8 Protesters Arrested Attempting to Block Olympic Torch in Ontario
ORN-O Blockades Olympic Torch Relay, 8 People Arrested During Shut
Down of Trans Canada Highway
For Immediate Release, January 2, 2010
No2010@peaceculture.org
Aboriginal protesters counter Canada and VANOC’s claims that the 2010
Games are supported by First Nations
Nairn Centre, Ontario—Today just before 1pm a group of aboriginal youth and allies briefly blockaded the Trans Canada Highway bridge over the Spanish River (west of Espanola), disrupting the Olympic Torch Relay on its way from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. Youth from several different First Nations attempted to erect a 20ft tripod to block the Torch Relay. All eight have been arrested by local police.
Today’s blockade was to draw attention to the real injustices being perpetuated by VANOC and the IOC for the 2010 Olympics; to draw attention away from the sanitized and greenwashed version of Canada that the government and the Games are trying to present. Olympic Resistance Network protests across the country have highlighted the ongoing colonization of unceded Indigenous territories, environmental destruction caused for the Games, and the displacement and criminalization of the urban poor in Vancouver, the squandering of public resources to pay for the Games, and the instigation of a contemporary police state to secure them.
Anishinabe youth Mark Corbiere, said that, “VANOC and the government of Canada can no longer whitewash Canada’s brutal legacy of ongoing colonialism, nor its abysmal environmental record; these are the things Canada and VANOC really represent, and we will not let them use the Olympic spotlight to put their lies unchallenged before the global
public.”
This peaceful blockade, conducted in solidarity with communities affected by the Olympics in British Columbia, comes on the heels of direct actions across southern Ontario, including at Torch Relay stops in Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, Six Nations, Oneida, London, Stratford, Kitchener, Guelph and Barrie. At all of these stops, one of the main messages has been, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.”
The group explains that this anti-Olympic slogan counters recent media claims that Canada’s aboriginal communities support the Games: “VANOC and the government of Canada want Canadians and the world to believe that they have worked with First Nations people in allegedly meaningful ways to create a so-called joint partnership for the Games,” said Corbiere. “However,” he continues, “the reality is that the organizers of the 2010 Games have taken every opportunity to profit from the destruction of Indigenous lands, appropriate Indigenous culture, create division within Indigenous communities, and generally forward the destructive myth that First Nations are treated
with respect and dignity by the Canadian government; we resist against these lies, we resist against Canadian colonialism, and we support those who say no to the tidal wave of Olympic development on our lands.”
All Eight people have already been released. ORN-O’s legal and media
teams are waiting for updates.
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PRESS RELEASE
Olympic Protesters Released without Charges after Blockade of Olympic Torch
Relay on Trans Canada Hwy
For Immediate Release, January 2, 2010
No2010@peaceculture.org
*Indigenous youth demonstrate that 2010 Olympics are opposed by grassroots
First Nations people.*
M’Chigeeng, Ontario—Today, a group of Indigenous youth and allies were arrested by OPP while setting up a blockade of the Olympic Torch Relay on
the Trans Canada Hwy as it travelled from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie.
Algonquin, Anishnabe and Haudenosaunee youth united today to confront
VANOC’s 2010 Torch Relay, a symbol of colonial injustice. All who attended
the blockade were arrested during the process of setting up an elaborate
‘lockdown’ blockade that was to include a climber scaling the bridge over
the Spanish River to ‘drop’ an anti-Olympic banner. The activists were
released without charges, and all the blockade gear was returned by police.
Mark Corbiere, a member of M’Chigeeng First Nation said that the point of
the blockade was “to challenge the idea being rolled forward by VANOC that
Canada has a respectful and progressive relationship with Indigenous people
and their nations.” Corbiere continued, “The truth is that Canada has a
legacy of colonialism as brutal as any in history—of cultural genocide, and
in fact, colonialism is ongoing in this country, and so is Canada’s
attempted genocide of Indigenous nations.” He was arrested and released
today without charges.
