Streams of Justice

Communiqué from The One 'R' Posse! re: Recycle Bin Tip Over

2010-03-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

During the Anti-2010 Convergence Heart Attack Demonstration, self styled extremist moderates take action against the capitalist corporate mind machine.
Portland Independent Media Centre

Communiqué from The One 'R' Posse!
Operation Knock Over Recycle Bin and Strew The Contents All Over The Street!
Just say no to Recycling! If you Reduce and Reuse, there is no need to Recycle. Recycling is just a way for capitalism to ride the back of environmentally conscious people with out ever having to actually change their fundamental system.

In Seattle during the anti-WTO convergence, in 1999, we set a dumpster of cardboard recycling on fire. This action was widely misconstrued as a bunch of hooligan police provocateurs attempting to besmirch the good name of respectable protesters and rioters alike.

Our goal in Operation Set Cardboard Dumpster On Fire was to prevent the recycling trucks from coming to pick it up, using fossil fuels and ever increasing road networks to bring it to the recycling depot, process it then transport it in more trucks to factories to manufacture it into goods consumers would drive their cars to malls to yet again purchase, starting this whole 'recycling' charade all over again. How many times can one recycled box be recycled before the recycling process itself becomes just another toxic pollutant!

Read the rest here

Activists Debate Vancouver Olympic Protests

2010-03-10T11:26:00.000-08:00

by Derrick O’Keefe
March 9, 2010
Socialist Voice

After years of organizing work, the protest movement around the Vancouver Winter Olympics can proudly claim a number of important victories. A vibrant demonstration of thousands met the corporate spectacle head on, marching to within metres of the Opening Ceremonies at B.C. Place February 12.

The ‘Welcoming Committee’ that organized this mass protest was representative of the range of groups challenging the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Vancouver Games conveners (VANOC).

The achievements of this movement include: Pushing back hard against attempts to restrict free assembly and speech, exposing the “greenwashing” of the Games, and raising awareness of homelessness and indigenous rights issues. The IOC brand was successfully dented and the longer-term impact of the Games illuminated. Over the course of the Games, a host of creative direct actions and protests pushed demands for social justice.

However, there were also missed opportunities, and some acrimonious debate in the activist community.

Read the rest here

Does it matter who's living in a tent?

2010-03-09T11:52:00.000-08:00

Published: March 08, 2010 11:00 AM
Burnaby Newsleader

Re: Fewer losers at these Olympics (Column, NewsLeader, Feb. 20)

Tom Fletcher wants Pivot Legal Society to tell him whether the people taking part in the Red Tent campaign are actually homeless.

But this question is really unimportant; it avoids the main issue entirely.

Homelessness in this country exploded when the federal government decided to stop building low-income housing some years back. This much is clear. I am assuming that Mr. Fletcher agrees that this situation is a national disgrace, and a problem that must be fixed.

In order to end homelessness in this country, a national housing program is required. The federal government does not seem to be interested in implementing such a program. So, the important question is how we can exert pressure on them to do so. Pivot’s Red Tent campaign should be useful in this regard.

Does Mr. Fletcher have a better idea?

If Mr. Fletcher really, really needs to have his question answered, he could simply refer to Pivot’s Red Tent web pages (www.pivotlegal.org). It is explicitly stated there that “Red Tents serve as a symbol of Canada’s homelessness crisis and to call on the federal government to invest in a lasting solution” and that “tents are currently available only to homeless people unless you are planning an action to draw attention to Canada’s homelessness crisis.”

The Red Tent campaign is not intended to provide housing for homeless people directly. Giving a tent to a homeless person would improve one person’s situation by a tiny amount. But if the campaign can help to ensure that we have a national housing program, then it will have contributed to a large improvement in the lives of many people.

Now it appears that, for some reason, 45 homeless people who participated in the Olympics tent city have just obtained decent housing (better than SROs) through BC Housing, and actually, in existing vacant suites.

Is it possible that the Red Tent campaign had any influence? Do you believe in causal relationships, or do things happen just by accident?

Victor Finberg
Burnaby

Link to article

Social housing conundrum Vision Vancouver's biggest test yet

2010-03-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

If subsidized, the Athletes' Village would be arguably the most expensive social housing anywhere in the world
Gary Mason
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010

lympians in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games loved staying in the Athletes' Village. Big surprise.

