# 2010 Olympics Watch



## The Bread Guy (1 Oct 2009)

Feel free to share anything of interest & intrigue (within OPSEC, of course) regarding the security aspects of the coming games here.

*Athletes not targets of protest: ORN*
Bob Mackin, 24 Hours Vancouver News, 29 Sept 09
Article link


> An outspoken critic of the 2010 Winter Olympics said athletes are not the target of protesters.
> 
> "The impression is that you're against amateur sport and you're against athletes if you oppose the Olympic industry and you oppose the way that the Olympics are brought to communities around the world,” said Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the Olympic Resistance Network. “I hope that's certainly not the impression people would get.”
> 
> ...



*Games foes to rally as torch relay kicks off*
Sandra McCulloch and Katie DeRosa, Times Colonist/CanWest, 23 Sept 09
Article link


> Opponents of the 2010 Olympics hope to divert media attention away from the torch relay, set to begin in Victoria on Oct. 30, with a huge gathering at Centennial Square celebrating "charter freedoms."
> 
> "It's not a protest," said Zoe Blunt, spokeswoman for the "No 2010 Victoria" initiative, set to take place from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. as the Olympic torch begins its journey through the city.
> 
> ...



*Olympics promises don’t jibe with documents: BCCLA*
Geoff Dembicki, Tyee.ca, 28 Sept 09
Article link


> Olympics organizers and city officials swear the 2010 Games won’t hurt free speech, but their written documents suggest otherwise, a prominent civil rights activist said Monday evening.
> 
> “If you just look at the public statements of the security forces and the city of Vancouver you would have no cause for concern around civil liberties and the Olympics,” said B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director David Eby. “The true story is actually more complicated.”
> 
> ...


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## belka (5 Oct 2009)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> Feel free to share anything of interest & intrigue (within OPSEC, of course) regarding the security aspects of the coming games here.



From the Air Force side, it seems to me that we are preparing for an invasion from the amount of resources we will have on the west coast. Is there a Russian or Chinese aircraft carrier that I'm not aware of that is floating near Canadian waters?


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## high_octane (6 Oct 2009)

> From the Air Force side, it seems to me that we are preparing for an invasion from the amount of resources we will have on the west coast. Is there a Russian or Chinese aircraft carrier that I'm not aware of that is floating near Canadian waters?



I'd say it's more a lack of resources in general

Invasion?  Good thing we have NORAD


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## The Bread Guy (7 Oct 2009)

*Olympic security follows protester's friend*
CBC.ca, 6 Oct 09
Article link


> A Langara College student says she was shocked to be approached outside class by Olympic security officers and questioned about her friendship with a high-profile opponent of the 2010 Winter Games.
> 
> Danika Surm says she has nothing to do with the Olympic resistance movement, and her only connection is a friendship with protester and UBC professor Chris Shaw.
> 
> ...




*Media gets schooled on the label 'protester'*
David Beers, thetyee.ca, 6 Oct 09
Article link


> Zoe Blunt believes news people are too quick to slap the label of “protester” on anyone who goes public with their opposition to the 2010 Olympics – and the effect can be too simplistic or sensationalist.
> 
> “We're people in the community with jobs and occupations, just like everyone else,” says Blunt, who is a journalist and environmental activist with Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network.
> 
> ...




*Vancouver's Downtown Eastside braces for the looming Olympic security regime*
Emily Aspinwall, Stark Raven Media Collective, rabble.ca, 4 Oct 09
Article link


> February 2010 is not so far off now, and residents of Vancouver are wondering, many with grave concern, what it will actually be like during the Olympics.
> 
> Particularly worried are the homeless and those living in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (8 Oct 2009)

*Vanoc security plan goes too far, IOC member says*
Israeli says Vancouver's planned use of airport-style metal detectors is 'unnecessary'; Vanoc says the machines will stay
Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun, 7 Oct 09
Article link


> A member of the International Olympic Committee has raised concerns about the "unnecessary" level of security being planned for the Vancouver 2010 Games.
> 
> The comments were made after of a positive final report to the IOC session by Vanoc chief executive John Furlong, who said the Vancouver Games are all but ready.
> 
> ...




*Olympic critics suing city of Vancouver over Games-time security bylaws*
The Canadian Press, 08 Oct 09
Article link


> Two anti-Olympic activists are suing the city of Vancouver over a bylaw that will limit protesters to specific areas during the 2010 Winter Games.
> 
> The Vancouver bylaw prevents anyone who isn't licensed to do so from carrying any signs or handing out any materials on or near Olympic venues or other designated city property.
> 
> ...



More on litigation from Reuters (UK wire service).


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## The Bread Guy (13 Oct 2009)

From the no2010.com site:


> CALL FOR CROSS-CANADA MOBILIZING:
> EXTINGUISH THE OLYMPIC TORCH!
> 
> * Route details below *
> ...



*Ontario activists oppose Olympic relay*
Torch-bearing raises controversy about the Games
Laura Carlson, The Argosy, 11 Oct 09
Article link


> WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP) – A Waterloo-based activist group has released a statement of protest against the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games torch relay.
> The torch is scheduled to pass through Waterloo, Ont. and stop in Kitchener on December 27 for an evening celebration.
> 
> “The torch explicitly brings all the injustices and oppressions of the Olympics into our own communities,” explained fourth-year student Adam Lewis of Wilfrid Laurier University, who is a member of the activist group Anti-War at Laurier (AW@L).
> ...



_More on links_


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## The Bread Guy (14 Oct 2009)

_- edited to include first item -_

*Security firms crank up Olympic hiring machine*
Can they recruit and train 5,000 temporary workers in just a few months? Reputations – and future contracts – are at stake
Catherine McLean, Globe and Mail, 14 Oct 09
Article link

Jane Greene isn't a household name, but after years of dreaming and hard work, the Toronto resident has big ambitions for next year's Olympics.

You won't find her rocketing down the ski slopes in Whistler, or sprinting around the speed skating track in Vancouver. In fact, if everything goes according to plan, she will stay out of the spotlight altogether.

Ms. Greene is chief executive officer of Aeroguard Group, one of three companies that will together provide crucial security services at the Winter Games. She believes a safe and well-run security operation, not unlike an athlete's gold-medal performance, will attract worldwide attention, helping her firm expand into new markets such as the United States and Europe.

“Five years ago when I came in I had my eye set on doing Olympic security,” Ms. Greene explained in a recent interview.

“It's an important stamp of approval for what was several years ago a relatively small Canadian company. Now we're on the world stage. I really see us leveraging this opportunity to have more of a global focus.”

It sounds promising, but that payoff hinges on a rather challenging test. Aeroguard and its partners will be in charge of recruiting and training an army of 5,000 temporary security workers before the Games start in February. Those employees, who will operate the metal detectors and scour bags for banned items, will shoulder a tremendous responsibility: the safety of thousands of athletes, VIPs and visitors who attend each event ....


*Olympics intelligence officers 'in a tough spot': Games security boss*
By Geoff Dembicki, Tyee.ca, 13 Oct 09
Article link

Intelligence officers that approach and question anti-Olympics critics play a vital but thankless role, the head of 2010 Games security forces suggested today.

“I hope you’d agree with me they’re in a tough spot,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer told reporters. “If they approach people at home, that’s construed to be wrong. If they approach them on the street, that’s construed to be harassment. If they phone them, it’s ‘how did they get the phone number?’ If they do it at work, ‘that’s not fair.’” ....


*Military setting up camp at Cal-Cheak*
Olympic security plans will see soldiers housed in six camps in corridor
Jesse Ferreras, Pique Newsmagazine, 13 Oct 09
Article link

Sea to Sky's newest residents could include burly men in camo gear as the Department of National Defence sets up a military camp in the Callaghan-Cheakamus area.

The department is deploying over 1,000 personnel for the 2010 Olympics as a supplementary force for the RCMP, which is overseeing security operations during the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Col. Graham Thornton, Deputy Chief of Staff, Support, with National Defence's Joint Task Force Game Headquarters said in an interview Friday that the department is setting up temporary, tented winter camps in the corridor through an agreement with B.C.'s Ministry of Forests and Range.

