[R-G] Anti-war demonstrators target local weapons plant

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)

October 6, 2007 Saturday
Final Edition

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B4

LENGTH: 484 words

HEADLINE: Anti-war demonstrators target local weapons plant; 40  
protesters call on federal government to withdraw troops from  
Afghanistan

BYLINE: ROSE SIMONE, RECORD STAFF

DATELINE: KITCHENER

BODY:


Jonathan Parrott, 23, decided yesterday to raise his voice against  
something happening just behind his backyard.

Parrott, a Conestoga College student, lives in the subdivision behind  
Wilson Avenue in Kitchener, where Colt Canada Corp. is making weapons  
used by the military.

So he decided to join the 40 antiwar activists who showed up at the  
plant for an early-morning protest organized by AntiWar at Laurier or  
AW at L, a Rainforest Action Network group based at Wilfrid Laurier  
University in Waterloo.

"It is disturbing when they are making guns in your own backyard,"  
Parrott said.

The protest was staged to make Kitchener residents aware that Colt  
Canada, a subsidiary of the large U.S.-based gunmaker, Colt Defence,  
is making weapons in the community, said Kendra Foord, a 19-year-old  
Laurier student who helped organize the protest.

Foord said this was her first antiwar protest.

The protesters said Colt Defence supplies guns for wars in Iraq and  
Afghanistan, and is part of a military-industrial complex that is  
feeding the West's addiction to oil, as well as causing further  
damage to the environment.

They chanted in favour of immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops  
from Afghanistan.

Security at the plant was not tight. Two protesters managed to get on  
the roof of the factory, with a giant banner that said "Stop the War  
Machine."

Others blocked the parking lot at the plant.

But workers parked along the street and walked into the plant. There  
was no disruption of the work inside.

Frances Vegh, human resources manager for Colt Canada Corp., said no  
one was harassed, and not being able to get into the parking lot was  
mainly "an annoyance" for the plant's 98 workers.

"But these are just 98 people in our community who want a job," Vegh  
said.

"Somebody is going to supply the government, and so if these people  
(the protesters) want to make a statement, they should lobby the  
government."

The protesters have a right to give out their information and express  
their opinions, she said.

"But the thing we disagree with is that they are blocking our  
driveway, and when they are crawling up on our roof, that is  
trespassing."

Several Waterloo regional police officers were at the scene, speaking  
with the activists to get them to move off the company property  
peacefully.

Although most of the protesters were in their 20s, a few older  
activists got involved too.

"This is unusual for Laurier, so we want to encourage it," said  
Laurier Professor Peter Eglin, who was there to lend the students his  
support.

Terrence Gibson, 50, who is back in school as a religion student,  
"doing what I have always wanted to do" at the University of  
Waterloo, said he decided to join the protesters because it is  
important for his generation to show solidarity with the young  
antiwar activists.

"I have been encouraging friends of my age by saying that instead of  
complaining, we should be getting involved," he said.

rsimone at therecord.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: ROBERT WILSON, RECORD STAFF , Two protesters climbed  
onto the roof of the Colt Canada plant on Wilson Avenue in Kitchener  
yesterday and unfurled an anti-war banner. Other protesters below  
blocked the company parking lot.