Torch Relay Disrupted in Toronto

(report back and some media)

Over 250 people took to the streets Thursday night to welcome the Olympic Torch with a resounding: “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”
Enthusiastic folks met up at 5:15 at College & University, gathering around a 15 foot homemade torch of our own, banners reading “Resist 2010 for the land”, “No 2010 Torch” and sharing in some homemade food.

Organizers from Six Nations read the Declaration of the Onkwehonwe of
Grand River Territory on the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, Doreen Silversmith also from Six Nations spoke about how the attacks on women are attacks on the land and Mark C. from ARA spoke of Indigenous Youth rising up and taking power. Messages of Solidarity were delivered by No One Is Illegal-Toronto, No Games Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo’s own Torch Welcoming Committee.

Grounding the crowd in the reasons we were here: to decry Canada’s colonial violence and expose the lies of Olympics Circus, chants began that would ring through Toronto all night. While the cold seeped, our MC got the crowd jumping and amped to go meet the torch.

Anticipating the torch taking a lil’ streetcar ride, people took to College Street. The first line of bike cops at College and Elizabeth set up as we began a fluid game of cat and mouse. Our people took some surprise routes towards Yonge and Gerrard where we regrouped and faced a row of riots cops, holding the intersection. We gathered at the line of cops and turned back suddenly, going North, walking up Yonge St. to meet the Torch. At Yonge and College we ran into the crowds there to cheer on the Torch some of whom started booing and hissing. We handed out thousands of pieces of ORN and No2010 literature and some people even joined our action. One onlooker pushed over our speaker.

The horses arrived and tried to split us in two but that failed. Then a small group stayed back at Yonge and College, while the rest of the street party walked North, slowing to regroup and coming closer to the Torch. At Yonge and Maitland, we decided to stop and hold it, as people from the back rushed to join us. With messages streaming in that the media were reporting we had blocked the Torch and having chased the torch around the city for nearly two hours (it was now 7:30), we euphorically declared victory! We had forced VANOC to split the Torch in to two, and brought our message right to the centre of the Olympic Circus.

While all of this was going on, the March in Honour of Harriet Nahanee, led by indigenous women, had split off to follow the torch into Nathan Phillips Square, where a climber free climbed an arch directly opposite the stage and hung a banner reading “Gego Olympics Da-Te-Snoon Nishnaabe-Giing Ga-Gmooding” (No Olympics on Stolen Native Land in Anishinaabemowin). Our people had infiltrated the crowd, holding up banners and handing out flyers, and booing the flame as it left Nathan Phillips Square around 9:30pm. The banner stayed up till the end of the festivities and the climber only got a $100 ticket.

Two arrests were made when two protesters ran alongside the Torch following the disruption at Yonge and Maitland. They were released later that night.

We stole the Torch’s thunder, with CTV, NDNTV, APTN, City, the Globe, the Star, the Sun, Now Magazine and some Ryerson folks reporting on the disruption and relaying the message that we took to the streets demanding justice for indigenous peoples, an end to corporate domination and the truth about “Canada’s” ongoing policies and practices of colonialism. Though there has been a serious damper being put on the size and effect of our actions, everyone on the streets of Toronto heard us last night.

This protest was organized by an autonomous group of people coming together for this occasion, and showcased a broad spectrum of Toronto’s resistance. As we head into 2010, we urge folks to support Six Nations as they stand up and block the Torch from entering their territory on December 21st, to head to Kitchener-Waterloo on December 27th, to converge on Vancouver from February 10-15th, and to start thinking about your plans for the G8/G20 meetings in June. Overheard during the street party: “Man, the G20’s coming here, and we can’t even handle this!”, cop.

‘See you in the streets.

