Games, Games,
go away

A varied group of protestors, including First
Nations, anti-capitalists and queers, gears up for
Vancouver’s orgy of sports, glitz and capitalism

NATIVE LAND? Whistler-Blackcomb

by ROXANE HUDON

“Let the Games begin,” says Donald Sutherland, standing in a sea of multi-coloured children and old people waving tiny Canadian flags. Seven years, over a billion dollars and many cheesy commercials later, it’s time for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. But not everyone is excited to see whether Canada actually wins a medal or two.

Formed in Vancouver, the Olympic Resistance Network began mobilizing with the slogan “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.” Stolen, because most of the territories in British Columbia were never settled with treaties, like the rest of Canada. It’s a message that spread to Montreal when protesters answered the call to rally against the Olympic torch relay last December.

Yes to athletes, no to theft

“There’s a misconception that we’re against the Olympics,” says Stuart Myiow, secretary of the Mohawk Traditional Council of Kahnawake. “What we’re against is the theft of land, the oppression of people, the destruction of our Mother Earth and the continued oppression of the Native people and of women.”

Myiow was one of the protesters in Kahnawake. He adds that it’s not just the land that was destroyed for the expansion of the Games.

“There was an elderly lady who lost her life as a result of standing for the land,” says Myiow. The elderly lady he refers to is Harriet Nahanee, who was sent to jail for protesting the Sea-to-Sky highway expansion. She died of pneumonia not long after being sentenced. “The courts decided that this woman had no right standing, protecting the land in relation to the Olympics expanding.”

But not all First Nations people are resisting the Games. In Vancouver, while some protest, others will be dancing along with Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, your friendly hybrid-mutant Olympic mascots.

This division is echoed amongst the Mohawks of Kahnawake.

“The Olympics are a world-wide movement,” states Joe Delaronde, spokesman for the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. “We’ve had two Mohawks from Kahnawake participate and win medals in the Olympics. If the Native people have an argument with Canada, they don’t have an argument with the Olympics, because they’re a celebration for the world, for athletes all around the world.”

Big dollars for a big circus

Anti-capitalist activist Patrick Cadorette argues that it’s impossible to separate politics from the Olympics.

“It’s obviously political,” he says. “We’re not against the athletes or against athletic competition. It’s the framework, the way it’s organized. It’s a capitalist circus.”

Cadorette is part of a group called Bloc-AMP Montreal, an umbrella organization for anti-Olympics groups in Montreal. He says that a problem with the Olympic resistance in Canada is the lack of media coverage.

“When you compare to what happened with the Olympics in Beijing, the media was more indulgent with criticism against the Chinese regime,” he says. “But here, there is no criticism in the media regarding Canada’s attitude towards its aboriginal communities and the anti-capitalist argument is completely ignored.”

Queer groups are also speaking out against the Games, blaming the increased security for the criminalization and displacement of the poor and the marginalized.

In a panel held last Sunday, Feb. 7, McGill’s qteam, a radical queer collective, discussed the Olympics’ tradition of street clean-ups.

“We were talking with our group about how to act in solidarity with the resistance network in Vancouver and we thought about the idea of [referencing] what happened at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal,” says qteam member Judy Grant.

Patrizia Gentile, co-author of The Canadian War on Queers, spoke about the sweeping of the queer community in Montreal before the Games. She makes a link with the social cleansing of the homeless in Vancouver today.

“The idea that you can spend $900-million or a billion dollars on security and then not actually have money for community services that are needed in the city really boggles the mind,” said Gentile, adding that repression against all people is a queer issue that should be resisted.

While the Olympic Resistance Network of Vancouver has posted its calendar of upcoming activities online, activists in Montreal are more hush-hush.

“During the actual Olympics, there will be things that will be taking place. Right now, for good reasons, we’re not saying in advance, but I will guarantee you, whatever will be done, it will be peaceful,” says Myiow, adding an obscure reference to the possible use of “highways or seaways.”

So Canada, do you believe?

The Olympics start tomorrow, Feb. 12. For more info about the resistance, visit no2010.com.