Their rooms will soon be retrofitted, and, in some cases, sold for millions of dollars. Another Athletes' Village as nice as the one Vancouver built is unlikely in the next 100 years. But as soon as the Paralympics conclude later this month, attention will once again focus on the economics of the development and how much of the nearly $1-billion that Vancouver taxpayers spent to bail out the project they are likely to get back.

One of the more contentious aspects of that discussion is certain to involve the status and future of the 252 units of social housing to which the city had committed itself. It is a promise now likely to be broken.

The final decision will have wide-ranging political implications for the governing Vision Vancouver party and its leader, Mayor Gregor Robertson.

Read the rest here

How the Downtown Eastside became an Olympics non-story

2010-03-09T11:48:00.000-08:00

Was it because the province's sudden frenzy of efforts in the previous two years actually deflected criticism? Or something else?
Frances Bula
Vancouver, BC — Special to The Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010

The dire predictions abounded for years before the Olympics that Vancouver's two ugly secrets - the Downtown Eastside and homelessness - would be exposed by 10,000 international reporters who wouldn't be able to resist the story about a beautiful city's underbelly.

But those predictions never came true. A few of the larger outlets - the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, for example - did the obligatory scene-setter stories on those issues before the Games began last month. But they didn't reveal anything particularly new or startling. And they didn't ignite any kind of media firestorm that came even close to the later coverage of, say, Cauldrongate - the furor over the chain-link fence in front of the Olympic flame.

And any interest in general stories about human suffering seemed to evaporate in the face of individual tragedies during the Games, starting with the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on opening day.

"I was surprised at how focused the media was on just the Olympic events," said David Eby, the one-time housing advocate who fought for years to force the provincial government to meet its bid-book commitment of preserving and creating low-cost housing. "I thought they would be all over the city looking for stories. It certainly wasn't the onslaught of journalists walking up Hastings Street that we imagined."

City councillor Ellen Woodsworth was also taken aback by the lack of interest. "I was surprised at how little attention was paid."

Read the rest here

In the Shadow of the Olympic Flame: A Report from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the Poorest Neighborhood in Canada

2010-03-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Winter Olympics have wrapped up in Vancouver, Canada. The Olympic flame has been doused, and a return to normalcy has begun for a city thrust onto the world stage. Democracy Now! producer Aaron Maté traveled to Vancouver to look at an issue lost in the two-week spectacle, the struggles of a low-income community in the Olympics’ shadow. [includes rush transcript]

Click image below for video.

Olympic Games in Vancouver end, but homelessness goes on

2010-03-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

Filip Bondy
New York Daily News
Tuesday, March 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM

VANCOUVER - The cars were passing along Hastings Street on Sunday night, drivers still honking horns, waving flags and screaming out windows to celebrate Sidney Crosby's overtime goal. A few blocks away, Olympic organizers were handing out brown moose hats to spectators at the Closing Ceremony, which was just getting started.

Harsha Walia heard none of it. She hadn't watched a minute of the big hockey game between Canada and the U.S., or the earlier Alpine events, or the figure skating, or the ceremonies. The Vancouver community organizer was dishing out rice, beans and lettuce to the homeless at the self-proclaimed Olympic Tent City between Abbott and Carroll Sts., where the hungry were lined up for something very different than medals.

"Does it look like people care here?" Walia said. "People here have way bigger issues than hockey games."

It is always the case with the Olympic Games. They come and go and raise a great, ephemeral tide of pride and nationalism among local residents who demand to be called the best Olympic hosts ever. The local hotels and restaurants rip off tourists for two weeks, a hefty bonus.

Then the Games are gone, the adrenaline fades, the bills come home to roost, and everyone wonders whether it was really worth it.

Read the rest here

An Olympic Wrap-Up

2010-02-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

Red Tent needs you for an Olympic Wrap-up! -- pls distribute widely

RED TENT NEEDS YOU THIS SATURDAY FOR OUR FINAL, RECORD-BREAKING 2010 OLYMPIC ACTION:

The Olympic Wrap-up!

We are finished with homelessness, tired of knowing that thousands of people across Canada are forced to sleep on the streets. Solving homelessness is not rocket science - it means providing houses and supports for people who need them, through a funded National Housing Strategy.

