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There were more police officers than protesters on the lawn of the Canadian War Museum at the planned start time of a supposedly massive march to Parliament Hill Thursday.

At 2 p.m., what organizers of the Peoples Social Forum contended would be the largest gathering of social movements in Canadian history looked like it would be a paltry display.

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But just when it seemed as though a tipping point wouldn’t come, things escalated. Quickly. Hundreds of people began pouring out of a long line of school buses on Wellington Street. They had just taken in a keynote address by social activist Naomi Klein at the University of Ottawa campus.

“Tell us what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!” chanted the crowd of about 2,000 people as it swelled in front of the museum.

Photo by David Kawai / Ottawa Citizen

Photo by David Kawai / Ottawa Citizen

They looked like this: Labour union flags. Rainbow flags. Enormous banners: “Save the Planet. Sink Harper.” Occupy T-shirts. Idle No More merchandise. Guy Fawkes masks. Raging Grannies. Hipsters. Kids holding “Stop Harper” signs. People on stilts. People on bikes. Cops on bikes, too, keeping an eye on the gathering.