One will be located in the Cal-Cheak area, on a plot of land over which Canadian Snowmobile Adventures holds a tenure.

"(The Ministry of Forests and Range) have six temporary mobile camp facilities but they use them all summer long for firefighting in the backwoods," Thornton said. "We've done a deal with them, because we frequently provide soldiers to them for firefighting.

"We have an agreement to provide six of those camps at 200 men each, winterized and suitable for occupation at higher elevations through January, February to March." ....


*Harper stands up for civil rights*
BOB MACKIN, 24 Hours Vancouver, 14 Oct 09
Article link

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association may have an ally in Prime Minister Stephen Harper when it comes to concerns about bylaws banning signage and advertising during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

During a news conference at Ballantyne Pier yesterday morning, Harper was asked for his opinion on provincial amendments to enable Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler to remove signs from private property, levy fines and jail offenders.

The bylaws are to prevent marketing by non-Olympic sponsors, but the BCCLA worries that anti-Olympic signs may be removed.

"I would not support any actions in the name of security that stifle political free expression," Harper said. "That's what our country is all about."....


*B.C. Civil Liberties Association condemns Bill 13*
Keremos Review, 13 Oct 09
Article link

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association last week condemned the B.C. government’s Bill 13 proposals to allow Richmond, Whistler and Vancouver to enter residences and other private property with only 24 hours notice to remove or cover up signs during the Olympic period.

The amendments to the Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act (No. 3) introduced in the legislature apply only to the three Olympic cities over February and March 2010. Another amendment changes the Vancouver Charter to permit fines for sign and bylaw violations of up to $10,000 per day and imprisonment for up to six months. Previously, people had 14 days to comply with the bylaw, and fines were $2,000 per day....


*EDITORIAL: Vancouver's worrying civil liberties rollback*
McGill Tribune, 14 Oct 09
Article link

Given the recent package of Olympic bylaws passed for the 2010 Winter Games, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Games were again being held in Beijing, and not Vancouver.

In the Chinese capital - the host city of the 2008 Summer Olympics - one wouldn't be surprised to see bans on "voice amplification equipment" (such as megaphones) and signs that are not of a "celebratory nature" on city property for the duration of the Games. Or a bylaw that prohibits "any disturbance … interfering with the enjoyment of entertainment on city land by other persons." Or a piece of provincial legislation that allows authorities to enter residences and private property with only 24 hours notice to remove or cover up signs during the Olympics period, and fine offenders up to $10,000 per day.

But these are not the measures of the repressive Chinese government - rather, they are "temporary restrictions" passed by the Vancouver City Council and the B.C. provincial government this summer in preparation for the 2010 Olympics....


_More via links_


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## The Bread Guy (15 Oct 2009)

*Second phase of Vancouver 2010 integrated transportation plan released:*
TravelSmart and everyone wins in 2010
www.travelsmart2010.ca launched to help public plan ahead
Vancouver Organizing Committee news release, 14 Oct 09
News release link

VANCOUVER, Oct. 14 /CNW/ - The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Transportation Team (OPTT) released the second phase of its Games-time integrated transportation plan today providing residents and businesses with the most up-to-date information available on how to start planning now for their day-to-day travel needs during the 2010 Winter Games. The plan requires reducing vehicle traffic by at least 30 per cent in downtown Vancouver, the Lions Gate and Iron Workers' Memorial (Second Narrows) bridges, the Sea to Sky Highway, and in Whistler.

This phase of the integrated transportation plan, which builds on information released in March and rolled out in venue communities on an ongoing basis, includes updated information on peak hours, street and road closures, the Sea to Sky Highway checkpoint, transportation plans for the Paralympic Winter Games, Olympic bus network, and advice on the movement of goods and services for businesses. Please see attached backgrounder for details.....


*Olympic road closures start in November*
CBC.ca, 14 Oct 09
Article link

Olympic officials plan to start restricting traffic for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver as early as Nov. 1 to prepare the city for the international event in February, with further closures rolling out right up to the opening night of the Games....


*Vancouver starts traffic closures in Nov. for Olympics *
Xinhua, 15 Oct 09
Article link

Road closures for 2010 Vancouver Olympics will start as early as Nov. 1 to allow the preparation tobe done for the event due on early next year, organizers announced Wednesday.  Sections around the Olympic Village will be the first to shut down with further closures starting in January, according to the updated Olympic transportation plan released by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games ( VANOC) ....


*Olympics street closures to relocate homeless in early Feb.*
Geoff Dembicki, Tyee.ca, 14 Oct 09
Article link

February 5, 2010, is eviction day for homeless people sleeping near the Georgia Viaduct, Vancouver’s city manager said today.

Starting then, the busy thoroughfare connecting downtown to east Vancouver will be closed to normal traffic. It's part of the 2010 Games transportation plan. And Penny Ballem confirmed anyone sleeping near or under the viaduct will have to leave.

“If there are any homeless people there we will be working with our host of community agencies and our outreach teams to make sure that they’re aware of what’s happening,” Ballem told reporters.

The city manager gave repeated assurances that any dislocated people would be connected with a wide range of support services and shelter. Vancouver already has an extensive outreach network that helps people on the streets find housing, she added....


*Teachers' union touts Olympics resistance event*
Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun, 15 Oct 09
Article link

A B.C. teachers' association is promoting an event by an anti-Olympics group that urges them to lecture their students about corporate greed, exploitation, misuse of public funds and environmental degradation.

The Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association is promoting an October event called Teaching 2010 Resistance.

The event is organized by the Olympic Resistance Network and Teach 2010, a website that encourages teachers to share resources critical of the Vancouver Games.

The organizations argue the Olympics is more than a sporting event.

"The Olympics are not about the human spirit and have little to do with athletic excellence," the Olympic Resistance Network says on its website. "They are a multibillion-dollar industry backed by real estate, construction, hotel, tourism and media corporations, and powerful elites working hand in hand with government officials and the International Olympic Committee."....


*Legal observers train for 2010 Olympics*
Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight, 15 Oct 09
Article link

They’ll be highly visible during the Olympics with their orange shirts marked “Legal Observer”. But they’ll have no more special rights than any ordinary citizen.

Worse, as some incidents in the U.S. have shown, volunteers like these may even be targeted by the police. They may be arrested and charged with anything from mischief to obstruction of justice. They may also get hurt or even killed if a violent confrontation breaks out between protesters and security forces.

Nat Marshik was made aware of these risks when she attended a recent workshop for civilians interested in monitoring protests and potential hot spots during the 2010 Olympics. At the end of the training, conducted by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Pivot Legal Society in East Vancouver on October 11, she handed in her application to become a legal observer....


*Expect jets, warships during Olympic security test*
Jeff Nagel, BC Local News, 14 Oct 09
Article link

Police and military forces will take to the sky and waterways next week to rehearse their response to security threats during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Canadian Forces naval warships, helicopters and fighter jets will be used in the Oct. 19-23 operation dubbed Pegasus Guardian 3 and Spartan Rings, organized by the RCMP-led Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit.

"The public should expect to see increased activities in Burrard Inlet, False Creek, along the coast line and at times in the air above the Greater Vancouver area," RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer said....


*INTERVIEW-Olympics-Vancouver torch ceremony will be safe - HOC*
Karolos Grohmann, Reuters, 15 Oct 09
Article link

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia next week will see none of the protests that tarnished the Beijing Games event two years ago, the Greek Olympic Committee (HOC) said on Thursday.

Human rights activists disrupted the globally televised ceremony in the ancient Olympic stadium in southwestern Greece in 2008, triggering a chain reaction of protests which followed the Beijing torch relay on its journey before the Games.

"This will not happen this time. Greek police have a plan to make sure that everything runs smoothly," new HOC President Spyros Capralos told Reuters.

The ceremony is set for Oct. 22 with a brief relay in Greece before the flame flies to Canada at the end of the month....