Some Media:
(note, if you took pictures or video on Thursday night, please email
them to torchblock@gmail.com)

1) Independent Journalist: http://nealj.livejournal.com/22288.html?sms_ss=email
2) http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/12/17/260-...
3) http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/12/17/toornto-torch.html
4)http://www.canada.com/sports/Torch+relay+disrupted+rerouted+after+protesters+block+Toronto+street/2353574/story.html
5)http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hKAnNvgFGyo5z0AQPHUo2wHB55zA
6)http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/66074--native-protesters-block-olympic-torch-relay
7)http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/9367--group-blocks-yonge-street-to-stop-olympic-torch
8)http://citynews.video.citytv.com/video/57986360001/Olympic-Torch-Arrives-Downtown-Amid-Protest/
9)http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/740529--olympic-torch-relay-hits-trouble
10)http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091217/torch_TO_091217/20091217?hub=Toronto
11) http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/740529--olympic-torch-relay-hit...
12)http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_story.aspx?Section=Movies&ID=ENTEN20090121757&subcatg=MOVIESINDIA&keyword=bollywood
13) http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/torch-protest-in-toronto/1203234917

Olympic torch delayed by Toronto protesters
Thursday, December 17, 2009, CBC News

The Olympic torch relay was delayed and forced to take a different route to Toronto's city centre Thursday evening after a crush of protesters rallied against the Games.

The Olympic flame did eventually make it to its final destination at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto at around 8 p.m., an hour behind schedule. After it arrived, Olympic hockey star Vicky Sunohara carried the torch to the centre of the square and lit a cauldron before thousands of cheering spectators.

"The task of lighting the cauldron at Nathan Phillips Square is a huge privilege for me," she said earlier.

The cauldron will stay lit until the end of the Games.

Not everyone was happy about the presence of the torch in Toronto. Protesters gathered at University Avenue and College Street at about 5:15 p.m. and moved eastward. By about 6:15 p.m. they had spilled onto Yonge Street between College and Dundas Street.

Police cleared Yonge while torchbearers waited to ensure the path had cleared. At 7 p.m., the relay was held up just south Yonge and Bloor streets.

Instead of following the planned route south on Yonge to College, the relay moved west on Wellesley Street, then south on University Avenue, turning on Gerrard Street and stopping at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Police hold back protesters who spilled onto Yonge Street on Thursday, delaying the Olympic torch relay for about an hour.Police hold back protesters who spilled onto Yonge Street on Thursday, delaying the Olympic torch relay for about an hour. (CBC)

Scores of people cheered the flame as a torchbearer entered the hospital atrium. Several runners who missed their chance to carry the torch on the planned route passed the flame from torch to torch in the hospital.

The relay then continued east along Gerrard before turning south on Yonge at about 7:30 p.m.
Group decries 'colonial theft'

A group that publishes a website titled no2010.com said more than 100 people were expected to take part in the protest.

"The Olympics Torch is about colonial theft of indigenous land, corporate profit grabbing, ecological destruction, militarization and migrant exploitation," said a release on the site titled "No 2010 Olympics on Stolen Native Land."

"Take up the fight for Indigenous Sovereignty! Migrant Justice! Climate Justice! Income Equality!"

It was not immediately clear if other groups were involved in the protest, which delayed the relay by about an hour.

The torch's arrival in Toronto kicks off a weekend series of events to whip up excitement for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February.

Elite athletes weren't the only ones carrying the torch through Canada's most populous city. In most cases, the torchbearers were ordinary people chosen because of their community service.

But celebrities also participated in the relay, even some who never thought they would get the chance to run with the flame that symbolizes athletic achievement.
Celebrities galore

Thousands of people braved the cold to catch a glimpse of the Olympic torch being carried by numerous runners, including father and son filmmakers Ivan and Jason Reitman, Olympic rower Marnie McBean, ballet dancer Karen Kain and Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut.
Brian Orser, two-time Olympic figure-skating silver medallist, celebrates with the next torchbearer after running with the Olympic Flame in Pickering, Ont., on Thursday morning. Brian Orser, two-time Olympic figure-skating silver medallist, celebrates with the next torchbearer after running with the Olympic Flame in Pickering, Ont., on Thursday morning. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

When Ivan Reitman finished his leg of the relay, he lit his son's torch and the two men embraced.

