EDMONTON - A white pride rally in Edmonton's downtown lasted only minutes when the demonstrators fled into a subway stairwell after they were greeted by over 100 anti-racist counter-protesters.
Police then blocked subway platform entrances until the roughly two dozen white pride demonstrators, most of them masked, were able to leave on a train.
The rally for Saturday afternoon was promoted on several racist websites, but those sites didn't say exactly where it would be.
Anti-racists staged their own event, and then marched to a site near Edmonton City Hall when they heard it was where the pro-white demonstrators were gathering.
Police kept the anti-racists from crossing the street and getting close to the rally, but both sides shouted insults at each other until the white pride group left.
Anti-racist demonstrators ran from entrance to entrance of the LRT in an effort to follow the rally, and expressed their frustration at police who were blocking the doors.
© The Canadian Press, 2012