*Editorial:  Olympic security overload*
Bob Barnett, Pique Newsmagazine (Whistler, B.C.), 14 Oct 09
Article link

If there's a successor to the overused, under-explained, now ubiquitous term "sustainability" it might be "security."

Whistlerites are going to hear a lot about "security" in the next few months, as final preparations for the 2010 Olympics wind up and the Games themselves take centre stage. In fact, it came up at last week's council meeting, where the idea of keeping Whistler's licensed establishments open one extra hour during the Olympic period was opposed by the local RCMP.

"We have limited resources during the Games and policing the Games will already be challenging because our members will be responding to calls for service at the venues as well as in the village... and we don't want to give up having a presence on the road or in the community," Sgt. Steve Wright told council....


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## The Bread Guy (16 Oct 2009)

*Anti-Olympic protester supports violent opposition*
Olympic torch relay said to be target of disruptive protest
CBC.ca, 14 Oct 09
Article link

A self-described "native warrior" and proponent of what he calls "direct action" has told CBC News that he supports virtually any effort to disrupt the 2010 Olympic Games, including acts of violence.

"By any means necessary," said Gordon Hill, who admitted that even the bombing of power lines is an action he would endorse.

Hill said he would not plant bombs himself, but would support and sympathize with those who did.

"You wouldn't be opposed to somebody bringing down a power line, cutting power to the Games?' he was asked in a CBC News interview.

"I would not be opposed to it, no," Hill said.

Acts of vandalism and violent protest have already marked the lead-up to the Vancouver Games.

Protesters, including Hill, stormed the podium and had to be carried away by security personnel when the five-metre-tall Olympic countdown clock was unveiled in February 2007.

The clock itself was twice spray-painted with graffiti, and the Olympic flag was stolen from the flagpole in front of Vancouver city hall. Anti-Olympic protesters barged into the B.C. cabinet offices in Vancouver in May 2007, and vandalized some areas before police stepped in and arrested them.

Hill would not say what kind of resistance he might be involved in when the Games begin in four months, but said he's already planning to disrupt the Olympic torch relay, set to begin on Vancouver Island next week....


*October 30 Torch Kick Off*
Olympic Resistance Network, 7 Oct 09
Blog post link

The Canada-wide Olympic Torch Relay officially begins in Victoria, Lekwungen and WSANEC Territories, on October 30th and the Anti-Olympic Festival will be there to greet it.

Join us in the spirit of creative resistance to ongoing colonization,
cut-backs in social services, environmental destruction, the privatization of public space, the quashing of free speech, and the corporate spectacle.
PROGRAM INFORMATION FOR FRI OCT 30TH

1. Early: The exact location, route and time of the torch kickoff is still a mystery, but officals have said that the torch will be lit in downtown Victoria and paraded around Victoria until later in the day. Exact details will be released closer to the date.

2. 2:00pm, Anti-Olympics festival of resistance in "Spirit Square"
(formerly known as Centennial Square) downtown Victoria on Pandora between Government and Blanshard.

3. 4:30pm: "Zombie March" In memoriam of Olympics past, hosted by the Anti-Olympics festival. Depature from Spirit/Centennial Square. People are encouraged to bring scary costumes, or just costumes!

4. 5:30pm: The Torch will be blessed during an officially planned ceremony at the Legislature buildings.

Does your group want to get a message to the world on October 30th? Over a thousand media people can't be wrong. Get in on the fun! Organize a friendly competition, step up to the soapbox, take over a ring of the Five Ring Circus! Music, art and theatre especially welcome. Join us, don't sit this one out! ....


*Civil liberties? What civil liberties?*
Arielle Friedman, ubyssey.ca, 15 Oct 09
Article link

Chris Shaw and his acquaintances are only the most recent targets among critics of the Olympics who have been accosted by the Integrated Security Unit (ISU), the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department. These violations of personal privacy are one facet of a coordinated and increasingly intensive security crackdown leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Aside from intimidating and spying on individuals who have broken no laws, the city is busy inventing a whole host of new laws to criminalize dissent and opposition to the Olympics. The province has recently proposed legislation that would allow police to seize illegal signs and penalize the offenders with fines of up to $10, 000, or six months in jail. Let me repeat that: fines of $10, 000 or six months in jail. For putting up a sign. And what would constitute an illegal sign? Any sign that isn’t authorized by the Olympics, of course! We’ve seen the same thing here at UBC, where residents were forced by the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) to sign a clause in their contracts, limiting the content of material they could display. The city is already setting up fenced-in “free speech zones.” What does that make the areas outside the fences?  Authoritarian police-state zones? ....


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## The Bread Guy (17 Oct 2009)

*RCMP's query to Olympic sweater protesters "due diligence"*
Sandra McCulloch, Times Colonist, 16 Oct 09
Article link

After interviewing an organizer, the RCMP is satisfied that an upcoming protest in Duncan will focus more on knits and purls than hollers and brawls.

An officer from the Duncan/North Cowichan RCMP paid a visit to Dianne Hinkley to see what the force could expect from a tuque-and-sweater protest Oct. 31 during the Olympic torch relay event in Duncan.

"[Police asked] me about the protest and if there was going to be trouble," said Hinkley, who told him the rally will involve wearing locally knitted items to quietly make a point.

Some Cowichan residents are upset at the Bay's decision to outfit the Canadian Olympic team in hand-knit sweaters from eastern Canada and not in iconic sweaters created by Cowichan Tribes' knitters, Hinkley said.

She suggested people could support the First Nations knitters by wearing Cowichan sweaters, vests and tuques to the event.

"Wearing a sweater is simply to show that the individual wearing that sweater thinks Cowichan sweaters are beautiful and that VANOC and the Bay missed a great opportunity," she said ....


*Turnout low at Olympics security job fair in Edmonton*
Elizabeth Withey, Canwest News Service, 17 Oct 09
Article link

How interested are Edmontonians in working at Vancouver’s Olympic Games?

Not very, if Saturday’s turnout at an Olympics security job fair is any indication.

Contemporary Security Canada, the firm contracted to provide security at the 2010 Games in February and the Paralympic Games is March, is in town this weekend recruiting people to work as security screeners at Olympic venues in Vancouver and Whistler.

But only 35 people turned up at the recruitment fair in northeast Edmonton at the Oteenaw Employment Centre.

“It’s unusually quiet,” Darci Gardner, CSC’s venue staff recruitment manager said Saturday. “This is definitely a low number for us.”

CSC needs to hire about 5,000 people to run its security operations at the Olympics....


*The anti relay*
Olympic torchbearers will have company
Stewart Bell, National Post, 17 Oct 09
Article link

When the Olympic Torch Relay begins in Victoria this month, Marla Renn intends to be there. She won't be carrying the flame, she'll be protesting it.

"We're definitely going to be there, just like a whole lot of other groups," said Ms. Renn, a teacher and activist, and a member of the Vancouver-based Olympic Resistance Network.

The Olympic flame starts its journey in Greece on Thursday, then hops the Atlantic to British Columbia's seaside capital, the starting point of its trek across Canada and back again.

For 106 days, 12,000 torchbearers will haul the flame through 1,000 communities before arriving at B.C. Place stadium for the Feb. 12 opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Games.

At least, that's the plan. While Olympic organizers have been mapping out a 45,000-kilometre relay to "touch the soul of the nation and inspire the world," anti-Olympic activists have been making plans of their own.

An Anti-Olympic Festival is scheduled for Victoria on Oct. 30, the start of the torch relay. "Extinguish the Olympic Torch!" read an Olympic Resistance Network bulletin posted online this week that called on protesters to "oppose and resist" the relay. Activists have already targeted the relay's main corporate sponsor, RBC. Vandals smashed windows at RBC offices in Vancouver, Victoria and Ottawa. Their claims of responsibility called the Olympics "genocide and ecocide" and protested hosting the Games on "stolen" native land ....


*“Protest zones” leave critics doubtful*
Ashley Whillans, ubyssey.ca, 16 Oct 09
Article link

Olympic protests are almost as much of a tradition as the Olympic Torch itself. From the Irish boycott of the 1908 London Olympic Games to the controversial protests of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the games have always attracted world class protesters in addition to world class athletes.

One of the ways in which organizers are hoping to ensure safe protests during the 2010 Olympics is through the use of protest zones, also known as safe assembly areas.

According to a Vancouver 2010 press release, these zones or areas will be used as “areas for demonstrations that are options for demonstrators to ensure they have a space reserved for them which is in plain view of the public and the media accessing the venues.”

“Demonstrators are not required to use the safe assembly zones, but they will be made available to ensure a clear space is maintained for demonstrations in the busy environment around each venue.”

These safe assembly areas will be guided by principles set in motion by the Hughes Commission—an investigation into the actions of the RCMP after the protests at the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Summit (APEC) in Vancouver, BC.

APEC saw the unlawful and unconstitutional arrest, injury and abuse of UBC students during an ugly confrontation between law enforcement and demonstrators, which came to a head when a security fence fell over during a protest....


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## The Bread Guy (20 Oct 2009)

*RCMP prepared for torch relay trouble*
Stephen Thomson, Ladysmith Chronicle, 19 Oct 09
Article link

Security officials are prepared to make sure everything runs smoothly when the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay passes through Ladysmith and Chemainus at the end of this month.

Cpl. Darren Lagan, an RCMP spokesman on Vancouver Island, said local police forces and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit have been planning their response for months.

The torch convoy is set to pass through the area on Halloween, marking the second day of a more than three-month journey that will criss-cross the country before ending in Vancouver on Feb. 12.

There have been worries about possible protests from anti-Olympic groups along the route. But Lagan said he expects a peaceful crowd when the convoy passes through the mid-Island area....


*Police practice escorting Olympic flame*
Vicnews.com, 19 Oct 09
Article link

A number of police cars and motorcycles will make there way through the Capital Regional District today to train for the Olympic torch event.

They were winding their way through Esquimalt Monday morning, and will also be training in Victoria and Saanich later in the day.

Victoria police spokesperson Sgt. Grant Hamilton said the training will prepare the department to escort dignitaries or the Olympic torch itself during the torch relay....



*Largest Olympic security rehearsal on tap this week*
It's called Pegasus Guardian 3 and the Spartan Rings
John Ackermann, News 1130 (Vancouver), 19 Oct 09
Article link

Another round of pre-Olympic security drills kicks off in Metro Vancouver today. You can expect plenty of action in the air and on the water this week, as the 2010 Integrated Security Unit carries out its third and largest dress rehearsal yet.

The exercise, dubbed "Pegasus Guardian 3 and Spartan Rings," will feature police and military boats as well as aircraft. The task force will hold practices in Burrard Inlet, False Creek, along the coast, and in the skies above the Lower Mainland.

The drills are meant to prepare the unit for all sorts of emergency scenarios that could pop up during the games.
An even larger drill called "Exercise Gold" will be carried out in the first week of November.


*UN General Assembly passes Olympic Truce movement ahead of Vancouver Games*
The Canadian Press, 20 Oct 09
Article link

The United Nations has adopted the so-called Olympic Truce, calling on countries around the world to use the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver to promote peace.

The resolution, approved Monday by the General Assembly in New York, has been dismissed by critics who say it is little more than symbolism with a tenuous connection with the ancient Games.

But the head of the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, John Furlong, said the resolution carries an important message of unity that extends far beyond the 17 days of the Games.

"It's easy to dismiss the value of it, but just sitting in the hall today - every country there signed on and supported it, it was very special," Furlong, who presented the motion in a speech to the General Assembly on behalf of Canada, said in an interview.

Furlong told UN delegates that sport and the Olympics have the power to encourage development around the world while promoting unity and inclusion, particularly among youth who can learn respect and co-operation through athletic competition....


*Olympic Truce won't hold in Afghanistan*
Rod Mickleburgh, Globe & Mail via ctvolympics.ca, 19 Oct 09
Article link

There will be no stilling of Canadian guns in Afghanistan, even as Canada urges all nations in the world to observe an Olympic truce while the 2010 Winter Olympic Games go on.

Canada's awkward plea for Olympic peace was the cornerstone of its resolution introduced yesterday at the United Nations General Assembly. The motion was passed unanimously by delegates, many representing countries with long histories of military conflict.

Afterwards, VANOC head John Furlong said he saw no contradiction in Canada's position, despite continuing hostilities in Afghanistan.

"I have always felt that Canada is fighting for peace, and doing what it can for peace, wherever it can, and this is an extension of that spirit," Mr. Furlong said in an interview from New York.

"This is about something bigger in many ways than one thing," he said, noting, for instance, the "heartbreaking" fact that Afghanistan has never had a women's athletic facility. "Hopefully, we can change the course of events for that country." ....


Start: 2009-10-30 09:00
End: 2009-10-31 20:00
Timezone: Canada/Pacific
City: 
Victoria, B.C.
Address: 
Starting in Downtown Victoria (see map link)
Web address: 
No 2010 Victoria
Email: 
Email Contact Form
Cost: 
Free

****PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY****

HALLOWEEN Convergence
October 30-31, Victoria BC
NOlympic Torch Relay
Coast Salish Territory

Get ready for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share the spotlight with the world's biggest circus of misspent public resources! Deliver a message to the world for justice and equality in Canada! Exercise our right to free speech and free association in the face of a police clampdown and come PARTY on Halloween! Ninjas, zombies, pirates, and superheroes welcome! Plan your own surprise party!

The official 2010 Olympic Torch Relay begins Friday morning, October 30 in downtown Victoria. On October 31, the relay goes through Sooke, Metchosin, Langford and beyond. Stay tuned for event announcements. Media convergence organizing is underway. Everyone welcome! Canada is a Free Speech Zone! View the relay route on an interactive map here:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/torch-relays/olympic-torch-r...

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## Colin Parkinson (20 Oct 2009)

I have to wonder if the BC government is willing to break up a blockade by the Squamish or Mt Currie band on the highway All they have to do is block it at a peak time for a couple of hours to cause mayhem.

This Bill 13 really sticks in my throat, it's clear that they want to muzzle any protest and I suspect that using the bill to enter peoples homes to take down protest signs will volatile the Charter.


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## The Bread Guy (20 Oct 2009)

*Test of Olympics anti-terror tactics ends in farce*
Damian Inwood, Vancouver Province, 20 Oct 09
Article link

The first major exercise to test the response to a terrorist "security breach" at the Olympic athletes' village turned into something out of a Keystone Kops movie.

And RCMP officers from the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit were left red-faced Tuesday, after efforts to get an emergency-response team into the village got stalled for more than 20 minutes.

They tried to put a brave face on it, saying that they'd "learned lessons" from the practice session.

"This is to test our plan," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Cote, before the exercise began. "We're going to put it into practice and see if it works as well in real life as it does on paper."

But when a Canadian Forces Griffon chopper arrived for the anti-terror exercise, it was left circling the muddy construction site where an excavator blocked the landing zone.

Police officers on the ground were on their phones and talking on radios, trying to figure out what to do next.

The Griffon circled again and again as reporters quipped that if there had been any hostages in the building, the rescue effort would have been too late.

The pilot made an attempt but aborted the landing about 10 metres off the ground.

Cote then gathered media and told them the exercise had been cancelled and would be moved elsewhere....


*Security exercise at Olympic Village goes awry when helicopter landing impeded*
Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight, 20 Oct 09
Article link

Had the make-believe Olympic security exercise conducted today (October 20) by the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit played out in real life, the consequences would have been messy.

_Watch the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit's October 20 exercise. Carlito Pablo video._

According to the scenario practiced by security forces, “criminal” elements were spotted at a building in the tightly packed Olympic Village. These were apparently no ordinary delinquents armed with spray paint cans. The threat was such that the ISU commander at the site decided it was necessary to call in the heavy hitters—the RCMP’s elite emergency response team.

From somewhere, the heavily armed ERT troopers boarded a Griffin helicopter from the Canadian Forces. And off the chopper went to Southeast False Creek.