Jason Reitman said he had tears in his eyes the whole way.

"I've been trying not to cry this entire time and this is just extraordinary," he said. "I can't tell you what it feels like to hold the Olympic flame. It's bigger than you can imagine."

Toronto filmmaker Deepa Mehta was surprised when she was chosen.

"I was absolutely thrilled because when I was growing up … I was considered — and I guess I still am — a real nerd," she told CBC News. "I was one of those kids that nobody ever picked for their teams. I'm so unsporty.

"Then I got this invite and I thought, 'My God, this is wonderful.'"

Earlier in the day, the torch relay touched down in communities in the eastern Greater Toronto Area. Hundreds turned out in Oshawa, Whitby, Markham and Stouffville to see neighbours, friends and family carry the long white torches through their communities.

Thursday marks the 49th day of the 106-day, 45,000-kilometre national relay leading up to the Games.
With files from The Canadian Press

Olympic torch relay hits trouble
Organizers are forced to take alternative route after protesters grind procession to a halt
December 18, 2009 Stephen Smysnuik Henry Stancu, Toronto theStar.com

Everything was going so smoothly. Then the torch hit downtown.

As the Olympic torch relay marched down Yonge St. on Thursday night, hundreds of protesters flooded the thoroughfare at College St., grinding the procession to a halt.

Dozens of police officers carrying batons barricaded about 300 demonstrators in the intersection, where they stood chanting "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land" while holding a large papier-mâché torch.

Up Yonge, fans of torch carrier Akshay Kumar, Bollywood's equivalent of Brad Pitt, pushed their way onto the street, further clogging the street.

Delayed by an hour, the relay organizers turned to Plan B.

They put the torch in its protective safety lantern and the convoy drove on, diverting west along Wellesley St. to its scheduled stop at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Thursday's incident marks the second time the torch has been held up by protests in its 106-day, 45,000-kilometre journey to the Games.

A week ago in Montreal, about 100 demonstrators swarmed the main stage at the square where the rally was ending.

Protesters, meanwhile, are planning another demonstration for the torch parade in Kitchener next week.

An official with the Olympic Torch Relay said organizers are working closely with police in each jurisdiction it visits.

"There's going to be individuals and organizations that have different views, and use the torch relays as a way to draw attention to the other matters. I hope that any of those protests are done in a peaceful way," said Chris Shauf. "We want to make sure the family-friendly celebrations and the spirit of the Olympic flame is upheld at all times."

Thursday's demonstration consisted of a collection of smaller activist groups that opposed the Games, including No Games Toronto, No 2010 and Ontario's Coalition Against Poverty. They are protesting the economic costs of the Olympics and the effect it is having on displaced people, especially Vancouver's aboriginal population.

"Our point was to put a message out there and I think we did it," said Syed Hassan, organizer of the Extinguish the Torch Committee.

"We aren't against sports. We're against the attacks on our indigenous people, migrants and the environment."

While several spectators applauded the group, some even patting Hassan on the back, others weren't as impressed.

Kathy Jackson, 47, stood at Yonge and Carlton Sts. for two hours for her chance to catch a glimpse of the fiery beacon. But the diversion meant she wouldn't get to see it.

"I am devastated. I'm a big fan of the Olympics. I'm a big supporter," said Jackson, sporting a red Canada jacket. "I understand where (the demonstrators are) coming from, but this was not the right place."

She dashed off to City Hall, hoping to see the celebrations there. At Sick Kids, scores of children celebrated by singing O Canada.

The torch finally reached Nathan Phillips Square around 8 p.m. and the festivities – overseen by police – went off without a hitch, ending with an explosion of fireworks.

Earlier in the day, hundreds turned out in Oshawa, Whitby, Stouffville and Markham to see the torch travel through their communities.

With files from Jesse McLean, Robyn Doolittle and Madeleine White

Source:Toronto Star

Video footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxRyfDoJqHk