No Olympics on Stolen Land

What causes opponents to come of their own accord is the prospect of gain. What discourages opponents from coming is the prospect of harm.
—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

So far, 2007 has been a difficult year for the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC). In its own words, the past few months have been “frustrating,” “disappointing” and “unfortunate.” During this time, VANOC had hoped to gain positive publicity and promotion for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Instead, militant direct actions and protests became the primary news stories related to the Olympics.

It all began on February 12, with the unveiling of a three-year Olympic countdown clock (donated by Omega, the “official timekeeper” for the 2010 Olympics) at the Vancouver Art Gallery, with live coverage on CTV (the official TV network for the games). Just as the event began, a masked native stormed the stage and grabbed the mic, shouting, “Fuck 2010! Fuck your corporate circus!” before being arrested. Protesters, including members of the Native Youth Movement (NYM), the Anti-Poverty Committee (APC), the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) and others, pushed up against police lines and threw eggs and paint bombs at police, the stage and a jumbo-sized TV screen. Government and corporate officials had to shout into the mics to be heard over the noisy protesters, seven of whom were arrested.

On February 23, at a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new Olympic curling venue, security measures and protesters were again the main story. Scores of police and crowd-control fencing were used to keep protesters away from officials and media.

The next day, Harriet Nahanee, a native elder, passed away in a Vancouver hospital shortly after serving a 14-day jail term. She had been convicted of contempt of court for participating in a 2006 blockade of the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which is being expanded in preparation for the Olympics. This blockade at Eagleridge Bluffs in North Vancouver was the first anti-Olympics direct action to occur. In July 2006, shortly after the blockade was dismantled by police, construction equipment along the highway was vandalized, causing over $50,000 in damage.

Then on March 6, the massive Olympic flag that flew at City Hall was stolen, just as a delegation of International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials arrived for an inspection of VANOC’s work. Days later, as the IOC tour ended, the Native Warrior Society (NWS) released a communiqué claiming responsibility for the theft. The statement included a photograph of three masked persons, with a warrior flag and photo of Nahanee, standing in front of the giant 16-foot-by-25-foot Olympic flag. The communiqué cited Nahanee’s death and opposition to the Olympics as their motivations.

On March 12, VANOC held another big Countdown 2010 event: a flag lighting ceremony at City Hall. Some 200 protesters passed through police checkpoints and searches to disrupt the event with yelling, whistles and air horns. As many as 100 cops—including riot police, an Emergency Response Team, mounted police and a helicopter patrol—were used at a cost of more than $30,000 (according to police). Once again, the heavy security presence and the protesters were the main story. At the same time, the 2010 countdown clock in downtown Vancouver was spraypainted with a “Free Betty” stencil—a reference to Betty Krawczyck, a 78-year-old environmentalist sentenced to 10 months in prison for her part in the 2006 Eagleridge Bluffs blockade. The vandal was later arrested, as he did not attempt to conceal his identity.

On March 29, Vancouver police raided DERA’s offices while allegedly searching for the stolen Olympic flag, despite the fact that DERA has no connection to the NWS. The cops claimed that they had received a tip from a “reliable” source. After an hour, they left empty-handed.

On May 16, the APC organized a protest at VANOC’s headquarters, which are located in an East Vancouver industrial area. Despite a small turnout of about 35 protesters (due to the time of day and remote location), they were met by crowd-control fencing all around the building site and more than 70 cops, including riot police, dog squads and a police helicopter. During the protest, APC member David Cunningham announced that the committee’s new campaign would consist of evicting VANOC offices and that the APC had the home addresses of VANOC members. This caused a controversy in the media and among government officials. Vancouver police said they would investigate, while the chief of police announced that VANOC board members would receive special police protection.

Then on May 19, Cunningham went out to meet with a supposed journalist and instead found a group of police. He was arrested and charged with “uttering threats.” This dirty trick has been widely condemned by the media.

True to the group’s promise, three members of the APC gained entry to the provincial premier’s downtown Vancouver office on May 22 and threw furniture and office equipment into the hallway. The target of the action was Ken Dobell, a VANOC official and adviser to the premier. As one protester was led away in handcuffs, she stated to the media: “We evicted their office like they’ve evicted thousands of people from the Downtown Eastside, except these people still have a place to sleep tonight.”

The 2010 Winter Games

The 2010 Winter Olympics are to be held in Vancouver and Whistler on February 12-27, 2010. Contrary to government propaganda about the economic and social benefits of the games, the Olympics are a very real threat to native peoples, the urban poor (many of whom are native), the environment, civil liberties and basic human rights.

While cutting social services such as health care and education, the conservative provincial government is at the same time providing billions of dollars to construction companies and other Olympics-related industries. The capitalists are making millions, while the poor are literally dying in the urban and reservation ghettos.

In the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, one of Canada’s poorest neighborhoods, more than 500 units of low-income housing have already been lost since Vancouver won the Olympic bid in 2003. Hundreds of people have been evicted as landlords upgrade their hotels for Olympic tourists. Along with evictions, Vancouver police and City Hall have begun criminalizing the poor through Project Civil City, which aims to clean up Vancouver’s streets in preparation for the games—primarily through “law-and-order” measures to combat homelessness, panhandling and drug use. In May, the city appointed former British Columbia Attorney General Geoff Plant as commissioner of Project Civil City, reinforcing the view that the program is based on more policing.