As the scenario was originally scripted, the aircraft would have then landed on a strip of earth a few hundred metres away from the target building—no rappelling here, though this would have been dramatic. The team would have rushed out, crossed a playground, and stormed into the target building.

The exercise, preparation for the $1-billion Olympic security operations, had all the makings of a Hollywood action thriller.

The V2010 ISU’s media staff repeatedly told reporters and camera operators—watching from an open-air second-floor garage at West 1st Avenue and Cook Street across from the exercise area—that it was going to be fast and quick.

How it played out was quite different. The chopper had to circle the site a number of times as precious minutes went by. The designated landing site was between a mound of earth and an orange backhoe. The backhoe was supposed to have been removed by construction crews but somehow it wasn’t.

The pilot made an initial attempt to land his bird but backed out and flew off.

With about 30 minutes gone and the chopper remaining airborne, RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Cote then started to tell reporters that the exercise has been aborted because of the tight landing space ....


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## The Bread Guy (21 Oct 2009)

*Halloween will be no treat for Olympic torch security*
Joanne Hatherly, Times Colonist, 21 Oct 09
Article link

Could ghosts and goblins hobble the start of the Olympic Torch Relay on the streets of Victoria? Police are asking that question and girding for trouble.

The cross-country torch relay, promoting the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, starts here on Halloween eve -- Friday, Oct. 30. That could cause security headaches for police trying to contend with protesters wearing costumes and masks.

"We can't just stop and search people because they're in costume, but you can see how a person dressed up in a black cape and hoodie, a mask and a bag can get close to the relay," said Sgt. Grant Hamilton, spokesman for Victoria police. He said Halloween is second only to Canada Day in resources required of police.

While protest organizer say they have no plans to intercept the torch, they caution that it's a possibility.

Tamara Herman, spokeswoman for No 2010 Victoria, which is organizing an anti-Olympic festival to coincide with the torch-relay launch _(details in last item of linked post)_, said their events "don't involve trying to go and grab the torch ... but there might be people who have different plans that go along those lines."....


*Olympians high-risk flu group, says team doc*
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press, 21 Oct 09
Article link

Some members of Canada’s women’s hockey team lined up for their regular flu shots this week and head coach Melody Davidson was one of them.

But she says she won’t push the swine flu vaccine on her players once it becomes available.

"What you put in your body is a personal choice," she said.

"I’m not about to tell our players what they can put in their bodies and what they can’t."

Bob McCormack, the Canadian Olympic team’s doctor, would like to see all of Canada’s athletes at the front of the queue for the H1N1 flu vaccine because he says they are a high-risk group.

"I have been trying to make the case that because they are in a high-risk group, that we should make sure they get access soon," the Canadian Olympic Committee’s chief medical officer said in a recent interview from Vancouver. "Many of our teams are leaving Canada in early November to go to Europe to compete in World Cups. If they leave in the first week of November and are gone for six or eight weeks, they may miss the entire vaccination program, be exposed that whole period of time and I’m concerned they might actually be missed."....


*Olympics' Top Cop Helped Blow up Truck at Gustafsen Stand-off*
RCMP's Bud Mercer was in the thick of several famous clashes with dissenters. This story, with video of the exploding truck, is first in a series.
Geoff Dembicki and Bob Mackin, Vancouver 24 hours via TheTyee.ca, 20 Oct 09
Article link

Bud Mercer pictured rifles aimed at him as he pushed deeper into the forest. A short run behind him, past mid-sized poplars and aspens and scraggly bush, lay the smoking remains of a red pick-up truck, destroyed minutes earlier by RCMP explosives. A yellow Labrador retriever was slumped close to it. Two police bullets had cut the dog down as it fled on the rutted gravel road. Mercer feared an ambush in the sparse forest. He strained the leash to keep Lukar, his German shepherd police dog, from running too fast. He was flanked by three other officers. The team squatted close to the forest floor every 12 metres, muscles tense. Within minutes, they broke through the bushes and onto the grassy shoreline of Gustafsen Lake. Mercer saw the two fugitives, stripped to their waists, wading into the water. He went to unclip Lukar, knowing the police dog would attack.

But before he could do it, buzzing, whining bullets ripped through the air above him. He hesitated.

On Sept. 11, 1995, up to 7,000 police gunshots climaxed a month-long standoff with natives in the backwoods of interior B.C. Fifteen people were convicted for their armed defence of sacred land they said was never ceded to Canadian settlers.

Mercer now commands a $491.9 million RCMP-led force, tasked with securing the 2010 Winter Olympics. He's a central figure in the biggest peace-time security operation in Canada's history. When athletes and officials arrive next February, many observers wonder if -- and how -- he'll unleash that force ....


*Sun shines for Olympic flame lighting rehearsal*
NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, The Associated Press, 21 Oct 09
Article link

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece — In the wildfire-ravaged birthplace of the ancient Olympics, Greek officials held a final rehearsal Wednesday for the kindling of the flame that will burn at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Standing in front of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, an actress dressed as an ancient priestess used a concave mirror to focus the sun's rays on a silver torch. After a brief delay, it blossomed into flame.

That flame will serve as a backup if clouds hide the sun at Thursday's official lighting ceremony in this verdant, riverside sanctuary — despite a formal prayer the High Priestess offers to Apollo, the ancient Greek god of light.

Bad weather disrupted the ceremony for the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, along with the past three Winter Olympics — in Turin in 2006, Salt Lake City in 2002 and Nagano in 1998.

The flame ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Games encountered more serious trouble, when pro-Tibetan protesters unfurled a banner and tried to stop the torch relay.

There will be a strong police presence at Thursday's lighting — which IOC president Jacques Rogge is scheduled to attend — amid fears animal rights activists might target the Feb. 12-28 Vancouver Games.

The PETA group held a small peaceful protest under the Acropolis in Athens on Wednesday, holding banners against seal hunting in Canada. Canadian officials say they are aware there might be protests, and have discussed the matter with Greek police.

"Anyone who's going to use the relay to attract media attention to their cause is unfortunate," said Jim Richards, program director for the relay in Canada. "A protester with a sign is not a threat for us, but someone trying to harm a torchbearer is."....


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## Loachman (21 Oct 2009)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> But when a Canadian Forces Griffon chopper arrived for the anti-terror exercise, it was left circling the muddy construction site where an excavator blocked the landing zone.


I await the detailed first-hand story when the guys get back.


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## The Bread Guy (21 Oct 2009)

Loachman said:
			
		

> I await the detailed first-hand story when the guys get back.


That's why I like sharing this stuff - in hopes of getting the REST of the story.


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## Loachman (21 Oct 2009)

I am awaiting the suggestion by journalist or anonymously-commenting asshat that the hel overshot because there was no A&W at that site.


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## Sf2 (21 Oct 2009)

Done.....

Check out the CBC version of the story on the website....and the reader comments below.


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## The Bread Guy (22 Oct 2009)

*Olympic Flame En Route To Vancouver 2010 Games*
Gamebids.com, 22 Oct 09
Article link

With one hundred and thirteen days until the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games the Olympic flame was lit Thursday in Olympia, symbolically marking the start of the Torch Relay that will bring the flame to Vancouver.

The ceremony kicked off an eight-day torch relay throughout Greece, including the country's ski resorts, before the torch is handed over to Vancouver 2010 Games organizers in the Panathenian stadium in Athens, site of the first modern Olympic in 1896.

The flame will arrive in Canada for the largest ever domestic relay which covers 45,000 kms and ends in Vancouver on February 12 for the Opening Ceremony and will burn at the 2010 Games February 12-28. Over 106 days the relay will span Canada, being flown as far north as the Alert forestry station in Nunavut, which is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world.

The flame will travel through all 13 provinces and territories in Canada, involving 189 community celebrations and cover about 45,000 kms.....


*Blog: Riot 2010 protesters aim to disrupt Games*
Rod Mickleburgh, The Globe and Mail, via ctvolympics.ca, 22 Oct 09
Article link

Some of those involved in the Winter Olympics are getting mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. Their new-found ire is directed at those anti-Olympic protesters who aren't much interested in marching but would rather cause chaos and mayhem at the Games.

