Over 150 Protest Olympic Torch Relay in Kitchener, Ontario

From: peaceculture.org

On Saturday December 27th, in Kitchener Ontario over 150 people heeded the call out for a public mobilization against the 2010 olympic torch and acted in solidarity with those on the west coast of this country who are being negatively impacted because of the upcoming winter games.

"The Olympic games are not about sport, culture, and international
co-operation and understanding, as our government, the IOC and VANOC,
and the corporate sponsors portrays with their well funded propaganda"
said AW@L media representative for the event Dan Kellar, he continued
"They are about privatizing indigenous land, transferring public wealth
to developers and corporations, destroying ecosystems for unsustainable
and irresponsible developments, implementing the integrated police
state, and a program of social warfare on those deemed undesirable to
the olympic whitewashing and greenwashing campaigns."

The demonstration consisted of 3 parts, starting with a rally with
speakers including David Eby of the British Columbia Civil Liberties
Association (BCCLA), Mark Corbiere from KW Anti-Racist Action, and Six
Nations youth Melissa Elliot and Jon Henhawk - who fired up the crowd
with messages of resistance to colonization and on the ground impacts of
the olympics and the system it represents.

The early evening gathering in Victoria Park was under heavy police
surveillance as allies from across Ontario and the northeastern states
assembled themselves to start the second portion of the event - the march.

AW@L's Climate Change Containment Unit (CCCU) led the march, carrying a
5m "torch" ahead of the crowd which had 12 large and colourfully
messaged banners and placards reading, among other things "No olympics
on Stolen Native Land", "Fascist Colonial Past, Corporate Colonial
Present", and "From Tibet to Turtle Island, Resist Colonial Occupation."

As the march snaked through the streets chanting confidently along the
way, two banners were dropped across from the Royal Bank of Canada
calling for a boycott of this premiere olympic sponsor. The government
of Canada and the RBC were then publicly shamed for their role in the
ongoing genocide of indigenous people and their support for the criminal
developments of Alberta's tar sands - a project that has fast become the
single largest point source for future-destroying pollution on the
planet. Canada was furthered shamed for their refusal to sign the UN's
declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Eventually, the march reached city hall where the publicly funded
advertisement for the RBC and Coca-Cola was underway. After a
declaration of resistance was issued over the loud speakers, the
marchers peacefully erected their banners around the crowd - wherever
you turned your head, you could see the messages they held. Thousands of
sheets of information were welcomingly received by the general public as
the olympic veil was lifted from their eyes, and the true meaning of the
olympics were revealed.

Without provocation, several people from the torch relay celebration
attacked the peaceful demonstrators, and at one point the RCMP
physically assaulted several banner carriers before the KW regional
police intervened and removed the mounties.

After achieving the goal that were set by organizers, the demonstrators
regrouped and marched back to the park, being followed by around 50 police.

AW@L's Dan Kellar concluded "This event was a huge success - Canada's
ongoing genocide of the Indigenous of Turtle Island is being revealed to
the world through this olympic circus, and the corporate sponsors of the
olympics had their destructive greenwash exposed."