For the Olympics themselves, some 10,000 police and soldiers are to be deployed. In March, Vancouver police unveiled plans to have two armored vehicles by 2010. Despite being promoted as the “Green Olympics,” large tracts of land have been destroyed for the expansion or construction of highways, roads, ski resorts and Olympic venues. Billions of dollars of public money are also being spent on new bridges, port facilities and railways, as well as urban transit. Most of this work is intended to improve transportation and other infrastructure in preparation for the games. Some of it forms part of a larger strategy aimed at capitalizing on the Olympics and related tourism and trade.

All this expansion of transport infrastructure is meant to facilitate greater resource exploitation, including ski resorts, mines, logging, natural gas and oil. Since 2003, the provincial government has been working to speed up the application process for these industries, making it easier for corporations to get projects approved. Premier Gordon Campbell has described these as “reforms to open up every sector of our economy.” The result has been huge increases in mining, gas and oil, as well as ski resorts.

Native Opposition to the Olympics

Since 2000, the main native struggles in British Columbia’s interior have been against the construction and expansion of mountain ski resorts. At Sun Peaks (Skwelkwek’welt) ski resort near Kamloops, more than 70 people—mostly Secwepemc youth and elders—have been arrested for blocking roads, occupying buildings and establishing protection camps as part of the campaign against a massive $294-million expansion of the resort.

At Melvin Creek, just north of Mt. Currie, the St’at’imc have established the Sutikalh camp to stop a planned $530-million ski resort (see EF!J September-October 2005). The camp was first set up in May 2000, and continues to be occupied to this day. It has served as a rallying point for community resistance to the resort, which also forced many chiefs and councilors to publicly oppose it as well. Numerous other ski resort developments and expansions are also planned or are now underway, including Valemount, Revelstoke, Blue Mountain, Invermere, Merritt and Kelowna.

This sharp increase in resort development is largely due to government promotion of the industry, including the establishment of a Ski Resort Task Force in 2004. The task force was largely composed of members of the resort industry, and its primary goal was to increase ski resort development in British Columbia. The group released a Resort Strategy and Action Plan in 2004, which made clear the connection between the industry’s rapid growth and the 2010 Olympics: “The Resort Strategy links to the Spirit of 2010 Tourism Strategy and the International Trade and Investment to 2010 Strategy. All these strategies are designed to grow tourism throughout the province, maximize opportunities created by hosting 2010, and attract national and international investment.”

Recent indigenous struggles have also confronted oil and gas development, as well as large-scale mining. Since 2005, the Tahltan in northern British Columbia have organized several blockades and office occupations, and arrests of elders and other community members have occurred.

To counter charges of racism and to better exploit native culture, Olympic organizers have spent millions of dollars to buy off indigenous peoples, especially band councils. Prior to Vancouver winning the bid in 2003, the Squamish and Mt. Currie/Lil’wat band councils were given more than $20 million, including money for a new cultural center in Whistler. Along with this, the Four Host First Nations Society was established in 2004, composed of the Squamish, Lil’wat, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam band councils. Aboriginal organizations and youth groups in Vancouver have also been given Olympic money. All of this is intended to silence native opposition to the Olympics.

Stolen Native Land

British Columbia is unique in Canada, in that most of the province is unceded, non-surrendered indigenous territory. According to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which is still part of British and Canadian law, sovereign indigenous territories needed to be legally surrendered to the crown prior to any trade or settlement. In accordance with this, the UK and later Canada carried out a series of treaties in their westward expansion across the prairies.

However, they never completed the treaty process in British Columbia. Today, most of the province remains unceded sovereign native land, which neither the Canadian nor the British Columbian governments have the legal or moral authority to govern. With current attempts to legalize the prior theft of native land and to extinguish native title and rights through a modern treaty process, the ongoing dispossession of indigenous peoples from their lands continues. This constitutes an act of genocide. As the NYM has correctly pointed out, the 2010 Olympics are a concern to all indigenous peoples in British Columbia. The NYM has also drawn a parallel between the games and the invasion of prospectors in the mid-1800s: “Although the 2010 Olympics are planned to take place in only St’at’imc and Squamish territories, the negative effects of these games will carry out onto other indigenous territories of the area, and the aftermath of this will create an invasion not seen since the Gold Rush.”

Anti-Colonial and Anti-Capitalist Convergence

Anti-Olympic organizers in Vancouver—including indigenous, anti-poverty and housing groups—are calling for an Anti-Colonial and Anti-Capitalist Convergence in February 2010. Anti-colonial because the games are occurring on land stolen from indigenous peoples, and anti-capitalist because the Olympics are in the interests of the corporate elites. Additional themes will include “No Social Cleansing” and “No Eco-Destruction.” The purpose of the convergence will be to confront the Olympics and turn them into a disaster for the rich and powerful! So mark your calendars, start your Olympic training now, and we’ll see you in 2010!

For more information, visit www.no2010.com.

Originally published in Earth First! Journal, Vol. 27, Issue 5, 2007