In the past, they've stormed stages, yelled obscenities, hurled paint bombs, broken windows, stolen the Olympic flag from city hall, drowned out school choirs and rallied under the slogan: Riot 2010.

Peaceful Olympic critics like Chris Shaw, an erudite opponent of the Games for as long as they've been on the city's horizon, is not among them. But many in the Olympic Resistance Network endorse the call for "direct action" to disrupt the Games, including "native warrior" Gord Hill. He recently told CBC News that he had no problem with someone bombing transmission lines to cut power to the Olympics, though he wouldn't do it himself.

Mr. Hill's remarks may have been the last straw for Tewanee Joseph, executive director of the Four Host First Nations, consistently strong supporters and partners of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"How are smashed windows, military fatigues and balaclavas helping to address Canada's long-standing ‘Indian problem'?" Mr. Joseph demanded in a hard-hitting speech this week at an aboriginal business achievement awards banquet.

Citing a host of tangible benefits that First Nations are getting from the Games, including development projects, jobs, prominence for their culture and renewed pride, Mr. Joseph said the Olympics have been good for aboriginal people.

"Do the protesters really want us to remain forever the Dime Store Indian, the lone figure at the end of a gravel road, trapped in the isolation of an inner city nightmare?

"Do they not realize they are forcing, yet again, aboriginal people into a dreadful mould, a stereotype that takes us back to a shameful chapter in Canadian history?"....


*Mayor promises to protect free speech during Olympics*
2010 GAMES / BC Civil Liberties Association says major just stalling
Jeremy Hainsworth, xtra.ca, 21 Oct 09 
Article link

The BC Civil Liberties Association is calling foul on the City of Vancouver's announcement that it will amend proposed Olympic bylaws to protect both free speech and Games' sponsors during February's Olympics.

It's the latest salvo in the war of words between lawmakers and civil rights activists on when, where and what kind of protests will be allowed during the Winter Olympics.

Mayor Gregor Robertson announced Tuesday that respect for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is paramount.

"Our council is absolutely committed to protecting Charter rights and freedoms.

"We'll do all we can to ensure we deliver on that commitment," Robertson says in a news release.

Robertson says he understands the concerns of those who fear the bylaws would be open to abuse.

The civil liberties association, however, says the move is a cynical one aimed at thwarting a court challenge to the bylaws ....


*Olympic Security Chief Likes to 'Be out Front'*
In command of 6,000, Bud Mercer will be making decisions under a global microscope.
Geoff Dembicki and Bob Mackin, TheTyee.ca, 21 Oct 09
Article link

The 2010 Winter Olympics are all about numbers. RCMP Asst. Comm. Gary Russell "Bud" Mercer stops to consider the size of his team, which vastly outnumbers the 2,500 athletes from more than 80 countries who are destined for Vancouver and Whistler in February.

"If you think about mobilizing a workforce approaching 6,000 individuals, that's just the law enforcement side," says the chief operating officer of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit. "There's 4,200-ish that are RCMP, there's 1,800-ish that are municipal or provincial police officers other than the RCMP. Just coordinating that, it's like a three-dimensional chess game and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra all at once."

Mercer has to approach the biggest task of his 34-year career like both a contemplative chess grandmaster and a conductor of symphonies that have never played together. Don't tell him that practice makes perfect. V2010 ISU is party to 100 pre-Games rehearsals. The two biggest will be held in the next several weeks and will be Vancouverites' first taste of how big the Olympics really are....


*Mercer Blasted APEC Protesters with Pepper Spray*
Commission slammed Mounties' hair trigger use of force at 1997 summit. Third in a series profiling the 2010 Olympics' top cop.
Bob Mackin & Geoff Dembicki, TheTyee.ca, 22 Oct 09
Article link

Eighteen Pacific Rim leaders posed in their shiny, leather Roots jackets given as a gift from prime minister Jean Chretien at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology on Nov. 25, 1997.

It was the obligatory "class of 1997" photo at the end of the biggest, most-expensive private meeting in Canadian history.

But as it turned out, the sight of RCMP officers pepper-spraying anti-globalization and pro-human rights protesters instead became the everlasting image of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit.

And one of the faces in that advancing line of Mounties belonged to Cpl. Gary Russell "Bud" Mercer, now the top police officer in charge of maintaining order and security at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler....


*Resistance 2010: No Olympics on Stolen Native Land, Disrupt & Abolish the G8 & SPP*
Attributed to "blackandred", http://mostlywater.org, 17 Aug 08, retrieved 22 Oct 09
Posting link (PDF of full post also attached)

*RESISTANCE 2010!

- No Olympics on stolen land!
- Disrupt and abolish the G8 and SPP
- Active support and solidarity for local struggles of self-determination, justice and dignity*

[August 2008 – OTTAWA]

In the year 2010, three major international events will be taking place in the Canadian state: the Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler (between February 12-28); the G8 Leader's Summit in Huntsville, Ontario (most likely in June or July); and the meeting of the NAFTA leaders as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)" (date and location not yet known).

Already, groups and individuals on the West Coast have come together under the banner of "No Olympics on stolen native land." They have been organizing and raising awareness, from an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspective, against the 2010 Olympics, for several years. More info
available at www.no2010.com - http://harrietspirit.blogspot.com

Inspired by the mobilizing on the West Coast, organizers across "Canada" have begun awareness-raising efforts. Building on the call from the West Coast for anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance to the Olympics, some organizers affiliated with the People's Global Action Bloc (PGA-Bloc) in Ontario and Quebec have begun mobilizing around "Resistance 2010", linking anti-Olympics efforts to organizing against the G8 and SPP, and the day-to-day systems and institutions of power and oppression they represent.

With more than one-year before the Olympics begin, there is a huge opportunity for coordinated and developed campaigns against the Olympics, G-8 and SPP: campaigns that are rooted in our every-day mobilizing, and survival; and campaigns that understand that the institutions of oppression and power function daily in our own communities.

The PGA-Bloc is organizing within the framework of the People's Global Action Hallmarks, which are linked at: www.agp.org ....



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## The Bread Guy (23 Oct 2009)

_Text of Vancouver Police Chief Chu's statement regarding  attached (PDF)_

*No corrals for 2010 Olympic protesters, Vancouver police chief says*
Steve Mertl, The Canadian Press, 22 Oct 09
Article link

Assurances Vancouver police won't clamp down on anti-Olympic protesters during the 2010 Winter Olympics haven't comforted Games critics.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said Thursday his officers won't be setting up Beijing-style protest corrals or barging into people's homes to rip down anti-Olympic signs.

"There are no protest-only zones, no demonstration pens and no corrals," said Chu.

"No extraordinary efforts will be made to restrict protests or contain them because of the Olympics ... Protesters are free to gather in any public space as long as their actions are legal." ....


*Vancouver will not corral Olympic protesters*
Damian Inwood, Vancouver Province, 22 Oct 09
Article link

Vancouver police vowed Thursday there won't be Olympic protest zones during the 2010 Games.

"No extraordinary efforts will be made to restrict protests or contain them because of the Olympics," said police Chief Jim Chu. "We will uphold the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms before, during and after the Games."

During the 2008 Beijing Games, protesters had to apply for permission to hold demonstrations. If their application was approved, demonstrators were forced to protest many kilometres away from the Olympics site.

But in Canada, Chu said police will just "stand by and keep the peace."

"Protesters are free to gather in any public space as long as their actions are legal," he said.

Chu held a news conference Thursday to "clear the air" about the allegations that Vancouver officers were going to become the "sign police" during the February Games....


*Protest okay at Olympics, but not violence say police*
By Mark Hume, The Globe and Mail via ctvolympics.ca, 22 Oct 09
Article link

Amid growing concerns that political protest will be stifled when the world comes to Vancouver this winter, police have taken the unusual step of assuring the public that anti-Olympic signs and demonstrations will not be repressed during the 2010 Games.

