UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY - In the middle of a sickly sweet "birthday" celebration of 125 years of the city of Vancouver, activists dropped a banner. The message was clear - Celebrate Resistance NOT 125 years of colonialism and oppression.

Once they realized what had happened, security was quick to remove the banner at the Olympic Cauldron Plaza during the staged spectacular featuring Mayor Gregor Robertson and Premier Cristy Clark arriving via ceremonial canoe while the MC gushed over British colonizer George Vancouver being "a winner."

The event cleaning crew was also quick to sweep up distributed support materials, but not before lots were picked up by the curious. The material contained the message:

"This place has been a human dwelling for centuries before this land was called Vancouver, before this land was Canada. The policies enforced by the different levels of government over the 125 last years have made this place barely liveable: from discrimination against  First Nations to the deportation of tamil families, to homelessness, police brutality and poverty. The authorities in place are nothing to celebrate, but everything to rise against !"

After watching performances by members of three of the First Nations that Vancouver sits on, Vision mayor Robertson said he "hopes by the time Vancouver is 150 we've seen resolution of the First Nations issues that are unresolved.”