We call on the organizing community in Vancouver to join us in sending a message to the Harper Government that cannot be ignored!

On Saturday, February 27 we will descend on the Canada Pavilion equipped with 142 red tarps and 1700 feet of messaging calling for an end to homelessness in this country.

We will be peaceful, we will be loud, we will be creative, and we will be relentless. We will wrap the entire pavilion...

Join us!

Where: Meet at Keefer Place, next to the T & T Market (Keefer and Abbott), and then on to the Canada Pavilion at Dunsmuir and Beatty
When: Noon on Saturday, February 27th
What: A paint brush, and sleeping gear if you want to stay overnight. And instruments, always...
Who: You, and us, and all our friends!

See you Saturday!

Or sooner, if you’d like to get more involved: Wrap Party Work Party: Thursday February 25, noon till evening at Pivot (678 East Hastings). Come help us finalize the tarps and all the materials!

Wrap Party Prep Party: Saturday February 27, 10am at Pivot. Come help us get everything ready and transported!

Squatters at 'Olympic Tent Village' say they're digging in for long haul

2010-02-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

By Sam Cooper
The Province
February 23, 2010

Squatters at the “Olympic Tent Village” — established nine days ago on a private downtown Vancouver lot — say they are digging in for the long haul.

Anti-Olympics activists moved onto the lot on West Hastings Street — which is slated for development by Concord Pacific and has been leased to VANOC for the duration of the Games — originally planning to camp out for five days, according to squat organizer Dave Diewert.

But Diewert now says there’s a growing list of over 20 camp residents who need permanent housing and squatters won’t leave until the City of Vancouver and B.C. Housing find them homes.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was asked Tuesday morning if he is concerned about conflict as the squatters persist, and said: “No ... I think their protest has been very respectful, and we’re on the same page with [organizers] in asking for a national housing strategy.”

There are about 140 tents pitched on the lot, and about two dozen are now residing in the camp, Diewert said. That is down from 70 to 100 staying overnight during the first week, and numbers could continue to drop as rain moves in, Diewert admitted.

The site now has a medic tent, a kitchen tent and a fully serviced porta-pottie.

Organizers were rushing to weatherproof several “community” tent areas as wind and rain whipped the site on Tuesday afternoon.

Diewert said everyone in the camp could find shelter space in Vancouver, but they prefer arrangements on the lot.

“You can sit around the fire, there is community,” Diewert said. “People feel safe here.”

Organizers have set up a security force and there are “community agreements” on drug use and conflict resolution, Diewert said. All significant decisions, including the future of the camp, are made together, residents say.

“If officials ask us to leave, we’ll do a community process and decide how we want to proceed,” Diewert said.

Diewert compared the “Olympic Tent Village” with the Downtown Eastside Woodward’s squat of 2002, which started as a “political action” but lasted over 90 days, he said.

Angel Hamilton, a 30-year-old graduate student at Capilano University, said she has stayed in the West Hastings tent village from the first night, and is filming a documentary on the site.

Pointing to “democratic” decision making and “guerrilla gardening” initiatives, she said for some residents “there is momentum behind keeping [the camp] here.”

Peter Deranger, a 68-year-old Dene nation man, said “people don’t want to shut [the tent village] down — we can keep it open.”

© Copyright (c) The Province

Link to article

Olympic Tent Village up at 58 West Hastings

2010-02-21T15:55:00.000-08:00

Members of Streams of Justice, the Downtown Eastside Women Centre Power of Women Group, and hundreds of others successfully set up an Olympic Homeless Tent Village yesterday Monday Feb 15th at 58 West Hastings. Currently vacant, 58 West Hastings is a lot owned by the condo
developer Concord Pacific and currently used as a VANOC parking lot.

The Olympic Homeless Tent Village is an autonomous DTES-resident based tent city, not affiliated with the Red Tent Campaign, though it is endorsed by almost 100 organizations. Hundreds of DTES residents and supporters attended a rally for homes to coincide with the Tent City, while Vancouver's Poet Laureate Brad Cran lent his support by doing a poetry reading on-site, along with other poets from the community.

The 2010 Winter Olympics has escalated the homelessness crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Greater Vancouver area. Since the Olympic bid, homelessness has nearly tripled in the Greater Vancouver Regional Distrct, while real estate and condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. Meanwhile, a heightened police presence has further criminalized those living in extreme material poverty in the poorest postal code in Canada.

