LYNNE SLADKY, AP / Peaceful protesters hold candlelight vigil near summit fence.

I'm a grandmother. I was in Quebec City and I marched, peacefully, with tens of thousands of people. There were people of all ages, from the very young to the very old; some rode in strollers and some were in wheelchairs.

The unions went first, it was their show and nobody was allowed to march with them. They were followed by the Marxists and then the rest of us, a hodge podge of women's groups and other community organizations, many belonging to cultural communities, as well as all the citizens who wanted to have their voices heard and protest against the lack of accountability of those behind the fence and their corporate friends; against all of those for whom democracy, social justice and environmental concerns are just words that need to be sacrificed at the altar of the neo-liberal gods: Greed and Profit.

I happily marched alongside a beautiful giant puppet of Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and of a group of dynamic drummers who had us all dancing along the route. We chose to be part of a peaceful protest because we believed that peace is a powerful, rightful tool to get a message across. Metaphorically enough, ours was a march to the middle of nowhere, through a deserted industrial zone, a highway and onto a park where there was hardly anything going on.

Although we were far away from the perimeter of the fence, our throats were scratchy and our eyes burned from the orgy of tear gas taking place up on the hill. Those who ventured near the fence, the wall of shame, most of them just wanting to take pictures, told similar stories: choking, vomiting, water from cannons that turned the skin white and burned and the general overreaction of the police who were also attacking people who were not doing anything.

What I found most upsetting though, was reading The Gazette. Each and every article was about the confrontation with police or the summit and there was only a passing mention about the march. What happened around the fence is an important story, but not the only one. To those who were not there, you gave the impression that there was a huge threat to security and that the overkill by police was justified.

Worst of all, for those of us who were there in massive numbers and for the new generation of activists, you have told us that peaceful means are irrelevant and that the only way to be heard is by being violent. This is a shameful breach of responsibility. Lilia Goldfarb Montreal

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