Six arrested before Quebec summit

Police arrested six people they said were planning violence at this weekend’s Summit of the Americas and yesterday showed off small explosives and weapons they seized.

Inspector Robert Poeti of the Quebec Provincial Police said increased security for the Friday-Sunday summit, where 34 leaders of the Western Hemisphere will gather, led to the arrests of two 21-year-old men driving into Quebec City and four men in the Montreal area.

Police seized smoke grenades, small explosives, gas masks, slingshots, steel balls, baseball bats, sticks and other items, he said.

Poeti said a military reservist and a former member of the military were among the six arrested, and that some of the explosive materials seized were military-issue.

The arrest of the two men in Quebec City on Tuesday led to the arrests yesterday of the four in Montreal, he said.

Police declined to identify the arrested men. The charges included possessing explosives, stealing military supplies and conspiring to endanger public safety.

‘‘We’ll have no tolerance for people coming here to cause problems and criminal acts,’’ Poeti said.

In a separate case, a 17-year-old male from New York state was arrested for possessing knives and pepper spray in Quebec City.

City police Inspector Gaetan Labbe said the youth was freed on Cdn$200 (£90) bail and ordered to stay away from the security area around the summit. The youth’s name and hometown were not released.

Huge protests are planned around the summit by activists who are travelling from around the world.

Shopkeepers have boarded up many stores and Canadian authorities have erected a 2.5-mile concrete-and-wire fence to prevent the activists from getting near the summit site.

A Quebec judge ruled yesterday that although the fence infringes on civil liberties, it is justified given the fears of unrest. The groups that filed the lawsuit said they would appeal, but the appeal will not be heard until after the summit.

Probably the most high-profile of the activists, French farmer Jose Bove, said yesterday that he would participate in the demonstrations but didn’t want to make trouble.

Bove, 47, is appealing a three-month prison sentence for the 1999 ransacking of a McDonald’s restaurant in France.

‘‘I have not come here to impose any mode of action, but will participate in whatever actions are being prepared by local groups,’’ said Bove, dressed in blue jeans and a sweater and smoking a pipe.