Torch Relay Disrupted, Delayed in Montreal
According to anonymous & autonomous comrades in Montreal:
So the disruption action in Montreal went really well yesterday. We really fucked up their "celebration". The flame itself was delayed almost an hour, their spectacle was cut from 2:30 hours to a half hour, they had to cancel the main attraction and the fireworks. We were between 100 and 200.
Here is our own press release:
http://www.amp-montreal.net/?q=fr/node/37
Cheers!
Fuck the Olympics!
Press Release from Montreal Comrades
Protestors disrupt the Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal
Soumis par PatC. le ven, 12/11/2009 - 00:28.
Tagged: Pas de Jeux Olympiques sur des terres volées!
MONTREAL- December 10 2009- In response to a call sent out by the Olympics Resistance Network in Vancouver, more than two hundred anti-olympics protestors noisily disrupted the celebration of the passage of the Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal. The group, made up of indigenous solidarity activists and other groups and individuals affiliated with the Montreal chapter of Peoples Global Action (PGA), an international anti-capitalist movement, heckled and disrupted for several hours the planned activities of the celebration, despite a massive police presence and a tense atmosphere at Place Jacques-Cartier, in Old Montreal.
The protestors held many banners and placards, and chanted the slogans “No olympics on stolen native land!,” “Shame the flame!”, and “Homes not games.” They also threw thousands of pieces of confetti into the crowd – the confetti had the words: “Why celebrate colonization of native land, gentrification, and corporate subsidies? Shame the flame!” They had a sound system and a marching band played. Before the flame arrived (an hour late), the police brutally attacked the protestors, forcibly cordoning them off in order continue the official spectacle. Several protesters were thrown to the ground and insulted, while others were pushed and hit with batons. The Nazi-era Leni Riefenstahl film was shown on the big screen, that the cordoned-off demonstrators were forced to watch while they had shields and batons pointed at them by the police. Despite the police brutality the disruption was a success.
“There is no shortage of reasons to oppose the Torch relay », said Pat Cadorette, one of the organizers. “The Olympics are first and foremost a nationalist and capitalist power play. It is an opportunity for the political and financial elites to capitalize on people’s patriotic fiber and competitive drive. They are always organized by and for rich people, and it is always the more oppressed segments of the population who are negatively impacted by it: indigenous people, the poor, the migrant workers, etc. It is a colonial tradition of forced displacement, social cleansing, environmental devastation and repression. In fact, with regards to the Torch relay itself, it is often forgotten that it was first introduced by the Nazis to promote the Third Reich! The CIO and Olympic sponsors like Coca-Cola and the Royal Bank won’t brag about this, but it is nonetheless a historic fact!”
“At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, the only ones who will profit are the already rich developers and sponsors”, explains a sympathizer of the Olympics Resistance Network. “At the same time, it is $6 billion of public funds that are shoveled into this. They chase the poor from the downtown area to make room for the tourists, they pass new laws to criminalize poverty, they install cameras everywhere, they spend at least a billion on security. At this point, it is illegal to post anti-olympics signs in Vancouver! This is insanity!”
According to the Olympics Resistance Network, the Games are taking place on stolen native land in British-Colombia. The vast majority of territory in this province was never formally ceded by treaty, contravening the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Therefore, the private interests that occupy these territories illegally profit from the extraction of natural resources.
Ironically, eight years ago, on December 10th 2001, employees from the SunPeaks ski resort were hired by BC Assets & Land developers to demolish the traditional residences and sacred sweatlodges of the Secwepemc people at McGillivary Lake, BC. The RCMP provided supervision and security for the demolition. The Secwepemc have since called for a boycott of Delta Hotels, the hotel chain that was the principal funder of the $40 million expansion of the ski resort.
“This is exactly the type of colonial and capitalist expansion that characterizes the Olympic machine,” said Billie Pierre, a Secwepemc activist who participated in today’s demonstration in Montreal. “That’s what the Olympic Games represent: contempt for indigenous peoples, environmental devastation, and forced displacement.”
Information : : blocampmontreal@gmail.com
http://olympicresistance.net/ - http://www.amp-montreal.net/ - http://no2010.com/ - http://www.dominionpaper.ca/olympics/
-30-
Olympic torch protested in Montreal
CBC News, Thursday, December 10, 2009
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/12/10/protests-torch-montre...
Riot police had to intervene Thursday night to push back protesters at celebrations marking the arrival of the Olympic torch in Old Montreal.
More than 100 protesters gathered in front of the stage, carrying placards, and chanting "No Olympics on stolen native land."
No violent incidents were reported, and officers were on hand to make sure the event went smoothly, said Const. André Leclerc of the Montreal police.
The Vancouver Olympics have been the target of protests by native communities and anti-poverty activists, who are critical of what they said are misplaced priorities and the forced evictions of low-income earners.
