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<td>Olympic torch ignites passion - and protest</td>
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<td>Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:09:36 -0800</td>
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<th align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="baseline">From: </th>
<td>Larry Kibby <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:l.kibby@frontier.com"><l.kibby@frontier.com></a></td>
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<font face="Arial" size="2">News Article<br>
January 9, 2010<br>
<br>
The following news article has been posted or forwarded in full, no
material or data has altered or changed, please leave intact as is.<br>
<br>
This news article can be located at the following web site link:</font></div>
<div align="justify"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-01-09/olympic-torch-ignites-passion.html"><font
color="#0000ff" face="Arial" size="2">http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-01-09/olympic-torch-ignites-passion.html</font></a></div>
<div align="justify"> </div>
<div align="justify"><font color="#ff0000" face="Arial" size="2"><strong>Olympic
torch ignites passion – and protest</strong></font></div>
<div align="justify"> </div>
<div align="justify"><font face="Arial" size="2">A wave of anti-Olympic
sentiment and protests in Canada are threatening the international
symbol of the Games as it makes its way across the vast Far North.</font></div>
<div align="justify"> </div>
<div align="justify"><font face="Arial" size="2">The world’s eyes are
now on the North American state as it gears up to host the 2010 Winter
Olympics, running from February 12 to 28. Although it is a widespread
notion that the Olympic Games bring wealth, employment, international
recognition and general prosperity to whatever country hosts the high
profile event, the Games have historically been used to denounce a wide
range of social injustices and human rights abuses.</font></div>
<div align="justify">
<div style="display: none;" class="rtcutp" align="justify"> </div>
</div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">This year’s edition of the Winter Olympics is no
different. Extra attention has placed increased scrutiny on many of
Canada’s actions, both past and present, which continue to tarnish the
country, commonly referred to as the Great White North.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2"><strong>Relay tainted by protests</strong></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Episodes of growing anti-Olympic sentiment and
protest have marred the Olympic torch relay, which set off from
Canada’s east coast last October 30.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Covering approximately 35,000 kilometers of
Canadian terrain, the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay will run through every
province and territory over a 106-day period, involve 12,00
torchbearers and unite all Canadians in celebration, until reaching its
final destination in the host city, Vancouver, British Columbia, on
February 12, 2010.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Up until now, most protests along the relay
route have remained peaceful, with demonstrators picketing and handing
out pamphlets in specific communities along the route.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">However, the torch relay and ensuing protest is
heating up. Demonstrators have disrupted the flame procession or caused
its route to be changed in Montreal, Toronto and other central Canadian
cities. These interruptions all ended peacefully until anti-Olympic
protests hit their peak on December 28 when a torchbearer was shoved
and fell to the ground.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Cortney Hansen, 28, of the province of Ontario,
almost unintentionally extinguished the flame on the wet pavement in
her fall. According to eyewitnesses, she was accidentally pushed in an
altercation between protesters and police; she then tripped and fell to
the ground in front of shocked 1,000 onlookers.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial"><font size="2"><em>“I couldn’t believe my eyes,”</em>
Erica Goldman told RT as she recounted the incident. <em>“I think all
people have the right to voice their opposition to any issue, but they
should do so peacefully and without causing violence or upset. But
there’s a proper time and a place. I saw the fall with my own eyes and
it was horrifying. My son and daughter were pretty shaken up over it
and wanted to know why anyone would protest the Olympics.”</em></font></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><em></em> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Hansen continued the run, and was later treated
for minor injuries. A 19-year-old demonstrator was arrested for
assaulting Hansen.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">A few days later, further along the relay route
in Ontario, another eight protesters were arrested for an attempt to
disrupt the torch run.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial"><font size="2"><em>“We were out because the Olympics are
taking place on indigenous territory out in British Columbia,”</em>
Mark Corbiere, a spokesperson for the protest group, called the
Olympics Resistance Network, told the press. <em>“It’s a land grab
from the colonial history of the Canadian government.”</em></font></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><em></em> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2"><strong>Alleged “land grab”</strong></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">The greatest claim by anti-racism and
anti-capitalism protesters, many of which are of Aboriginal origin, is
that most of the Canadian province of British Columbia is still
sovereign Native Aboriginal land, over which neither the Canadian or BC
governments have the legal or moral authority to govern, let alone hold
such a high-profile international event on the contested land.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Widely seen in protests across Canada in the
lead up to the Vancouver Olympics, <em>“the slogan ‘No Olympics on
Stolen Native Land’ is a way to raise anti-colonial consciousness in
Canada and across the world about the true and unfettered history of
colonial Canada,”</em> says Eliza Dupre, an Aboriginal protester from
an Olympics protest group based in central Canada.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial"><font size="2"><em>“Just because the Vancouver Olympics
are being organized with a group of Aboriginals in Vancouver [called
the Four Host First Nations, which comprises the Lil’wat, Musqueam,
Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations], doesn’t mean that all
Aboriginals in Canada support it,” </em>she adds.</font></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">It is the first time ever that a local community
of indigenous peoples has taken part in the planning and organization
of an Olympic Games from the bidding phase, but this unprecedented
partnership is seen by protesters as “the result of literally buying
people off to pacify and silence opposition,” says Dupre.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2"><strong>The costs of raising the flame</strong></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Another hot potato is the negative environmental
impact the Olympics will have on the local and mountain ecosystem in
and around the host cities of Vancouver and Whistler. Despite its claim
of being the “greenest Olympics” ever, protestors believe that the 2010
Olympics will be among the most environmentally destructive in
contemporary history.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Dupre notes that “tens of thousands of trees
[have been] cut down, mountainsides blasted and natural habitats
destroyed for Olympic venues near Whistler, [as well as] the massive
highway expansion that was recently completed.”</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Protesters also claim that Vancouver’s poor,
which includes many Natives, are the ones that will pay the highest
price. “The 2010 Games has already meant hundreds of evictions from
low-income housing, more homelessness, criminalization, and increased
police presence and repression toward the poor and marginal,” a member
of the Anti-Poverty Committee in Vancouver told RT via telephone.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Even animal activists are the using the
increased media attention of the Games to denounce Canada’s fur and
seal trade. Lindsay Rajt, from the People For The Ethical Treatment of
Animals, says the Vancouver 2010 Games are being targeted because the
“world will soon be turning its attention to Canada” and “Canada’s
image is now equated with seal killing.”</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Although global sports fans and most Canadians
highly anticipate and support the Games, Vancouver residents also fear
some reprisals, such as increased traffic and higher taxes to cover the
$6 billion cost of the event.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial"><font size="2"><em>“I think it's awesome that the
Olympics will be in Vancouver, but there are a lot of people who are
very opposed to it because of all the money and all the headaches they
cause. Vancouver is bad enough as it is with traffic and everything. It
remains to be seen how it will really be like come February, but I am
hoping for the best,” </em>says Julie Robins, a BC native, who lives
and commutes between Vancouver and Whistler.</font></font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"><font
face="Arial" size="2">Although millions of viewers across the globe
will no doubt follow the Olympic action with enthusiasm and
sportsmanship, it appears that the Vancouver Olympics won't be fun and
games for everyone.</font></div>
<div style="display: block;" class="rtcut" align="justify"> </div>
<div align="justify"> </div>
<div align="justify"><font face="Arial" size="2">Posted/Forward by:
Larry Kibby - </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:l.kibby@frontier.com"><font face="Arial" size="2">l.kibby@frontier.com</font></a><br>
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face="Arial" size="2">http://ubroadcast.com/channel/reznews</font></a></div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
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wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon</pre>
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