Instead of empty lots and empty promises, the Olympic Tent Village calls for:

Real action to end homelessness now
End condo development and displacement in the Downtown Eastside
End discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.

http://olympictentvillage.wordpress.com/

Photos & video: Vancouver protesters rally for national housing program during Winter Olympics

2010-02-20T20:49:00.000-08:00

By Stephen Hui
straight.com

Today (February 20), speakers at a rally in downtown Vancouver called on the Canadian government to bring in a national housing program.

Here's some scenes from the protest, which took place outside the Vancouver Art Gallery during the second weekend of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Another Olympic Tent Village Update from Dave Diewert

2010-02-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

The Olympic Tent Village was launched last Monday following a rally for homes. We successfully occupied an empty lot (58 W. Hastings), and have grown since then. We probably have 100 or so tents on the site, with lots of folks coming and going. Initially, we set in place an infrastructure to last us for 5 days, but the community of people who are on the site have decided to stay until the end of the Olympics, and maybe beyond. Perhaps SoJ can coordinate contributing an evening meal or a breakfast for one or two of the days remaining, and some could bring down other items in support (e.g., sleeping bags, blankets, firewood, triple A batteries, etc.). Also, if you are able to come by and volunteer some time, that would be great. The food tent area is always busy, and could use some help in serving, cleaning, organizing, etc. Also, there are 24 hour shifts to make sure the place is safe and secure. If you wish to volunteer for a shift, please let me know. Thanks to those who have been present so far (Letizia, Calvin, Britta, Teresa, Steven, Al, Mia, Judy, Bob, and others I may have missed out due to memory loss and lack of sleep); your presence has been much appreciated.

We won't be meeting this monday night, since the Tent Village is still in operation. I apologize for not communicating more regularly; I have been most of the time at the Tent Village, and so I've been away from home and computer. I look forward to meeting again on Monday, March 1st (7:00 pm at GCBC) and reflecting together on our experience of the past days, weeks, months.

Olympic Tent Village needs your ONGOING SUPPORT!

2010-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

Moira Peters
Vancouver Media Coop
February 20

Since Feb 15, 2010 the Olympic Tent Village has been set up at 58 West Hastings, an empty lot owned by notorious condo developer Concord Pacific, currently being leased by VANOC as a parking lot for the Olympics.

The first few days at the Olympic Tent Village have gone strongly and smoothly, thanks to the community effort to support and defend it. Hundreds have gathered during the evening and through the night, especially DTES residents, homeless people, and youth.

Over the next week, we are calling on all supporters to continue to defend the Olympic Tent Village and to support the residents. We need:

Volunteers to help cook at the Tent Village anytime drop-in starting at 8 am till 8 pm.
Supporters to be present during the day 8 am to 4 pm and overnight 6 pm to 6 am.
Independent media, legal observers and others with cameras in case of emergencies (please note there is no recording in the Tent Village otherwise)
On site medic support especially overnight from 6 pm to 6 am.
Donations of non perishable food items, tarps, tents, blankets, sleeping bags.

Read the rest here

Olympic Tent Village Update

2010-02-18T11:37:00.001-08:00

I just dropped by the Tent Village (Thursday am) and spoke with Dave Diewert for a few moments.

Dave tells me the first night was wet, and the last two have been cold, but there's a really great spirit throughout the village. Over 90 tents are set up and at least 100 people are calling the village home right now. There's been a lot of press coverage, both domestic and foreign... Dave did two different interviews while we were talking!

There is still a need for tents and sleeping bags.

Be sure to monitor the Olympic Tent Village blog for all the latest.

~ Mike Todd

Right to the City: Rally for a National Housing Program

2010-02-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

Presented by The Impact on Communities Coalition

Saturday, Feb 20th @ Noon

Vancouver Art Gallery

Download a pdf flyer here

Vancouver's Olympic Tent Village

2010-02-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

Streams of Justice is one of many groups supporting and participating in Vancouver's Olympic Tent Village.

Follow along on the Tent Village blog, and keep up with the photos being posted on Streams Flickr page .

