff it.