Over 200 Gather at Anti-2010 Conference in Vancouver

Allison Cross, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, October 27, 2008

The negative impact of the 2010 Olympic Games on the environment and civil liberties were among the topics discussed at a conference in Vancouver on Sunday for people opposed to the Games.

At least 200 people gathered at the downtown event to discuss the adverse effects of the Games on different communities and how those communities might work better together, said panelist Dustin Johnson, an organizer with Native 2010 Resistance.

"It's indigenous communities, students, anti-poverty activists, homeless people, academics," said Johnson. "It's a very diverse group involved."

Byron Peters, who attended the event, said not everyone who came was affiliated with an established resistance group and participants varied greatly in age.

"I'm here because I believe that it's very important for the public to be aware of the real issues that have been washed over by the media around the 2010 Olympics and how the facts aren't being told about the detrimental effects of the Olympics," said Peters, 23.

Protests against the 2010 Olympics are a common sight in Vancouver and the rest of Canada and police expect they will get more intense as the Games near.

Not everyone has the same ideas when it comes to resisting the Olympics, or stopping them completely, Johnson said.

"There is a diverse group of people that have different politics, so if some group has an objective to stop, some group has an objective to protest and some group has an objective to symbolically protest or create dissent, that's fine," he said. "That's the space they're given. I can't speak for all these people but there are different groups with different ends."

Olympic protesters disrupted an event last month in Port Moody meant to celebrate the departure of the Spirit Train.

across@vancouversun.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Activists meet to plan, get support for resistance against 2010 Olympics
October 26, 2008, Canadian Press
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Activists met in Vancouver Sunday to talk strategy around resisting the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

While opposition to the Games has been steady since before Vancouver won them in 2003, protests are usually connected to a single of the many issues around them.

But dozens gathered at the one-day conference to focus on converging Canada's diverse activist community under one banner for the Games.

"It's important to use to connect with each other," said conference participant Phillipa Ryan.

"Our humanity needs to be respected."

The issues around the Olympics range from the displacement of low-income residents from inner-city communities to the environmental consequences of development for the Nordic venues near Whistler, B.C.

"All of those things are going to be the legacy of the Olympic Games and from our perspective this legacy is something we can use in order to build resistance to the 2010 Games," said Harsha Walia, a member of the Olympic Resistance Network and a panellist at the conference.

The network is also hoping to draw activists from other causes under the anti-Olympic banner by showing how many environmental and social issues can be connected to the Games.

One example given is how some companies supporting the Games are the same ones supporting resource extraction in B.C. and in the Alberta tar sands.

"(The Games) provides an opportunity for people to come together and target something very tangible that's having a very visible impact," said Walia.

Games organizing committee spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade, however, said officials take their responsibility for staging a socially and environmentally responsible Games seriously.

And, Smith-Valade said, organizers are working to ensure positive legacies both before and after the Games.

"While the vast majority of Canadians support the 2010 Games, we know there will be some who chose to use them as a platform to highlight various issues," she said.

"Of course, they have the right to peacefully demonstrate, and we would only hope that protesters recognize the rights of Games supporters, especially families and children, to enjoy pre-Games and Games-time events and celebrations in a safe, respectful environment," Smith-Valade added.

And, the Olympic organizing committee has reached out to groups involved in all of the potential hotspots around the Games.

Multimillion-dollar agreements have been signed between the federal and provincial governments and the four First Nations on whose traditional territories the Games are being held.

The organizing committee also hired environmental watchdog The David Suzuki Foundation to do a study on how it could run a carbon-neutral Olympics.

The committee has given $250,000 for temporary shelter beds during the Games and has a remaining $250,000 to allocate for Games' time housing.

It also recently announced that temporary athletes housing being built in Whistler, B.C. will be converted to provincially funded low-income housing in six communities around the province after the Games.

But, said some conference participants, the official connections between the Games and community agencies also has the effect of silencing dissent.

"We have to take this issue back into the population," said conference participant Robert Annis.

Annis said he believes the global financial crisis will make the issues around the Games much more real to the general population as governments are forced to make cutbacks to social programs yet still fund the Olympics.

While the lead speakers at the conference - parts of which were closed to the media - were all well-known in the resistance movement, they said there were many new faces in the crowd.

"Usually at this stage, a year before the Games, you actually see the opposition beginning to vanish," said Chris Shaw, of 2010 Watch and one of the early Olympic naysayers.

"We're not seeing that here. This is the first time to my knowledge that you actually see an opposition building."

Conference organizers acknowledged right up front that stopping the Olympics at this point isn't an option.

However, they hope the coming together of groups will help lay the groundwork for a more connected protest movement in Canada in the future.

It's of particular importance in 2010, they said, as in addition to the Olympics, both the G8 and the Security and Prosperity Partnership meetings will be held in Canada.