2010 Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver BC Canada.

[dirtyfacedan]

Protests abound, more info as the "games" get closer. The games are in Feb 2010!!!

 

[bani]

oh shit, they already announced that? just got arrested in beijing during the olympics in august for pro-tibet direct actions. all those athletes seem to be asleep politically though. it would just be cool if they were more political, as some have been in the past. whatev.

 

[dirty_feet]

I don't like the Olympics. Some weird display of superior athleticism so that after the apocalypse their only purpose will be for breeding a superior human race.

 

[katiehabits]

AND the wilderness around whistler, vancouver, & vancouver island is getting fucked right up. ski resorts, hotels, golf corses, condos, & the like are poping up everywhere & pushing bears, owls, mountain lions & other wild life into urban enviroments where we just kill them. as well as all the old growth & second growth forests being destroyed.
just check out what they have destroyed in my back yard.
http://treesit.blogspot.com/

 

[dirty_feet]

AHhh...really? Well you win some you lose some uh? I suppose it's a good thing - however apart of me has an affinity for homelessness and what just the sight of it can do to some people that are 'better' off. Let's just hope it won't be reflective of Toledo Ohio's mayor and they can get some nice comfortable housing if they so wish - the mayor suggested relieving the problem of noise complaints from neighbors of Toledo Express Airport by selling homes nearby at low cost to deaf people.

 

[dirty_feet]

No Olympics on Stolen Land!

The Newly Elected Mayor is proposing a $100million going towards affordable housing for homeless. Trying to get everyone off the streets before 2010.

AHhh...really? Well you win some you lose some uh? I suppose it's a good thing - however apart of me has an affinity for homelessness and what just the sight of it can do to some people that are 'better' off. Let's just hope it won't be reflective of Toledo Ohio's mayor and they can get some nice comfortable housing if they so wish - the mayor suggested relieving the problem of noise complaints from neighbors of Toledo Express Airport by selling homes nearby at low cost to deaf people.

 

[dirtyfacedan]

The crackdowns on groups like the APC (Vancouvers Anti-Poverty Committee) are beginning already. I suspect the crackdowns on other groups, and individuals who don't support these fucking games will be coming this summer. Vancouver has massive homeless numbers, and massive numbers of hard drug users. The Lower East side is a war zone, the poorest postal code in Canada, i have lived there...my mother still does. Nobody lifts a fucking finger to help these people, until they see them in their neighborhoods, going through their garbage, asking them for money...robbing them, stealing their cars. But along come the winter olympics.....and all of a sudden, these fuckheads feel they need to fix the "problem".

 

[dirty_feet]

The crackdowns on groups like the APC (Vancouvers Anti-Poverty Committee) are beginning already. I suspect the crackdowns on other groups, and individuals who don't support these fucking games will be coming this summer. Vancouver has massive homeless numbers, and massive numbers of hard drug users. The Lower East side is a war zone, the poorest postal code in Canada, i have lived there...my mother still does. Nobody lifts a fucking finger to help these people, until they see them in their neighborhoods, going through their garbage, asking them for money...robbing them, stealing their cars. But along come the winter olympics.....and all of a sudden, these fuckheads feel they need to fix the "problem".

Yeah - I agree - that's what I meant about my affinity for homelessness. It's a rather inarticulate way to put it but what I mean is that witnessing neighborhoods like that does set an impression with people, and jars them a bit and I'd like to see dynamics like that out in the open more so that people can become aware of what a real struggle is like. It just sucks that nothing is done about it until that city is going to be in an international spotlight. It just proves to me that 'they' keep the poor poor, and blind the blind for a reason. It's all a sick purpose, sweepin'it all under the rug.

 

[maus]

we should have anarcholympics events at this:
running from cops
brick toss
synchronized rioting
....etc

 

[sharks77]

we should have anarcholympics events at this:
running from cops
brick toss
synchronized rioting
....etc

this is probably the single greatest idea i have ever heard

 

[katiehabits]

we should have anarcholympics events at this:
running from cops
brick toss
synchronized rioting
....etc

we did that in winnipeg last winter during the DIY fest. there's a obstacle course where you can't walk on streets so you have to run in people's yards, back allies & hop fences in training to run from cops. among other things that i can't remember.

