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

Crowds at the torch ceremony at BC’s Legislature building were treated to
speeches from Stephen Harper, VANOC CEO John Furlong, executives from Olympic
sponsors RBC and Coca-cola, and Vancouver and Victoria mayors. First Nations
(including Songhees, Esquimalt, and both hereditary and elected chiefs of the
Four Host Nations) conducted a lengthy welcoming of the torch to indigenous
territories. Ms Poole, wife of VANOC CEO Jack Poole, succeeded in lighting the
ashtray-shaped cauldron after 5 minutes of trying with Furlong’s assistance.
Spokespeople delivered much the same message: handling the flame is an emotional
experience that people are inspired and touched by, creating Canadian unity and,
according to Furlong, inducing “human behaviour.” There was square dancing,
choirs, dancing mascots and military bands. Two small dissenting groups were
present at the morning ceremonies: one group tried “jeering” Stephen Harper and
were quickly flanked and greatly outnumbered by RCMP, and a dozen colourfully dressed
Raging Grannies stood near the war memorial with signs like “Olympic snow job” and
“gold medal for spending.” Several isolated protests were reported along the relay
route, including at least one mooning. An 87 year old lady stood alone in defiance
to the relay and told the Globe and Mail that she was not intimidated by the
officers surrounding her: she had resisted theWWII Nazis that had invented the
torch relay, and she hadn’t allowed them to intimidate her then. A much larger
group of Olympic dissenters began gathering at Victoria’s city hall at noon.

A huge torch was mounted on a wheeled table with the sign “END POVERTY”. Several
women danced with hula hoops and a group of shirtless men played hacky-sack. A
New Orleans-style marching band performed with clarinet, drums, trombone, two
saxophones, and dozens of tambourines and make-shift instruments. A 30ft.
anti-Olympic mascot salmon operated by four people like a Chinese dragon puppet
was plagued by others operating sea-lice puppets. Other mascots included a bed
bug and a rat. Several clowns were in attendance, one stilt walker, and a woman
dressed as a police officer with pig ears. Two mock Olympic fans with RBC
shopping bags yelled “We love the Olympics!” Official organizers of the event
held a press conference at 1:45 and stated that the Olympic budget would be better
spent on housing, healthcare, or education, making the claim that the 20 minute
stop for the torch at UVic cost students $27000. The reporters only seemed
interested in the fact that there was no permit for the rally.

Police outnumbered the demonstrators. They had roof-top surveillance. Victoria
Police Chief Jamie Graham was on the front lines of the entire 8 hour
demonstration, saying police would use “extreme restraint”. Perhaps this was due
in part to the presence of numerous BC Civil Liberties Legal Observers in orange
shirts, led by David Eby. Eby had not been in Graham’s presence since he had
helped force Graham’s resignation as Vancouver’s Police Chief in 2007. Only one
arrest was made: a 20 year old woman had been approached on her way to the event
by numerous plainclothes officers and charged her with assaulting an officer.

First Nations activists were not in costume and looked very serious, gathered
around a Mohawk Warrior Society flag. No 2010’s Gord Hill reiterated the point that

most of BC is unceded territory, or without land claim settlements, hence the popular

chant “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.” The memory of First Nations elder Harriet Nahanee was
invoked. It was explained that Nahanee had died as a result of her three weeks in
a Surrey holding cell she where she was sentenced to for opposing Olympic related
developments. Hill called for groups across Canada to mobilize and stop the torch
as it passed through their communities.

Several poverty rights groups were there, including Vancouver’s Anti-poverty
committee, and Victoria’s Committee to End Homelessness. David Johnston, a
homeless man recently released from a 23-day prison fast for erecting tents in the
daytime, spoke along with fellow housing activist Chris Johnson about upcoming
court cases concerning the city’s declaration that homeless have a
constitutionally protected right to erect tents between 9pm and 7am. At least one
homeless couple living out of a shopping cart attended the demonstration’s entire
8 hour duration.

Several people shared songs they had written against the Olympics, accompanied by
the band, including the Raging Grannies, and Dave and Mary Lowther who sang a song
about the “Bread and Circuses” method the Romans used to placate the masses.

