VANCOUVER - Protesters are painting their signs and police are fine tuning crowd control strategies as they each prepare for today's arrival of former U.S. president George W. Bush in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.
Bush is considered a villain by Canada's Occupy movement against corporate creed and inequality -- and also the corrupt politicians the protesters accuse of being lackeys of the elite.
The RCMP say they expect hundreds of protesters representing at least four groups to converge on the hotel where Bush and fellow former president, Bill Clinton, will engage in a lunch-hour chat at the Surrey Regional Economic Summit.
Tickets for the event cost $599 a head and the media isn't invited.
Dozens of Mounties will be on patrol in the area and will likely close some roads.
Police say they believe the West Coast protests could advance to the "next stage" as the two ex-presidents meet, although Surrey RCMP Cpl. Drew Grainger said police expect the demonstration to remain peaceful, as was the case with last weekend's Occupy protests across Canada.
Activists have said they would also try to have Bush arrested at the border.
The Canadian Centre for International Justice said it would ask a justice of the peace to approve a 69-page draft indictment against Bush, alleging he was behind the torture of four men who were detained in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
The group said it had 4,000 pages of documents supporting its case for trying Bush under the Canadian criminal code.
The legal manoeuvre comes in tandem with a letter signed by more than 50 human rights organizations and individuals, including Amnesty International.
The group has also called on the federal government to arrest Bush when he crosses the border.
Dick Cheney, who was Bush's vice president, has vigorously defended the administration's interrogation techniques, claiming they saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