 

[Geoff]

i'm down to compete in an anarchist olympics. this sounds even better than my idea for an anarchist marching band. but both can be done. and the marching band can play the opening ceremonies for the game. ha!

 

[RebeccaSoup]

Be careful crossing over too much this year. Theyre keeping track of everyone and may want to crack down right before the games to keep "problems" out of the country.

Train and walk ins are probably best.

 

[dirtyfacedan]

Good site for the informed non-conformant! No Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics On Stolen Native Land

 

[Pizzacrust]

that sounds like a plan
i live down in seattle so i could get up there in a couple heartbeats

 

[dirtyfacedan]

Via rail cars to be used for games logistical support housing.

Cordova Station - Public Canadian Railway News

(stolen from the Vancouver Sun rag) "VANCOUVER — About 100 Olympic Games bus drivers will sleep in VIA Rail cars in Vancouver next year if the railway successfully concludes a proposed deal with Alberta-based Brewster Inc.

VIA Rail representative Malcolm Andrews said Thursday the two sides are discussing an arrangement to have the drivers use six or seven sleeping cars that would be based at Pacific Central Station during the Games.

He said discussions have gone well but have not concluded and the outcome might depend on the drivers' union accepting the kind of accommodations VIA can offer.

Brewster will provide a bus shuttle service between Vancouver and Whistler during the Games. Company representative Joanna Buckingham said the firm still hasn't determined its final plans for Olympic Games accommodation.

Andrews said VIA is also negotiating with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for the use of a VIA train during a cross-Canada tour next year that will end up in Vancouver during the Games"

 

[dirtyfacedan]

Council of Canadians Condemns 2010 Games | No Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics On Stolen Native Land

Council of Canadians Condemns 2010 Games
July 25, 2009 - 09:03 — no2010
No Justice on Stolen Land

Statement on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

Statement on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

The Council of Canadians, one of Canada's largest public advocacy
organizations, with members and chapters across the country, views
positively the Olympic goal of friendly international competition
between athletes who excel in their respective sports. We understand and
appreciate the pleasure and enjoyment so many around the world share in
the spectacle and achievements of the Olympic Games.

However, we are gravely concerned by the increasing evidence that these
worthy aspects are being overwhelmed, if not totally supplanted, by an
"Olympic industry" focused on real estate development and massive
corporate marketing opportunities. An "Olympic industry" founded and
based in undemocratic and unaccountable national and international
structures, implicated in numerous corruption scandals that undermine
everything a truly noble Olympic movement should stand for.

In particular, the Council of Canadians believes the February 2010
Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler will leave a negative legacy
contrary to the goals set forward during the application and approval
process to host the games. There is now no doubt that the Vancouver
Organizing Committee (VANOC) and its affiliated partners will fail to
meet their commitments with regard to the environment, social programs
and fiscal accountability.

The Council of Canadians is committed to working with activists who are
highlighting the negative aspects of the 2010 Games, especially the fact
they are being held on un-ceded First Nations territories and are
providing mining, resort, real estate and energy developers with
opportunities to continue expansion of projects on indigenous
territories throughout the province.

As well, we are concerned that the civil liberties of local communities
and those who have a critique of the Games are being undermined by an
unnecessary security presence. The security budget for the games has
ballooned to $1 billion, while security and law enforcement agencies
have identified protest groups as the most significant threat to the
Games. Over 4,500 Canadian military troops will be deployed to the 2010
Vancouver Olympics - twice the number Canada has in Afghanistan.

Federal Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart and the British Columbia
Civil Liberties Association have both raised serious concerns about the
threat to fundamental rights to privacy and protest arising from the
installation and introduction of new surveillance and security measures.
Almost a year before the start of the Games surveillance cameras are
being installed in Whistler and Vancouver and, according to several
credible reports, harassment of protesters has begun.

Residents of Whistler, site of the nordic and downhill venues, are
already living in what amounts to a "security zone," which is only
expected to escalate as the opening date approaches. Critics of the
Games, including a Council of Canadians board member, have allegedly
been placed under surveillance, while hikers and mountain bikers find
favourite wilderness trails blocked by mysterious military operations.

