This is exactly the sort of news and analysis that the movement needs more of, I had no idea that the montreal P.D. where forced to reveal how many spies they had in the crowd at the G20 march but that high a number is quite asstounding, even for the more cynical of us. The montreal police are bent on criminalizing and destroying any resistance to neolibralism as the figure of 1500+ political arrests in three years makes clear. The police all across the country have been becoming more heavy handed (their non-violent publicity stunt at the Calgary G8 not withstanding) as anyone involved in the squating andor anti-war movements can attest. Mad props to all those who had the courage to stand up to this kind of harrassment and abuse to confrot the WTO.
The hard question that confronts us however, is - whether after getting 50,000+ to demonstrate in Quebec city 2001, 3,000-5,000 at the Ottowa G20 mobalization (just after 9-11) or over two hundred thousand to demonstrate against the war in Montreal on Feb 15 - can the movement consider a 700-1000 person snake march a success in a city like Montreal for a target like the WTO?
One positive that people could take away from this is that anti-capitalist politics were center stage thanks to the Basis of unity that the organizers chose to use. My own feeling however is that it is far prefferable to be the anti-capitalist wing of a broad movement then to hang a sign on your demo that reads "only revolutionaries welcome". One of the reasons that the police can get away with brutalizing demos is that we have already separated the radicals (who they waht to target) from everybody else for them.
This is also a challange to the much vanted/rarely realized creativity of the movement to find modes of direct action that can avoid falling into the trap of legitimizing police violence. How about a free veggie chilly dinner in front of taco bell to support the coalition of Immolkie workers boycott caimpaign (www.ciw-online.org/) or a mass tresspass on the subway to raise the question of free public transit (I know that in T.O. about 15% of the cost of running the whole public transit system is the printing, distribution, collection of tickets and enforcement of fares)
If we cannot brake out of the habit of retorical radicallity (we will shut it down!) combined with organizational marginality (only a thousand show up to snake march, only a few dozen prepared to translate the slogan into reality) then we should be honest with ourselves ahead of time and plan for the inevitable which is that we will be brutalized, mass arressted, or both. There is much here that I didn't get to touch on like the 'no one is illegal march' which seems to have been more successful but I am just trying to stir the pot and get people thinking.

See you in the Streets
J.D.G.