Tell me you’ve heard something similar before:
Thousands of kilometers from here, a nation will be hosting an international gathering, where many important officials will attend. There will be protesters, supporters, riot police, the usual.
But here’s where it gets gross, if tentative laws pass, protesters will ultimately be denied free speech: If they have a sign protesting the even on their own property, they can be fined—even sent to jail.
Authorities are planning to forcibly remove the homeless. They have destroyed over 1000 low income homes. Laws are on the block to make leaflets in protest illegal.
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Sounds like yout typical protest in China, eh? A WTO meeting? Say what I wrote was completely true, and is about to happen, where the Hell would it be?
Take a guess and check below the fold.
How about the Vancouver Olympics?
How about Canada conducting the frickin’ disgusting acts that we oh-so-frown upon in order to be pretty for two weeks? This is fucking bullshit.
I read about that but didnt really understood the what, where and why. Kinda tossed it aside for the moment (end semester rush makes me not care about a lot of things… sad really)
Canada is really trying extremly hard to wow the world with the olympic. Already we are doing the longues and the most up north torch run in Olympic history as we speak. And now the act, as you put it well, “to be pretty for two weeks”. Obviously they would of done some things but this might be too far.
I dont even know what people protest against when it comes to the olympics. So I guess this is where I’m lacking information.
Posted by Val A on November 20th, 2009.
It’s indeed fucking bullshit. What the fuck is this country turning into?
Denying free speech, torture, … We really are USA Jr.
Posted by Gaëtan Landry on November 20th, 2009.
To quote the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson,
“We who live in fortunate lands where we have inherited good things, are prone to accept good things, are prone to accept freedom, the most important of these good things, with an indifference which is the greatest threat to its continuance”
Our fundamental rights, as listed in the Canadian Charter of Righs and Freedoms, allow us our own opinion and expression thereof, along with the right of peaceful assembly. There are absolutely no grounds on which these rights can rightfully be taken from a person. It would be considered a gross violation of both national and international law to jail or fine any persons freely expressing their opinion in a peaceful fashion, not to mention: undemocratic.
The sad thing about this is that, if this does indeed go through, Vancouver will not be the first city to have this occure. The thesis of a paper I’m currently working on is how Globalization (economic) is a threat to democracy, and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) is a prime example of how private corporations (foreign on top of that) play gargantuan rolls in influencing governments.
As for the reasons for protest, in as far as the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games are concerned, there is the matter of costs, which is associated with every single Olympic event, regardless of its location. While Canada’s national debt has reached $500-billion this year, as of 2007 Canada and the province of British Columbia had already put over 2.5 billion of tax payers’ dollars into the Winter Games alone. There’s also the issue of the land-raping to develop infrastructure for the Games. They are destroying forests and natural habitats for a three-week event, which goes against everything “Green” these Games were initially suppose to represent. And the third major qualm is over the homeless and low-income households in certain areas of the city being forced to clear out.
For more information on the injustices being perpetrated in BC over the Olympics, I encourage you to watch Five Ring Circus. It’s a couple years old, but still a very good and insightful documentary about the effects this global event does/will have on the areas and people concerned. http://www.thefiveringcircus.com/5ring.swf
Posted by Chris Belliveau on November 21st, 2009.
Thanks for the link Gaetan. Answered my question.
I am very pro Olympic but I am not very happy of the way they decided to do things. I like the suggestion of one guy torwards the end. A single site for every olympics. or maybe 2 (one summer one winter). To spare cities from this huge dept and all the down side of things. It is a real shame that things go down this way.
I wonder how things are now (since the video was made at the early stages of the olympic preps). Probly not better…
Posted by Val A on November 22nd, 2009.