As with Beijing 2008, there are plans to suppress legitimate dissent,
including restricting demonstrators to areas far away from venues,
visitors and the media. The Council of Canadians is concerned for the
civil liberties of those who challenge the negative impacts of the
Olympics and asks: Will those who ignore such undemocratic limitations
be pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed and arrested? Will they be labeled
"terrorists" and face global travel bans for exercising their democratic
rights?"

As an organization focused on global justice we are especially concerned
that the 2010 Olympics are providing a prime "green-washing" opportunity
for corporations involved in the most egregious threats to the survival
of humanity and the earth through their active participation in the
privatization and commodification of water and massive environmental
degradation exemplified by the exploitation of the tar sands.

A Worldwide Olympic Partner, Coca Cola (also a sponsor of the Torch
Relay), is notorious for depleting groundwater in areas of India and
Latin America with scarce water resources. Furthermore, Coca Cola is a
leading promoter of water commodification as one of the largest
producers of bottled water in the world. The Council of Canadians is
actively promoting bottled water bans in communities across the country,
and has grave concerns about the impact of Coca Cola's sponsorship on
public water infrastructure support in Vancouver and Whistler.

EPCOR, an Official Supplier for the games, has been working to privatize
the water utilities of municipalities across the country, including BC.
Epcor tried to bid on the privatization of waste water treatment in
Whistler in 2006. The bid was successfully overturned as a result of
efforts by the Council of Canadians and community members in Whistler.
General Electric, another Worldwide Olympic Partner, is a major
financier of private power projects in BC, including the enormous Bute
Inlet proposal through its subsidiary Plutonic Power. The Council of
Canadians has taken a stand against private power projects in British
Columbia through the 'IPP' model.

The Royal Bank of Canada and Petro Canada, both National Partners for
the 2010 Games, are directly involved in the Alberta tar sands, one of
the most environmentally destructive projects in the world. The Royal
Bank is a major financier of tar sands projects and is also a sponsor of
the Torch Relay. Ironically, their ad campaigns for the relay ask
individuals to make a "green pledge" by volunteering to carry the torch.
The Council of Canadians is campaigning for no new approvals in the tar
sands and a halt to any development infrastructure designed to increase
the capacity of tar sands exploitation.

Dow Chemical is also an Olympic sponsor. Currently Dow is suing the
Government of Canada for $2 million, through NAFTA's Chapter 11
investor-state dispute process, as part of a challenge to a Quebec ban
on the use of lawn pesticides. Dow claims that the ban has amounted to
an unfair expropriation of Dow's Canadian pesticide business. The
Council of Canadians has long campaigned against NAFTA and Chapter 11's
harmful impact on public regulation.

At a time of economic crisis when federal, provincial and municipal
governments should focus on public projects that create a lasting
positive social and economic foundation the 2010 Games appear set to
leave a legacy of social and environmental destruction and massive debt
that will hobble our ability to make positive change and respond to the
serious challenges facing communities across the province and the
country.

 

[dirtyfacedan]

As the games get closer, so will the confrontation. It would be naive to think pigs wouldn't place Agent Provacateurs in place to discredit legitimate protest and dissent. They legitimize acts such as Agents by saying they are gaining inside knowledge, when in fact...they use that as a cover to gain leadership roles, and create thier own criminal acts....espionage. How on earth do people think that fascism can respect dissent in the first place? (espionage in the Pacific NW see, also.. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090727193930775 )

(Stolen from the media whores at Global/Canwest).

Concerns over police infiltration of anti-Olympic groups spark alarm

"VANCOUVER — Civil rights activists say they are worried police are infiltrating anti-Olympics groups with a plan to influence or direct illegal activities that would justify a crackdown during the 2010 Winter Games.

Robert Holmes, the president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said he tried twice without success to get the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit to promise not to place "agents provacateur" in positions of power within anti-Olympics groups.

First in letters to the ISU and Canadian Security Intelligence Service in February, and a month later in a face-to-face meeting with ISU assistant commissioner Bud Mercer, Holmes asked that no undercover officers be allowed to encourage acts that would promote violence or death, or to even infiltrate protest organizations unless they were planning illegal acts.

"We asked for a commitment that at least they would not have security people infiltrate organizations and rise to leadership positions so as to have them plan things that then the authorities could respond to. There is something of an Orwellian aspect to this," Holmes said.