Protesters set up tent city in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

2010-02-15T18:33:00.000-08:00

By LARRY PYNN
Vancouver Sun
February 15, 2010

VANCOUVER -- Hundreds of homeless and poverty protesters using the Olympic spotlight to their advantage flooded into a large vacant lot in the 100-block West Hastings Street on Monday and erected a tent city.

Occupation of the site followed a noon-hour anti-Olympics rally at Pigeon Park at Carrall and Hastings streets and a short march reported upon by dozens of print and electronic journalists.

Vancouver police took a low-keyed position, monitoring the crowd and directing traffic without encountering the sort of violent protest that occurred downtown on Saturday.

Read the rest here

RALLY FOR HOUSING AND OLYMPIC TENT VILLAGE BRINGS ATTENTION TO DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE HOMELESSNESS AND EMPTY HOUSING PROMISES

2010-02-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

RALLY FOR HOUSING AND OLYMPIC TENT VILLAGE BRINGS ATTENTION TO DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE HOMELESSNESS AND EMPTY HOUSING PROMISES

Monday Feb 15th - The upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics has escalated the homelessness crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Greater Vancouver area. Since the Olympic bid, homelessness has nearly tripled in the Greater Vancouver Regional Distrct, while real estate and condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. Meanwhile, a heightened police presence has further criminalized those living in extreme material poverty in the poorest postal code in Canada.

With the eyes of the world on Vancouver, residents of the Downtown Eastside Women Centre Power of Women Group and supporters are organizing a rally for housing on Monday Feb 15 at noon at Pigeon Park (Carrall and Hastings). An Olympic Tent Village will also be going up to affirm the call for justice and dignity.

Instead of empty lots and empty promises, the Rally for Housing and the Olympic Tent Village calls for:
1. Real action to end homelessness now
2. End condo development and displacement in the Downtown Eastside
3. End discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.

On the inaugural evening of the Olympic Tent Village, Vancouver's 2009-2011 Poet Laureate Brad Cran, who has previously declined participation in the Cultural Olympiad, will be reading poetry as part of "Reading Resistance". He will be joined by poets from the Downtown Eastside and across Vancouver, including Mercedes Eng, Cynthia Oka, and Dorothy Trujillo Lusk.

The Rally for Homes has been endorsed by: Endorsed by: Carnegie Community Action Project, DTES Elders Council, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Impact on Communities Coalition, Streams of Justice, Vancouver Action, Walk 4 Justice, Community Advocates for Little Mountain, Anti Poverty Committee, DTES Community Arts Network, Indigenous Action Movement, Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society, Solidarity Notes Labour Choir, No One Is Illegal – Vancouver, Food Not Bombs, Vancouver Status of Women, Downtown Eastside Residents Association, Indigenous Environmental Network, Organizing Centre for Social and Economic Justice, Bus Riders Union, Alliance for People’s Health, Women Elders in Action, Canadian Union of Postal Workers – National Representative, UBC Students for a Democratic Society, East Van Abolitionists, http://www.Gatewaysucks.org, Justice for Girls, W2 Community Media Arts Society, Submedia, Vancouver Catholic Worker, Pivot Legal Society, UBC Centre for Race, Autobiography, Gender, Siraat Collective, The Rational Coop-Radio, Bulland Awaaz- Coop-Radio, Pink Resistance, CIPO –Vancouver (Popular Council of Indigenous Nations of Oaxaca in Vancouver), Rhizome Cafe, Native Youth Movement, Network of Sri Lankan Law Students, Oxfam Canada, Whistler Watch, http://www.no2010.com, Warrior Publications, Workless Party, Teaching Support Staff Union, 2010 Welcoming Committee, Latin America Connexions Collective, Servants Vancouver, Building Bridges Human Rights-Vancouver, Check Your Head, SFU Interfaith Institute for Justice, Peace and Social Movements, http://www.Stopwar.ca, Headlines Theatre, Student Christian Movement-UBC, Community Olympics Watch, Rain Zine, Industrial Workers of the World, The Press Release Collective, Simon Fraser University Public Interest Research Group, 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay, Friends of Women in the Middle East Society, Iran Solidarity-Vancouver, Federation of Iranian Refugees, Wake Up With Co-Op! at CFRO, UBC Colour Connected Against Racism, BC Persons with AIDS Society, Progressive Forum of Nepalis in America, Grassroots Women, Grandview Woodland Food Connection, Ethical Environmental Consulting, Purple Thistle, Bridgeview Community Action Group, Ahavat Olam Synagogue, The Under One Umbrella Society, Bridgeview Community Action Group, Neworld Theatre, St. James’ Social Justice Group, West End Residents Association, Fraser Valley Peace Council, Homes not Highways, Jacob’s Well, Faithful Public Witness Committee of Van-Burrard Presbytery of the United Church, Longhouse Council of Native Ministry.