Anti-Olympic and solidarity activist Dan Kellar, who was also arrested today
while covering the event for Canadian independent media, says that the
reason charges were not laid is because VANOC is reeling from the attention
that Olympic protesters have drawn to the Olympics’ and Canada’s shameful
record of abusing First Nations Peoples and their cultures. “VANOC has had
the Olympic spotlight shone on the lie that Canada and BC are engaged in
meaningful partnerships with First Nations,” said Kellar. “The truth is
though, that despite the endorsement of the ‘Four Host First Nations’
corporation, the Provincial representative body, the Union of BC Indian
Chiefs has gone on record as considering a formal protest of the Games,” he
said.
“Even Phil Fontaine, in 2008, while still head of the AFN, during the
Beijing Torch Relay, said that the world should expect protests similar to
those conducted by Tibetans and their allies against China’s 2008 Olympics,”
says Mark Corbiere. “Fontaine said then, that people should be just as
outraged at Canada’s treatment of First Nations as China’s treatment of
Tibet—today he is a paid advisor for Olympic sponsor RBC, helping direct the
whitewash of Canada’s ongoing colonialism.” Corbiere concluded, “From Tibet
to Turtle Island colonialism is a crime.”
ORNO contingencies conducted anti-colonial demonstrations against the
Olympic Torch Relay in a dozen cities across the Province this month. The
predominate theme of those protests is encapsulated by the chant which rang
through the downtown streets of Kitchener and Toronto, with each of those
events drawing in excess of 200 people, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.”
Police arrest eight over attempt to delay Olympic Torch in Ontario
Saturday, January 2, 2010, CBC/THE CANADIAN PRESS
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/100102/n010265A.html
ESPANOLA, Ont. - The Olympic Torch ran into yet another protest in Ontario Saturday as protesters briefly blockaded the Trans-Canada Highway.
Members of several different First Nations say they occupied a bridge on the Trans-Canada west of the community of Espanola.
The protesters say they wanted to try attention to a number of grievances including the environmental damage that the Games are causing and the displacement of homeless people in Vancouver.
A news release from the protesters says police cleared the bridge, arresting eight demonstrators who were later released.
A lawyer for the protesters say police didn't lay any charges.
The Torch has run into protests in Toronto and other communities in Southern Ontario as various protesters try to draw attention to their concerns.
Eight protestors arrested on torch relay route
By Susan Krashinsky, The Canadian Press, Saturday, January 2, 2010
ESPANOLA, Ont. - They wanted to disrupt the torch relay's progress across Northern Ontario and the rest of Canada, but in the end the latest protesters didn't even manage to slow it down.
Less than a week after a torchbearer was knocked down during a protest in Guelph in a move that sent the torch tumbling to the wet ground, a group of eight protesters were hustled off the road before they could even put their banner up.
The Ontario Provincial Police arrested the young people for mischief just before 1 p.m. at the Spanish River Bridge on the outskirts of Espanola, a town approximately 60 km northwest of Sudbury. They were found there with ropes, road flares and climbing equipment, which they intended to use to erect a 20-ft. tripod in the middle of the bridge.
"We were out here today because the Olympics are taking place on unceded indigenous territory out in B.C.," said Mark Corbiere, a spokesperson for the group. "It's a land grab from the colonial history of the Canadian government."
Mr. Corbiere is originally from the Anishinaabe community on Manitoulin Island, and now lives in Kitchener, Ont. He is a member of a protest group called the Olympics Resistance Network.
Had the protestors succeeded, a banner would have hung there that read "No 2010," with a symbol of the thunderbird, which the group has used as a logo in past protests.
"Our goal was ... to peacefully disrupt the torch relay," Mr. Corbiere said. "We were caught red handed by the police."
On Monday, torchbearer Cortney Hansen was knocked down as the relay passed through Guelph, Ont. Protesters denied that they had pushed Ms. Hansen. A Kitchener woman was charged with assault after the incident, and police with the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit said they would review security procedures around the relay.
Extra police officers were on duty to monitor any possible disturbances along the relay route, said Sgt. Mike Pollock of the Sudbury detachment of the OPP. Because the roadway is narrow by the bridge, the protesters represented a public safety issue, he said.
"We promptly removed them," he said. "There's always a plan in place in the case that there are any incidents."
The protesters were held for about an hour before they were released and allowed to leave together in the white van they had used to travel to the bridge with their equipment.
"I don't even think the relay was delayed at all," Sgt. Pollock said.