Victoria Independent Media Center
Demonstrators Disrupt Olympic Torch Relay
Last Updated (Monday, 02 November 2009 10:07) Written by indymedia Monday, 02 November 2009 09:45
Demonstrators Disrupt Olympic Torch Relay
The Five Ring Circus anti-olympic festivities commenced in a sprit of resistance to the Vancouver 2010 games. Speakers and performers addressed a swelling crowd of people wearing costumes and halloween masks that grew at the same time as official torch events were being held across the city.
Hundreds of people converged for the event to voice dissent over issues relating to poverty, environmental destruction, native rights, and other injustices. As the day went on, dancers, musicians, zombies and demonstrators snake marched through downtown victoria for several hours blocking an intersection in front of the the RBC, disrupting traffic, and occupying a part of the olympic torch route. No arrests were reported as the crowd remained peaceful while engaging in civil disobedience, and successfully thwarted the multimillion dollar Olympic security apparatus. As the opening ceremonies grow closer more resistance is expected growing against the games. For more information about the olympic resistance movement visit any of these sights:
On Burning Nazi Idols
Thursday, 05 November 2009 05:44
Halloween Olympic Torch relay spectacle put to shame by peaceful demonstration.
By Tavis W Dodds, Republic of East Vancouver/World Olympic Watch
On Monday November 2nd, BC MLA Harry Bloy from Burnaby Loughheed stated in the Legislative Assembly that anti-Olympic demonstrators are terrorists with limited intellect. A rally against the torch relay in Victoria on October 30th was accused of using marbles to assault police horses. Demonstrators that noticed the marbles told the police about them before any damage was done. Police spokespeople claimed the marbles were thrown at the feet of the horses, but the marbles were actually found at the feet of the stationary march. Police seem to accept that damage really could have been done, such as falling officers and horses, or the “stampede” that Bloy suggests could have happened. NDP MLAs consider calling protesters terrorists “a bit over the top.” The torch relay was well behind schedule throughout the day and many people were unable to see it as it bypassed much of the route, a fact that VANOC blamed on the activists’ disruption, which became the whole of the media response to the march and rally. To many in Victoria on Oct 30th, the protest rally was an enriching and illuminating experience, and the mind numbing festivities of the torch relay and ceremonies were where intellect was really limited.
Anti-Olympic Activists Mark the Arrival Of the Torch in Victoria
Last Updated (Monday, 02 November 2009 10:06) Written by NO2010 Saturday, 31 October 2009 00:14
Anti-Olympic Activists Mark the Arrival Of the Torch in Victoria
The Olympic torch relay began today in Victoria. The torch lighting ceremony that took place at the BC Legislature was attended by a few hundred people, many of them classes of primary school children brought down fill in the crowd that took up only a small portion of the lawn. During the 105 days leading up to the Vancouver 2010 games the torch will be carried throughout Canada rallying up support for the Olympic games, and fostering nationalist pride. On day three of the torch's journey it will be paraded through the streets of Port Alberni on the back of a logging truck to celebrate Canada's long history of profit driven environmental devastation.
Upon the torches' arrival Premier Gordon Campbell was quick to mention the involvement of first nations in the olympic process, a process that has already been boycotted by the groups such as the Native Youth Movement, and criticized widely by native groups across Canada. Campbell spoke of the torch as a symbol of olympic pride, a "golden light" that has no precedent from the ancient greek games and in fact was started as a modern Olympic tradition by the Nazis, in the 1936 summer games. Highlighting this fact, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre has just opened an exhibit profiling Canadas' involvement in the spectacle.
Indymedia will bring you more updates on this story as it develops
Fight for the right to sleep cont...
Last Updated (Wednesday, 31 December 1969 15:59) Written by Administrator Monday, 19 October 2009 00:00
David Johnson has now been released from jail after being arrested for breaching his probation by erecting a temporary shelter on city property. He was set free Oct 14th after a 23 day hunger strike in jail to protest the courts mal-treatment of him by making him a political prisoner, and for the abuses of the homeless caused by the enforcement of anti poverty laws such as the "safe streets act". Mr. Johnson is still awaiting the supreme courts decision on the City of Victorias' challenge to the earlier court ruling that found anti camping bylaws a violation of charter rights.Len Barrie Defalts On Loan Repayment
Last Updated (Monday, 21 September 2009 18:37) Written by VICFAN Monday, 21 September 2009 18:24
Langford Interchange payment "postponed" indefinitely
A crucial piece of information regarding the Langford interchange funding controversy came to light Friday afternoon. Langford city staff confirmed Friday, September 4th that Len Barrie's company, LGB9, has failed to repay $4.79 million, his share of the $9.8 million that the city borrowed on behalf of developers to build the Spencer Road interchange (formerly the Bear Mountain Interchange.)
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