For more information: http://www.olympictentvillage.wordpress.com/

Rally for Homes: "No More Empty Lots; No More Empty Talk"

2010-02-15T07:22:00.000-08:00

Rally for Homes: "No More Empty Lots; No More Empty Talk"
Monday, Feb 15th
Noon at Pigeon Park (corner of Hastings and Carrall)
In support of an Olympic Tent Village

Stations of the Cost

2010-02-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome to ‘Stations of the Cost’. Below are fourteen images with poetic reflections on the social, economic, and environmental issues surrounding the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. In the pattern of the ancient Christian Liturgy, the ‘Stations of the Cross’, we want to help you recognize that many are suffering as a result of the Olympics as low cost housing disappears, government debt increases, the environment erodes, and the poor are criminalized. Our hope is to bring attention to these issues because we are inspired by a vision of equality, justice, healing, and well being for all people.

The ‘Stations of the Cross’ liturgy is intended to draw people into identification and reflection on the last hours and sufferings of Jesus. What was unique and central to the life and action of Jesus was his identification with the marginalized and his critique of oppressive powers. The ‘Stations of the Cost’ is intended to help people reflect on the suffering of the marginalized and the oppressiveness of powers at work in our world today.

We are not opposed to the Olympic vision to use sport as a tool to bring hope to the world, but what is concerning is the vivid inaccuracy of this aim in the efforts to bring these games to Vancouver. This inconsistency is worth pointing out in order to inform a more just approach to the Olympics. Our heart is to advocate for a games that seeks the betterment of all people, not just a privileged few.

Begin here.

The Drink of the Death Squads, and Other Corporate Stuff

2010-02-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

See also material available from the 2010 Corporate Campaign here

BC Poverty Olympics Press Confer

2010-02-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

Also, our friend The Blackbird has some great photographs from the Poverty Olympics here.

Setting the Record Straight on Violent Protest and the Olympics

2010-02-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

Nat Marshik
Feb 7th, 2010
Vancouver Observer

“Will you go on record denouncing violent protest?”

You can bet that any member of the Olympic Resistance Network, and most anyone publicly opposed to the Olympics, has heard that question at least once -- whether it's from newscasters, neighbors, family, or co-workers. In the lead-up to the Anti-Olympic Convergence in Vancouver this February, it's understandable that people want some solid answers.

Unfortunately, they are asking trick questions.

The concept of violent protest is linguistic smoke and mirrors. Not only are most so-called “violent protests” actually instances of police violence, but the term “violent protest” has been over-used by headline-hungry media to the point of meaninglessness. Ask someone to define it and they hem and haw. Some will point to images of black-clad youth with covered faces, shouting slogans in the streets. People like Liberal MLA Harry Bloy will point to “noisy” and “inconvenient” demonstrations like the one at the Victoria Torch Relay kick-off, and will throw in the moniker “terrorist” for good measure.

Others speak anxiously of property destruction, dragging out the tired broken-windows cliché (a rarity at most demonstrations). At best, someone might dig up an example, like the smattering of anonymous arson attacks against the unoccupied buildings of RBC, an Olympic sponsor and financier of the Alberta Tar Sands.

The greatest commonality between these remarkably diverse scenarios is perhaps the fact that in none of them did protesters target human or animal life. This begs the question: What really constitutes violence, and which kinds of violence go unnamed? Ironically, groups like the Olympic Resistance Network oppose the Olympic industry precisely because the Olympics are destructive, violent and disruptive. While the corporate media trumpets headlines about possible “protester violence” as an apologia for police repression, the real perpetrators of violence fly right under the radar.