After more than an hour of short speeches and songs, participants competed in a
mock Olympics including wrestling matches with “Gordo” and an “Olympic top cop”
Bud Mercer look-alike. A Binners Olympics was held in which contestants had to
collect and sort about $4 in cans and bottles from around Centennial Square using
Tony’s trailers, which are like shopping carts that attach to bicycles.

After the final sport events the Annual Zombie March, which this year was billed
as part of the 3 day Victoria Comic Convention, arrived as an incredible variety
of corpses, swelling the crowd to 200 at lowest estimate and 500 at highest.
Almost as soon as the march began it became apparent that anyone behaving too
zombie like (trying to eat people’s brains or having trouble opening doors) would
be surrounded and followed by a dozen officers.

The march proceeded through Chinatown to Streetlink homeless shelter where Rose
Henry gave a talk about the conditions on Victoria’s streets, the cold weather
protocol, and new provincial legislation being introduced to allow police to force
homeless into shelters. Police stopped traffic for one block in all directions
and the procession zigzagged up and down the blocks between Wharf and Douglas
Streets before arriving in Bastion Square to drop an illegible banner over the new
tulip-boat statue.

Upon returning to Douglas St., the march passed eight horseback officers down
Broad Street, along with still more officers and vehicles. Protesters walked past
the horses but a large native man with a picture of Harriet Nahanee stuck on his
back walked towards the horses, waving his flag at them until the march was safely
past. The march occupied the block at Hudson’s Bay and a man gave a talk about
the Bay, colonialism and resistance. The march continued down Government Street,
turned left to Douglas, and then turned back to occupy the intersection at RBC on
Douglas for 40 minutes.

It was announced the march would continue north to Pandora, an area known for
substance abuse victims. Instead, it turned south on an interception course with
the torch in Cook St. Village. A handful of people that had turned out to view
the torch relay voiced their displeasure to the crowd and to the media. One large
bald man, a regular fixture at City Council meetings, stood on the patio of the
café with both middle fingers extended at the passing throng. Many people came
out from their homes to view the march and many joined it on Cook St. Critical
Mass, a cyclist group known for taking over roads and slowing traffic by riding en
masse, also joined the march at this point.

The march continued a meandering path for several blocks, then headed straight
towards the Legislature. Gordon Campbell had been addressing the small crowd at
the evening ceremonies after the torch arrived 20 minutes behind schedule. When
the march turned past the Empress Hotel, it came upon a line of more than 50
police officers blocking Government Street with barricades. The protesters
stopped. All the street lights were off. It poured rain. The entourage of
dozens of officers still lingered with the march itself, and the regiments
following the march blocked their retreat. Police formed walls of bodies
encircling the march, pushing them in tight. The police helicopter that had been
following the march came in low over the museum. The march stood paralyzed like
this for only a few minutes, still pushing forward very slowly, when suddenly the
police began advancing quickly from the barricades towards the march. When
advancing police arrived at the marchers, Campbell finished his speech and officers

acted as though they had never meant that the march was not welcome to advance to the legislature.

Upon arriving at the barricades that blocked off the Legislature, the police used
fencing to force the march through a narrow entrance into the corral that had been
used for the torch procession. The front half of the march proceeded to the stage
and the rear struggled to get the torch table and salmon puppet through the tiny
opening, finally dismantling the fencing and entering the muddy lawn.

The concert-like evening ceremonies were made up of several dozen youth under the
age of 13 standing in costumes in the rain. Half had glowing red umbrellas that
were meant to create a heart shape when viewed from above. The other half wore
glowing white garbage bag costumes of birds with horns. When asked, none of the
youth could indicate what kind of bird they were beyond “some kind of traditional
first nations bird.” All of these young volunteers provided their own white
shoes. Another group of young volunteers ran around waving glow sticks in the air
for nearly fifteen minutes. During the performance, black clad RCMP flanked the
stage and the kids. The concert was a blaring hip-hop act. The heavy beat was
raised to a deafening volume. Demonstrators chanted “No Olympics on Stolen Native
Land!” over the din. It was pitch dark on the lawn, punctuated by a pyrotechnics
show belching up fire big enough to temporarily heat and
illuminate the whole vicinity. During the periods of illumination, people stared
amazed at the lawn filled almost entirely with police officers.

The march finally drowned out the concert and pulled back all the way to Bastion
Square where they broke off into smaller groups, the biggest of which headed back
to Centennial Square and rested at the covered area beneath council chambers.