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Protesters in pig suits at presidential debate |
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October 4, 2000
BOSTON (AP) - The presidential candidates are not the only ones who have been getting ready for the presidential debate. The "porcine pranksters," for example, have been trying out their pig suits. Protesters by the thousands are preparing to pitch their causes. When Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush go head-to-head Tuesday night, a varied throng will shout its causes from designated areas outside. Demonstrators called those areas "protest pens" and were not happy about the prospect of being corralled into them. But State Police Captain Robert Bird said soothingly that protesters are being given a visible place to make their case. "Personally," he said, "I think they'll be very happy there." Activists were converging on the city for first of three debates between Gore and Bush before the Nov. 7 election - this one at the University of Massachusetts. In the lead-up to the debate, seniors rallied against costly prescription drugs. Death penalty foes planned a march across the city. Students at the university demanded reimbursement for the two days the campus will be shut for the event. The people in pig suits had a point to make about the merits of vegetarianism. Supporters of third party candidates focused their anger on the exclusion of all but Gore and Bush in the debates. About 30 protesters boarded the Boston Tea Party ship and tossed television sets overboard with the names of TV networks and the Democratic and Republican parties taped to the front. "We're not getting the whole story, we're just getting this little scripted thing," said Olivia Rue, a backer of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Affordable housing and higher wages are among the causes represented by people who say Bush and Gore won't deal with their concerns. "This is a phony debate," said Scott Cooper of the Boston Coalition for Mumia Abu-Jamal, an anti-death penalty group working for the release of a death-row inmate convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer. Groups planned to use street theater, political discussions and music to make their point. "It's going to be kind of a party," predicted Denis Moynihan, who had been a spokesman for Direct Action Network during confrontational protests in Seattle outside World Trade Organization meetings. "There might be some people ... who feel inclined to disrupt it, but I don't know of any particular plans," he said. Not all crowds were coming to complain. Union organizers were mobilizing members to cheer Gore. Bush planned a post-debate visit to supporters at a skating rink. End/vbgh789/sdf Canada, Trudeau, mourn, coffin Fidel Castro shows fidelity towards Trudeau MONTREAL (AP) - Fidel Castro paid his respects to Pierre Trudeau, a man the Cuban president considered a personal friend, capping an emotional day as the former Canadian premier's body was brought here by train past thousands of mourners. Earlier Monday, Trudeau's ex-wife broke down in tears and fell to her knees while visiting tributes to Trudeau at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where his body had been on view for several days. Castro was greeted by applause from mourners lined up inside Montreal's city hall to view Trudeau's body. Castro, in a dark pin-striped suit, strode up to the flag-draped casket and bowed his head. Afterward, he waved to hundreds of people gathered outside the building, some shouting, "Viva Castro." Castro planned to attend Trudeau's state funeral Tuesday in Montreal. In a written statement, he called the former prime minister a "world-class statesman who was a close personal friend and one for whom I felt great admiration." Trudeau and Castro took to each other from their first meeting in 1976, when the Canadian premier visited Cuba - the first NATO leader to do so. That visit, breaking Castro's isolation, ruffled U.S. feathers and was a milestone in Trudeau's "Third Way," a foreign policy independent of the United States and Britain. The two leaders saw each other regularly until well after Trudeau had left politics. Mark Entwistle, Canadian ambassador to Cuba between 1993 and 1997, remembered sitting at the dinner table with the two men as they talked the nights away - "intellectual soulmates, definitely." Trudeau died Thursday at 80, and the country has since been wrapped up in remembering his political legacy and flamboyant lifestyle. Over the weekend, an estimated 60,000 people paraded past his coffin at Parliament Hill. On Monday, crowds milled around the Centennial Flame, which has become a makeshift memorial to Trudeau, adorned with hundreds of red and white roses, cards and flags. Margaret Trudeau came to view the flame shortly after Trudeau's coffin was taken away. She nodded quietly as people offered condolences. After a reporter reminded her that it was the birthday of her dead son Michel, her face crumpled and she was led away by family members. "It's Michel's birthday today," she said to them. "I didn't remember." After walking a few feet, she fell to her knees onto the grass. A police officer urged bystanders, "Just give them some room," before relatives helped her up and led her away. Michel, youngest of her three sons with Trudeau, died nearly two years ago in a skiing accident. The train carrying Trudeau's coffin pulled into Montreal's Central Station after a two-hour journey from Ottawa. Thousands lined the tracks as the train passed, waving, saluting, and clapping, and admirers sang the national anthem, "O Canada," as the train pulled into Montreal. "I wanted my children to witness this," said Vanessa Wilkie, waving a small Canadian flag with her two children. Trudeau was prime minister from 1968 to 1984, with a brief break in 1979 after an election loss. He introduced French as an official language in 1969 and sent army troops to quell French-Canadian separatist uprisings in 1970. But he won over Canada by irreverent behavior: wearing sandals in Parliament and sliding down a bannister at Buckingham Palace in London at a conference of world leaders. Trudeau also dated glamorous women - singer Barbra Streisand and actress Margot Kidder. Close friends say Trudeau never recovered from the death of his son Michel. He had kept custody of his boys - Justin, Sacha and Michel - after separating from the former Margaret Sinclair in 1977. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Britain's Prince Andrew are among the other dignitaries expected to attend Tuesday's funeral. |