Read the rest here

Independent media reporter rejected at border, detained by border agents and denied outside contact

2010-02-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

For immediate release – Saturday, February 6, 2010

Independent media reporter rejected at border, detained by border agents and denied outside contact

Martin Macias Jr., an independent media reporter from Chicago travelling to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver BC, has been rejected by Canadian border agents and held without outside contact for at least 7 hours (as of 9pm) today.

Macias arrived in Vancouver from Chicago (via Minneapolis) on a 11:30am Delta Airlines flight on Saturday, February 6, 2010. He was detained for hours by Canada Border Services agents in the Vancouver International Airport and questioned about his plans during the Olympics. Ultimately he was refused entry to Canada. He was then put on an Alaskan Airlines flight to the Seattle / Tacoma Airport (departing at 2:40pm). As of 9pm he had not been able to contact legal counsel or his travelling companion since before his rejection at the border. The information on his rejection was only made available through the US Consulate. It is routine for people rejected at the border to be interrogated by both Canadian and US border agents; he may well still be detained for questioning in the USA at this point. Although he is entitled to a phone call and legal counsel, nothing has been heard from Macias since about 2pm when he still expected to be able to enter Canada as planned.

Martin was travelling to Vancouver for political events during the Olympic Resistance Network anti-Olympic convergence and to document the effects of the Winter Olympics on the communities of Vancouver. He was to leave Vancouver for the USA on Feb. 11. He was travelling with political organizer Bob Quellos of No Games Chicago, who was allowed to enter Canada. They were both to be picked up by Chris Shaw, a member of the Olympic Resistance Network, local Olympic critic, and author of ‘The Five Ring Circus’ who himself has been questioned and detained when travelling to a sports conference in the UK and repeatedly approached by members of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (Olympic policing body) regarding his political activities. Canadian border agents, police, and intelligence units have been actively surveilling, questioning and harassing opponents of the Olympic Games (and their associates and families) for years. Media, such as Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, have been subject to questioning and increased scrutiny as well.

Macias (20 years old) was a leading member of No Games Chicago - which successfully opposed Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is a youth organizer for the Chicago Environmental Justice Coalition, and Comite 10 de marzo, an immigrant rights organization. He is also a media reform activist with community radio station Radio Arte where he serves as the host/producer of First Voice, a radio news zine. He has covered the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Power Shift 2009 in Washington D.C., and local social justice issues in his community. He currently chairs the Peace Committee at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Macias can normally be reached through reclaimtheearth@gmail.com.

Independent media, activists and opponents of the Olympics are gathering in Vancouver for the Feb. 10-15 anti-Olympic convergence organized by the Olympic Resistance Network. It begins with a two-day conference (Feb. 10-11) and a mass protest and march on the day of the opening ceremonies (‘Take Back Our City,’ 3pm Friday, Feb. 12 beginning at the Vancouver Art Gallery) organized by the 2010 Welcoming Committee, and continues with three days of political events and demonstrations. Visitors have been subject to interrogations, detention, and rejection at the Canadian border repeatedly and members of the Olympic Resistance Network have been interrogated at the US border and denied entry to the USA for speaking tours.

Media Contacts:

Bob Quellos: 773-531-2341
Chris Shaw: 604-710-8291

Torch relay video ignites frustration

2010-02-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

Marsha Lederman
The Globe and Mail
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 10:12 PM ET

Before their run with the Olympic flame, torchbearers are loaded onto shuttle buses for the drive to their spot on the route. On board, they're shown a promotional video. Meant to inspire and excite them, the video depicts the history of the torch relay, beginning in ancient Greece.

But the video is raising eyebrows: it uses shots from the film Olympia, directed by Leni Riefenstahl, who made propaganda films for Adolf Hitler, most notably Triumph of the Will. And it also alters a scene to remove evidence of its connection to the Nazis.

"I was very surprised to see that it appeared in their formal, official welcome to the Olympic relay promo," said Ira Nadel, professor of English at the University of British Columbia, who has studied Riefenstahl. "I think that [the filmmakers] probably were somewhat unaware of the context of the footage."

The first Olympia scene used by VANOC depicts torchbearers in ancient Greece. This was Reifenstahl linking the ancient Athenians and the Aryan people, races she deemed to be superior.

Next comes a shot of a torchbearer entering an enormous stadium filled with people and athletes for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. In Olympia, hundreds of people give the Nazi salute. The VANOC video obscures this by framing the shot in black.

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