"They refused again to give that kind of a commitment. He (Mercer) said, 'I'm not going to provide any kind of comments on things like that,' and then in-house legal counsel for the ISU group basically referred to the section of the Criminal Code that says the police, if they are engaging in sting-type operations, do things that are not considered lawful."

Calls to the ISU for comment were not immediately returned.

Holmes said he and other civil libertarians have been asking the ISU and CSIS for the assurances as a result of cases where undercover police infiltrated organizations. The most infamous of those was the August 2007 protest of the North American Leaders Summit in Montebello, Quebec summit where three undercover Quebec police officers were observed wearing bandanas, and one carried a rock.

The RCMP in B.C. also infiltrated protest groups during the 1997 APEC Summit in Vancouver. Overzealous reaction by police officers resulted in a public inquiry that embarrassed the country and resulted in changes in the way police are to accommodate the rights of protesters.

Those changes are now being felt at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, where the ISU decided to create "safe assembly areas" in prominent positions to allow protests.

Holmes said the ISU and the Vancouver Organizing Committee have mishandled activist concerns about the Olympics by bringing in bylaws that would seem to unfairly restrict peoples' rights.

"If the ISU, Vanoc and assorted others were taking the more open approach, in terms of telling people what they were planning on doing and preparing, rather than coming up with these peculiar concepts about so-called "free speech zones" or protest pens and coming up with bylaws that say you can hold up a celebratory sign but if you hold up a sign not considered celebratory you can be charged with committing a nuisance, it ceases to become preparation for the Olympics and becomes more provocation."

As a result, the BCCLA and Pivot Legal Society announced Wednesday they will put at least 25 "legal observer teams" on the street in 2010. The two-person teams will be trained to observe and record in a neutral manner any civil rights violations, said David Eby, the executive director of the BCCLA.

The groups will undergo training next month on what peoples' basic rights are and what to do when observing a potential violation by a police office or private security guard.

Eby said he hopes upwards of 100 people will volunteer for the jobs.

At the same announcement the BCCLA posted a number of Olympic documents and manuals it obtained under Freedom of Information legislation."

 

[dirtyfacedan]

Another article I though was a good read... stolen from the state run media, the CBC.

Vancouver's Olympic problems not unique: critic
By CBC News, cbc.ca, Updated: September 15, 2009 12:13 PM

Vancouver's pre-Olympic growing pains are virtually identical to those in other, recent host cities, according to Helen Lenskyj, a retired University of Toronto professor and outspoken Olympic critic who spoke at UBC on Monday night.

Lenskyj, author of the books Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics,and Activism, and The Best Olympics Ever?, said Olympic cities often see new programs leading to the criminalization of homelessness and the displacement of the poor, just like former mayor Sam Sullivan's Civil City initiative.

"Allegedly there was a growing problem of public disorder. Sullivan denied, initially, that the recommendations were driven by the Olympic agenda of street cleanups," said Lenskyj.

"Every recent host city has had street cleanups of homeless people, sex trade workers, people with visible drug problems or whatever," she said.
Lenskyj is a professor emeritus with the department of sociology and equity studies in education at U of T, whose work combines radical socialist and feminist perspectives, to focus on gender and sports, according to her website.

The academic was also critical of the Sea-To-Sky highway improvements on the route between Vancouver and Whistler, where many of the ski and sliding events will be held, saying it was an infrastructure project that was not a priority for most British Columbians.

The star value of being associated with the Games is too bright for people to seriously question the impacts, while at the same time the promised benefits never really appear, said Lenskyj.

Activists must not stop resisting the 2010 Games, even though it may seem no one wants to listen, because too many people buy into the idea of the Games as a force for social good when really it's just another major industry, she said.

Lenskyj also said it's difficult to prove what benefit or harm the Games actually bring to a host city. But part of the onus should be on organizers and governments to show the Games aren't responsible for the same issues that arise every time a city is awarded the Olympics, she added

 

[Gypsybones]

on a lighter note, even with my boy Crosby I dont know if Canada is gonna take hockey this year. I mean Russia is gonna be one tuff nut to crack with Malkin (go pens) and Ovechkin