It didn't start in Seattle, and it didn't end in Quebec!

The fall of 1999 saw the emergence, not only of a new popular movement, plural, activist and anti-globalisation in nature, but also of the first truly Independent Media Centre (IMC or Indymedia). Thanks to the Internet, the whole world was indeed watching, and it could follow, as it was happening, the unfolding events as reported by a plurality of emancipated voices. The people making the news were, for once, REALLY the people.

One year later, and primarily to cover the then upcoming Summit of the Americas, it was Quebec’s turn to enrich itself with an alternative media centre, largely based on the experience of Seattle.

Supported by Alternatives, the CMAQ (Centre des Médias Alternatifs du Québec) went online on October 1, 2000. It was presented as a platform for the independent media community (more than 300 in the province of Quebec) and as a meeting point for members of civil society who wanted to participate in the debates on globalization and the promotion of social justice.

Two editorial collectives (in Montreal and Quebec City) were created. They soon adopted a clear editorial policy (only slightly different from that of the IMC’s, due to the cultural particularity of Quebec) and, from then on, embarked themselves on one strange and fascinating odyssey: the preparation for the coverage of the Summit of the Americas!

In February of 2001, a press and service room was inaugurated in Quebec City. It initially served, among other things, as a permanent location for the logistical organisation, and as a facility where you could research and get material support for covering the Summit. It also soon became a place where one could get a crash course in politics, journalism and the marvels of new technology. It finally turned into the meeting point, in April 2001, for more than 500 independent journalists.

All along, a team of tenacious volunteers bravely worked to coordinate the logistics, be it that of production (press review, validation, assignation, linking between the different teams) or that of the reception of journalists (registration, housing, equipment, etc.). Close to 80 people collaborated on the project, at one level or the other.

Also, the two collectives put together a “Convergence of alternative media” meeting, at the end of March, to coordinate and prepare the crucial week in April.

And so, from April 18 to 22, more than 370 articles were published on the CMAQ site. A continuous radio program (Radio of the Americas) was aired 24 hours a day, in 4 languages, and with the collaboration of Quebec radios and AMARC. A tabloid paper (“Autres Voix/Voices Outside The Wall”) was published by the thousands and distributed to the people under the People’s Summit Big Top and at OQP 2001’s convergence centre. Finally, a slew of photo and video documents were produced and put online by journalists associated with the CMAQ.

Throughout the entire period, journalists wearing the CMAQ press card were running through the city, reporting live on the latest events in the streets, calling the people and other journalists to join the action.

Finally, and in spite of the expected glitches, CMAQ, along with their IMC partners, was the only press agency to cover the demonstrations in an extensive manner, the large mainstream media having fled the scene, as they do, after merely filming the first confrontations.

Ceci est un média alternatif de publication ouverte. Le collectif CMAQ, qui gère la validation des contributions sur le Indymedia-Québec, n'endosse aucunement les propos et ne juge pas de la véracité des informations. Ce sont les commentaires des Internautes, comme vous, qui servent à évaluer la qualité de l'information. Nous avons néanmoins une Politique éditoriale , qui essentiellement demande que les contributions portent sur une question d'émancipation et ne proviennent pas de médias commerciaux.

This is an alternative media using open publishing. The CMAQ collective, who validates the posts submitted on the Indymedia-Quebec, does not endorse in any way the opinions and statements and does not judge if the information is correct or true. The quality of the information is evaluated by the comments from Internet surfers, like yourself. We nonetheless have an Editorial Policy , which essentially requires that posts be related to questions of emancipation and does not come from a commercial media.