MONTREAL, Canada - Quebec riot police are monitoring entrances to a Montreal convention centre where a major international economic conference is getting underway.Police in riot gear are blocking off street access to the International Economic Forum of the Americas, an annual global summit that has drawn more than 3,000 participants from a dozen countries.
A small crowd of people dressed in black gathered just before 9 a.m. in front of a police human barricade.- Authorities are braced for the possible protest planned by CLAC, an anti-capitalist collective based in Montreal.
- The conference's main partner is Power Corporation, owned and run by Quebec's Desmarais family, "the most powerful in Canada," according to CLAC's protest website.
- About 150 experts will make presentations over the next few days on themes including the economy, natural resources, finance, and health care.
- The expected protest comes a day after a raucous Grand Prix weekend that saw daily confrontations between police and protesters across Montreal.
On Sunday, police detained dozens of people outside the Formula One race site, citing security concerns for the "preventative detentions."The protests are building on a months-long student movement against planned tuition hikes, and have come to include wider social movements opposed to capitalism.
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