But if you advocate violence or other illegal actions, you can expect a visit from an investigator, Vancouver Police Department and RCMP officials said at a joint news conference yesterday.

"I would like to make the record perfectly clear. Our goal for the 2010 Olympics is that they be safe, accessible and welcoming," said Police Chief Constable Jim Chu.

"We want the world to appreciate that Canada is an open and free society that places the highest values on the rights of the individual, not the least of which are the rights to free assembly and speech."

He said police needed to make a statement about their intentions because of increasing criticism from groups that have been warning about a crackdown and loss of human rights during the Games....


*Police train for all scenarios*
MATT KIELTYKA, vancouver.24hrs.ca, 23 Oct 09
Article link

Military helicopters and police emergency response teams were mobilized yesterday after a plane full of deviant protesters invaded restricted Olympic airspace.

While the heavy equipment was real, the scenario at Pitt Meadows airport wasn't. It was the latest security exercise by the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit.

"We often say we prepare for the worst and hope for the best, but we're not in a position where we can stand back," said V2010 ISU spokesperson Cpl. Bert Paquet. "Exercises like this are a good chance for us to utilize the resources we have here."

The drill involved military aircraft forcing an unauthorized airplane to land.

ERT officers then had to deal with the group of "protesters" handcuffing themselves to a fence.

On a day when Vancouver police made it loud and clear they would not impede lawful public protests during the Olympics, the ISU exercise showed what might greet more extreme dissenters.

"The situation we were responding to was a criminal offence," Paquet said. "That allows us to practice security and enhance safety for everybody." ....


*Torch Relay Security Team ready to protect Olympic flame*
RCMP and 23 other police forces will protect flame over 106 day journey to Vancouver and Whistler
Andrea Macpherson, www.news1130.com, 22 Oct 09
Article link

The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU) is gearing up to protect the Olympic flame and the torchbearers when the 2010 Torch Relay gets underway in Victoria.  A police security team will follow the flame across Canada for 106 days.

Corporal Jen Allan says the Torch Relay Security Team will be made up of members from the RCMP and 23 other police services, including the force in the jurisdiction where the torch is passing through.  They'll be responsibility for all security, public order and traffic issues ....


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## The Bread Guy (26 Oct 2009)

*Olympic torch expected to be met by protesters as it travels across Canada*
James Keller, Canadian Press, 25 Oct 09
Article link

It's an image fit for a cheesy horror flick: flaming torches meeting a crowd of zombies.

That could be the opening scene of the Canadian Olympic torch relay, which begins in Victoria on Friday and is expected to draw protesters along its 106-day route leading up to the opening of the Winter Games.

The international relay ahead of last year's Summer Olympics in Beijing was plagued by chaotic protests aimed at China's human rights record, including several attempts to grab the torch itself.

But groups planning to target the Vancouver 2010 torch run say they're planning peaceful demonstrations.

In Victoria, with the Olympic flame arriving on a plane from Greece just a day before Halloween, anti-Olympic groups are planning a street festival and a "zombie march" along Victoria's streets.

"It's a chance to dress up and be silly and do some street theatre, but it's also serious," says Zoe Blunt, one of the organizers of the event.

"We're doing this to assert our Charter rights. I think the whole world is going to be watching to see what happens here, since it is basically the first official day of the Games."

Protesters representing a variety of causes have said they'll be meeting the torch along the relay, from native groups and anti-poverty activists to civil rights advocates and opponents of Canada's seal hunt.

The Olympic Resistance Network has posted a note on the web titled "Extinguish the torch!" that calls on activists across the country to "oppose and resist" the relay, although it isn't explicitly advocating interfering with the torch run....


*Human Rights Campaigner Denounces "Olympics Police" Harassment*
Zoe Blunt, Pacific Free Press, 26 Oct 09
Article link

Rose Henry has had enough of the phone calls from the Olympic security police. The 51-year-old human rights advocate says an officer with the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit phoned twice a day for about a
week. The intelligence officer pressured her to "meet for coffee" and to give him information about her own work and her fellow activists.

Henry was "scared" by the calls and unsure what to do, so she asked her Vancouver lawyer for advice. "He said, 'Rose, you have done absolutely nothing wrong, and there's no reason for them to harass you. You can just tell them to f--- off,'" she reports.

"I don’t want to deal with these guys," she says. "I know I'm right in standing up for human rights. I shouldn’t have to defend them against the police officers who are supposed to protect us."

Henry also talked to fellow activists in Victoria, who offered support and advice. "I'm glad we are all on same page," she says. "All of us have done nothing wrong. It's like [the police] are trying to set us up, and putting words in our mouths."

Henry is forthright in her criticism of the Olympics. "I would support the Olympics if it was a fundraiser for people in need, and if the money they're spending was staying in the community. But it's a one-way street – all that money is flowing out to corporate investors," she notes.

"At the same time, they're chopping programs for the arts, battered women and disabled children and people with mental health problems."....


"Teach 2010" web site

This is a collaborative website for teachers to post and find resources for teaching the 2010 Winter Olympics from a critical perspective. If you have a lesson plan idea, upcoming events listings or links to articles or organizations please send us an email at contact@teach2010.org.

This website is also being developed in collaboration with the Teaching 2010 Resistance project, which has developed a critically-minded Olympics workshop for students.  This workshop is being presented in schools throughout Greater Vancouver beginning in October 2009.  For more information, please check out this page.  An overview of the workshop is available here....


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## The Bread Guy (28 Oct 2009)

*Editorial:  Civility must be our guide as we prepare for the 2010 Games*
Vancouver Sun, 27 Oct 09
Editorial link

.... People who have something to say while respecting the rights of others should be allowed to go about their business, unmolested.  But people who head out looking for trouble should expect to find it .... Let's show our television viewers and visitors that whatever we think about the Games, our first loyalty is to our civil society.  If we lose sight of that, the cost of the Games will indeed have been too high.


*Vancouver police chief vows to uphold Charter rights during Olympics*
'There are no protest-only zones, no demonstration pens and no corrals': Chu
Jeremy Hainsworth, xtra.ca, 26 Oct 09
Article link

Vancouverites are free to protest wherever they want during the Winter Olympics as long as their actions are legal, Vancouver's chief of police announced Thursday.

Further, says Jim Chu, Vancouver Police Department officers will not enter homes to seize signs that are political or personal in nature.

The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) says it will wait until Games time to see if Chu's statements are borne out.

The chief's statements come after recent concerns raised by civil liberties groups that city bylaws and provincial enabling legislation would restrict constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of expression....


*Student legal society finance watchdog program*
Group gives $18,500 to civil liberties group for Olympics legal observer training
Kalyeena Makortoff, ubyssey.ca (UBC student newspaper), 26 Oct 09
Article link

The Student Legal Fund Society (SLFS) has put forward $18,500 to fund a program that will provide workshops, training and aid for students in the lead up to, and during, the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The society, which was established in 1998 to support advocacy, lobbying and litigation for legal matters that concern UBC students, decided to give the program the go-ahead after receiving an application for funding and partnership from the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA).

“What that looks like is 11 workshops over five months on both know-your rights and legal-observation training before the Olympics,” explained SLFS President Emily Griffiths. These workshops hope to include over 300 students.

As for resources available during the Games, a direct hotline to pro bono lawyers will be provided, who will be on standby to provide assistance to any students arrested or in need of legal advice....


*Mobilization Against Start of Olympic Torch Relay, Victoria, 'BC' Oct 30, 2009*
no2010.com, 23 Oct 09
Posting link

Against the Tyranny of the Olympic Regime & the Terror of the Torch Relay:

Join the Anti-Olympic Zombie Army for the First Ever ZOMBIE March Against the Olympic Torch Relay

On Friday, October 30, the Olympic Torch Relay begins in Victoria, BC...

2 PM: Anti- Olympic Festival of Resistance
Centennial Square (Government & Blanshard St)

4:30 PM: ZOMBIE March from Centennial Square. Wear Scary costumes (or just costumes!)

