MONTREAL- December 10 2009- In response to a call sent out by the Olympics Resistance Network in Vancouver, more than two hundred anti-olympics protestors noisily disrupted the celebration of the passage of the Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal. The group, made up of indigenous solidarity activists and other groups and individuals affiliated with the Montreal chapter of Peoples Global Action (PGA), an international anti-capitalist movement, heckled and disrupted for several hours the planned activities of the celebration, despite a massive police presence and a tense atmosphere at Place Jacques-Cartier, in Old Montreal.

The protestors held many banners and placards, and chanted the slogans “No olympics on stolen native land!,” “Shame the flame!”, and “Homes not games.” They also threw thousands of pieces of confetti into the crowd – the confetti had the words: “Why celebrate colonization of native land, gentrification, and corporate subsidies? Shame the flame!” They had a sound system and a marching band played. Before the flame arrived (an hour late), the police brutally attacked the protestors, forcibly cordoning them off in order continue the official spectacle. Several protesters were thrown to the ground and insulted, while others were pushed and hit with batons. The Nazi-era Leni Riefenstahl film was shown on the big screen, that the cordoned-off demonstrators were forced to watch while they had shields and batons pointed at them by the police. Despite the police brutality the disruption was a success.

“There is no shortage of reasons to oppose the Torch relay », said Pat Cadorette, one of the organizers. “The Olympics are first and foremost a nationalist and capitalist power play. It is an opportunity for the political and financial elites to capitalize on people’s patriotic fiber and competitive drive. They are always organized by and for rich people, and it is always the more oppressed segments of the population who are negatively impacted by it: indigenous people, the poor, the migrant workers, etc. It is a colonial tradition of forced displacement, social cleansing, environmental devastation and repression. In fact, with regards to the Torch relay itself, it is often forgotten that it was first introduced by the Nazis to promote the Third Reich! The CIO and Olympic sponsors like Coca-Cola and the Royal Bank won’t brag about this, but it is nonetheless a historic fact!”

“At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, the only ones who will profit are the already rich developers and sponsors”, explains a sympathizer of the Olympics Resistance Network. “At the same time, it is $6 billion of public funds that are shoveled into this. They chase the poor from the downtown area to make room for the tourists, they pass new laws to criminalize poverty, they install cameras everywhere, they spend at least a billion on security. At this point, it is illegal to post anti-olympics signs in Vancouver! This is insanity!”

According to the Olympics Resistance Network, the Games are taking place on stolen native land in British-Colombia. The vast majority of territory in this province was never formally ceded by treaty, contravened by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Therefore, the private interests that occupy these territories illegally profit from the extraction of natural resources.

Ironically, eight years ago, on December 10th 2001, employees from the SunPeaks ski resort were hired by BC Assets & Land developers to demolish the traditional residences and sacred sweatlodges of the Secwepemc people at McGillivary Lake, BC. The RCMP provided supervision and security for the demolition. The Secwepemc have since called for a boycott of Delta Hotels, the hotel chain that was the principal funder of the $40 million expansion of the ski resort.

“This is exactly the type of colonial and capitalist expansion that characterizes the Olympic machine,” said Billie Pierre, a Secwepemc activist who participated in today’s demonstration in Montreal. “That’s what the Olympic Games represent: contempt for indigenous peoples, environmental devastation, and forced displacement.”

Information : : bloc...@gmail.com
http://olympicresistance.net/ - http://www.amp-montreal.net/ - http://no2010.com/ - http://www.dominionpaper.ca/olympics/

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