Masked activists posing as G7 leaders mimicked household tasks in front of Quebec City's legislature this morning ahead of the international summit in La Malbaie.

Justin Trudeau serves a meal, Donald Trump dusts, and Emmanuel Macron takes care of a baby: the protest, staged by Oxfam-Quebec, is meant to draw attention to upaid domestic work done by women worldwide. 

The event is one of many protests and demonstrations scheduled to take place between today and Saturday.

Oxfam Quebec director Denise Byrnes says the aim of the event was to highlight women's unpaid labour and to get the G7 countries to improve social services to relieve the burden placed on them.

Seven leaders are expected to meet with an advisory council of 21 women to discuss the issues at hand. Major names include Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Christine Lagarde, Executive director of the International Monetary Fund, and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai.

While the G7 summit will be held in La Malbaie, about 140 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, diverse groups including unions, aid organizations and anti-capitalists are expected to protest in the provincial capital.

At least three major demonstrations are scheduled in Quebec City: one tonight, another on Friday and the third on Saturday.

Some 10,000 civil servants who work in buildings in and around Quebec's legislature have been given this afternoon off as well as all day Friday in anticipation of the discord.

Tonight's protest - the biggest of the weekend, according to organizers, will be led by the Reseau de Resistance Anti-G7.

Demonstrators are expected to march from an area park to the National Assembly, which has been barricaded in prepatation. 

The Quebec City convention center is also surrounded by concerte blocks and a fence, and local merchants have boarded up their windows to prevent vandalism. 

But many of these businesses are creating artwork on the plywood to turn the street into a makeshift art gallery in what they call a "peaceful protest."

One business hung markers next to a plywood board, to encourage passerby to leave messages or drawings. 

The Quebec City area has not yet seen any damage from unruly protestors, but in a press conference Thursday afternoon, city and Quebec government officials said they would reimburse businesses if anything happens. 

The government will reimburse 75 per cent of the cost for doors and windows if they are damaged. 

La Malbaie

La Malbaie, where the summit will be hosted, was relatively quiet on Thursday morning.

Aside from the fact that the summit has not yet begun, the "Green Zone" - an area set up for demonstators and media - is relatively difficult to access.

There are also exceptional security checkpoints in place - officers from the Surete du Quebec and RCMP, as well as army personnel have begun patrols of the area and have set up a blockade. 

Just before 4 p.m., police blocked off Richelieu St. to conduct an operation. There are reports that a suspicious car - containing suspicious packages - was being searched.

 

Choppers and surveillance balloons were also spotted in the air above the protest area.

Leo Broderick, chair of the Council of Canadians, was on-hand to speak to the media and denounce the summit altogether.

"The G7 is highly undemocratic," he said. "We have been calling for a number of years now that if countries should meet like this, all countries under the United Nations - 197 - should be here to take part in those discussions."

"We're also saying that the agenda the G7 represents is a neo-liberal agenda, it's an anti-people agenda, it is an anti-environment agenda," Broderick added. 

As for protestors - the real action is expected to begin tomorrow when delegates arrive at the Manoir Richelieu.