From Vancouver to Victoria:
Friday Oct 30, 2009
In Vancouver: 9AM at Safeway (Broadway @ Commercial) for Carpool/Transit—Pay Your Own Way Soldier! [Est: $40 Roundtrip] .

The Olympic Torch relay is sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada & Coca Cola.

The RBC is one of the main financiers of the Tar Sands oil project in northern Alberta, which is an act of genocide against the Indigenous people of the area, who are suffering extremely high rates of cancers, toxified water and land. The Tar Sands must be shut down & RBC must stop funding genocide!

Coca Cola factories in Columbia have been linked to paramilitary death squads & repression of union organizers; factories in India cause water depletion and environmental contamination. Coca Cola must stop repression of its workers & end its destructive production practises! ....


*Native Activist Threatened With "Rendition" by Olympic Cops*
Attributed to Gord Hill, contributed by blackandred via mostlywater.org, 24 Oct 09
Posting link

The JIG is up! Gord Hill Threatened with Rendition by Olympic Cops

By Gord Hill; October 20, 2009 - Vancouver Media Co-op
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/1985

[Note: See also Statement by Gord Hill Regarding Visits by Olympic Police Agents.]

Occupied Coast Salish Territory

Yo Weeksus,

I, Gord Hill, am proud to announce yet another encounter with the Olympic police as a result of my 'controversial' statement to CBC News and my views on sabotage. This evening (Tuesday, October 20, 2009), at around 9:30 PM, I was approached by plainclothes officers of the Incredibly Stupid Unit (Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit). I can now confirm that they are, in fact, incredibly stupid.

I was walking westbound on Pender to Columbia Street in the Downtown Eastside, when I saw two males loitering around the corner. One look at their sad faces told me they were pigs. As I waited for the light at the crosswalk (jaywalking being illegal...) they approached me, with one flashing his badge and announcing he was an RCMP officer with 'JIG' (Joint Intelligence Group). He said he wanted a couple of minutes to talk to me and I said no. I crossed the street & began walking north on Columbia to Hastings, with the RCMP agent walking alongside me, the other cop, who said not a word, to our right rear (about 4 feet behind).

The RCMP agent walking with me, a white male in his 50s, maintained a rambling monologue about how my statements to CBC on Oct 13 (the power lines scenario) had hurt a lot of people, about how some of his friends were aboriginals, that he sympathized with my cause about helping the homeless, etc. He told me that from this day until the Olympics, every time I looked over my right shoulder he would be there.

What was most interesting were his comments regarding my attempted entry into the United Snakes of Amerikkka on Oct 17; the RCMP agent told me that because of my statement to CBC I would never again be allowed entry into the US, that their national security would arrest me and put me in a far, far away place, so far away it would be beyond my mind (or something along those lines).

I take this as implying the practice of rendition, where prisoners in US custody (including Canadian citizens) have been transferred to other countries and tortured (i.e., Mahar Arar). It seems odd for an RCMP agent to be delivering such a threat on behalf of another country's security apparatus (but that's how the pigs roll these days, I guess)....


_More on links_


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## CEhopeful (31 Oct 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVhu7sHtcnM


The right to protest, great go ahead. The right to be an idiot and disrupt  a persons dreams, such as carry the torch in your home town,should not be something to be proud of or be practiced.


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## Otis (14 Feb 2010)

Has anyone else been following the actions of these idiots in Vancouver?

Now don't get me wrong ... I have no objections about protesting those things you're against or you feel aren't right in the world. I've been part of a few myself (protesting tuition hikes in University ... marching to support the installing of a crosswalk in front of a school) but THESE people?

On what planet did you figure that covering yourself from head-to-toe in black WOULDN'T attract the attention of the authorities? If you feel strongly enough to protest something, you should feel strongly enough to identify yourself if you're not actually intending to do anything illegal. I KNOW it's legal to march, I know it's legal to wear a mask in public, but if I did that and walked into a BANK you don't think someone would take note?

And the argument that the protests weren't violent and therefore the police shouldn't have gotten involved? Breaking windows isn't violent? REALLY? So, if we head over to your house and start breaking stuff, you're OK with that as long as we don't attack a person? You'll be perfectly happy if the police don't respond?

And I LOVE the guy who's been publically giving lessons on the web on how to protest and resist the police without getting in too much trouble ... and THIS guy is some big-shot instructor at UBC ... teaching university students how to not be responsible for their own actions in the public ... A**HOLE.


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## The Bread Guy (15 Feb 2010)

.....here, via Canadian Press.


> They go by the name Black Bloc, but even the masked, black-clad protesters who trashed store windows during an anti-Olympic march on the weekend wouldn't call themselves an organization.
> 
> The self-appointed "ninjas" of the anarchist movement have been a factor in European radical politics for decades but appeared spectacularly on the radar in North America during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle.
> 
> ...



More on Black Bloc tactics here (Wikipedia caveat), here (what appears to be a more detailed "tactics communique") and here (apparently a background page for anarchist protests of a 2001 IMF meet in Washington D.C.).


MODS:  May be worth pulling this stuff
http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/92121/post-911016#msg911016
into here, no?


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## The Bread Guy (15 Feb 2010)

....according to ABC News:


> As the winter Olympics begin, the Department of Homeland Security has disclosed that it will be monitoring the comments and posts on websites and social media like Twitter for information on possible terror threats. Among the sites listed in a privacy impact statement filed Friday afternoon by DHS are the Drudge Report, the Huffington Post, Twitter, Google and this web site, the Blotter.
> 
> The National Operations Center of DHS will watch the web for information, according to the statement, to "provide situational awareness" in the event of natural disaster, an "act of terrorism, or other manmade disaster."
> 
> "The Olympics are a potential target for such events," said the statement. The statement did not list all web sites and social media that the NOC will monitor, but provided 31 examples, many of them, like the Blotter, sites that cover breaking news, security, or terror ....



Ya think?  Assessment attached.


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## Northalbertan (15 Feb 2010)

About a week before the Olympics began I was flipping through my satellite radio channels and came upon CBC one.  They had an Olympic "activist" dispensing advice on how to get through security at Canadian customs.

They dispensed advice on how to behave, what to wear, what not to wear, even phrases to say as you are going through security so as to not to arouse suspicions.  

What makes me mad is I paid for this BS.  How can our "national broadcasting service" begin to think this is a good idea.  Someone should be fired, perhaps charged.


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## The Bread Guy (23 Feb 2010)

*Pirate flash mob to protest working conditions on Olympic security cruise ships*
Carlito Pablo, Straight.com, 23 Feb 10
Article link

The Pirates of Justice are coming back.

On Saturday (February 27), they’ll hoist the Jolly Roger flag in downtown Vancouver to raise awareness about the plight of workers on the three cruise ships housing police and military personnel providing security for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

In July of last year, flash mob organizer Craig Greenfield recalled, the group held a similar event at Canada Place to highlight what he described to the Straight as the “situation of justice in cruise ships”.

“A lot of people know about sweatshops in Asia but we don’t realize that we have ‘sweatships’ in our own backyard,” Greenfield said in a phone interview. “Basically we have people being paid sweatshop wages in our own city because they are not subject to the labour laws of our country.”

More than 5,000 RCMP, other police, and Canadian Forces personnel are staying on the cruise ships Statendam, Oosterdam, and Carnival Elation. All owned by the multinational Carnival Corporation, the ships are reported to have been leased for $76 million.

Greenfield claimed some of the lowest level employees, especially Indonesian and Filipino workers, on such cruise ships are known to get only $50 in monthly pay.

The February 27 flash mob is being promoted through YouTube and Facebook. Greenfield said that the exact location of the event, which will take place at noon, will be known to those who join the Facebook event page.

“We plan to abide with the law,” Greenfield said when asked if there are concerns about police interference. “It’s a family friendly event. We simply want to raise awareness in a humorous way.”

As the group’s promotional YouTube video says, if you hate injustice and love wearing silly hats, this might just be the event for you.


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## PMedMoe (24 Feb 2010)

What has this got to do with the Olympics?  Nothing.  Protest to Carnival, you morons.   :


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