On Monday, a group of Mohawk traditionalists in the Kahnawake reserve, south of Montreal, threatened to block the torch if the RCMP - officially escorting the flame across Canada - were part of the caravan.
Torch relay organizers finally agreed to allow the community's police force, the Kahnawake Mohawk Peacekeepers, to take over the security detail.
On Tuesday morning, the torch arrived at Montreal's Olympic Stadium to commemorate the city's Olympic connection.
The torch then visited other regions of the province, including Mont-Tremblant, before returning for a tour of the Island of Montreal on Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, Canadian figure-skating legend Barbara Ann Scott carried the torch into the House of Commons in Ottawa.
The torch run officially was to arrive in the national capital region on Saturday. However, an early side trip to Parliament was scheduled during the torch's Montreal leg because the House was expected to break for the Christmas recess on Friday.
The Olympic flame's cross-country route, at 45,000 kilometres, was planned to be the longest domestic torch relay in Games history.
French version, followed by more English-language press coverage
Des manifestants jouent les trouble-fête
Mise à jour le jeudi 10 décembre 2009
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2009/12/10/003-flamme-olympi...
Les festivités pour accueillir la flamme olympique dans le
Vieux-Montréal n'ont pas eu lieu comme prévu, jeudi soir.
Environ 150 manifestants ont retardé son arrivée à la place
Jacques-Cartier. Les célébrations, qui devaient commencer vers 18 h
00, ont finalement débuté aux alentours de 20 h.
Les manifestants, des jeunes pour la plupart, veulent notamment
dénoncer la promotion de « l'embourgeoisement » qui se fait autour des
Jeux olympiques et le fait que ces derniers se tiennent sur des terres
volées aux Autochtones.
En matinée, plus de 5000 personnes, en majorité des écoliers, ont
assisté à une cérémonie à Laval. L'ancienne patineuse artistique Josée
Chouinard, qui a participé aux Jeux olympiques dans les années 90, a
porté le flambeau.
La flamme s'est ensuite déplacée à Ottawa. L'ancienne championne
olympique de patinage artistique Barbara Ann Scott a porté le flambeau
jusqu'à la Chambre des communes.
À ce jour, plus de 4000 Canadiens ont porté le flambeau, sur une
distance d'environ 25 000 kilomètres à travers le pays. La flamme est
attendue à Vancouver pour la cérémonie d'ouverture des Jeux le 12
février 2010.
Old Montreal party goes on despite protest
Riot police; 'I still want to have pride in my country': celebrant
By MICHELLE LALONDE, The Gazette - December 11, 2009
An incongruous scene was playing out in Jacques Cartier Square last night moments before the Olympic flame was to arrive at a party to celebrate Day 42, Montreal's leg of Canada's 45,000-kilometre portion of the Olympic torch relay.
As a youthful choir sang on stage and scenes of past Olympic performances flashed on a giant screen, police in riot gear pushed a crowd of about 150 anti-Olympic demonstrators away from the stage and off the flame route. Protesters were pushed and shoved by police and some complained of being hit with billy clubs, but police said no arrests were made and the protest ended peacefully.
However, as the flame was winding its way through the streets of Old Montreal toward a cauldron on the stage at the base of Jacques Cartier Square, protesters were still blowing horns and shouting slogans like "Shame the corporate flame" and "No Olympics on stolen native land."
Pat Cadorette, a spokesperson for the Olympic Resistance Network of Montreal, said they oppose the torch relay and the Olympics in general because it is a "capitalist power play" that costs billions of dollars in public funds and benefits only rich developers and sponsors
"We are here to disrupt the relay to let people know that there is resistance to this propaganda event called the Olympics," he said.
For the first hour of the party, the protesters outnumbered celebrants. But by 8 p.m. the square was full of revellers, most seeming to support the event.
Some who had come to watch the festivities found the protest upsetting.
"I understand what they are saying, but there is also something great about what the Olympics represents," said Emma Lewis, a McGill University student who had gathered friends to join the party. "I still want to have pride in my country."
And no protest could dampen the enthusiasm of Gordie Farrell of Montreal West, who said he felt "like a rock star" as he carried the flame in Côte St. Luc earlier in the day. He brought his two daughters, age 3 and 7, to last night's party.
"I wanted my kids to share the excitement," he said. "I'm totally inspired; I love the Olympics."
And as Rolland Guillon, an innkeeper from Godmanchester, waited for the flame at the corner of St. Paul and St. Laurent Blvd. in Old Montreal last night, he was indeed treated like a rock star. Dozens of strangers asked to pose for pictures with him holding his as-yet-unlit torch.
As the flame came into view, an organizer told Guillon to stand in the middle of the street, face the torchbearer, bend to light his flame and then look at the TV cameras.
"Get ready; you will soon be the only person on the planet to have the flame at this moment," the organizer said, as Guillon prepared for his turn.