Laurier students challenge “Campus Clubs Goes for Gold”, encourage a critical look at the Olympics

PRESS RELEASE
Jan 19, 2009
AW@L presents the “dark side” of the Vancouver Olympic Games

WATERLOO—Today, beginning at 10:00am, AW@L will be in the concourse distributing information about the Vancouver Olympic Games in response to the “Campus Clubs Goes for Gold” outreach event. AW@L’s presence is intended to counter myths about the Olympics and present the realities of environmental destruction, stolen native land, security culture, and corporate cooption tied to preparation for the Games.

Anti-Olympic Torch Demonstration in Kitchener Ontario
No Olympics on Stolen Native Land

AW@L's new Youtube channel, Peaceculture2010, now has posted a three part video from our massive anti-Olympic rally, march and demonstration in Kitchener on December 27. Don't forget to follow AW@L at the No2010 Convergence in Vancouver next month.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

UPDATE: Indigenous youth demonstrate that 2010 Olympics are opposed by grassroots First Nations people.

M’Chigeeng, Ontario—Today, a group of Indigenous youth and allies were arrested by OPP while setting up a blockade of the Olympic Torch Relay on the Trans Canada Hwy as it travelled from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. Algonquin, Anishnabe and Haudenosaunee youth united today to confront VANOC’s 2010 Torch Relay, a symbol of colonial injustice. All who attended the blockade were arrested during the process of setting up an elaborate ‘lockdown’ blockade that was to include a climber scaling the bridge over the Spanish River to ‘drop’ an anti-Olympic banner. The activists were released without charges, and all the blockade gear was returned by police.

Reflections on the Torch Relay through Southern Ontario

Dec 30, from Narrative Resistance

"With the Vancouver convergence less than two months away, now is the time to prepare for an intensification of the fight. This is the battle of the story of the 2010 Olympic Games."

[read more]

“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

Jan.2-ORN-O Blockades Olympic Torch Relay, 8 Arrested During Shut Down of Trans Canada Hwy
Dec.29- Olympic Resistance at Barrie Torch Celebration
Dec.28- Torch goes Down in Guelph
Dec.27- Torch Ignites Resistance in Kitchener
Dec.27- Stratford Torch Disruption
Dec.24- London Protests Olympic Torch
Dec.22- Torch Relay Blocked at Oneida
Dec.21- Olympic Torch Relay Stopped at Six Nations
Dec.17- Toronto Extinguish the Torch
Dec.13- Declaration of Onkwehonwe of Grand River Territory on 2010 Olympic Torch Relay

“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

On Saturday December 27th, in Kitchener Ontario over 200 people headed the call out for a public mobilization against the 2010 olympic torch and acted in solidarity with those on the west coast of this country who are being negatively impacted because of the upcoming winter games.

-download full 25 minute video- or watch on youtube.

Dec 23, 09
Toronto Community Mobilization Network Communique
Six months to the 2010 G8/20 Summit

"AN INVITATION: FROM COPENHAGEN TO TORONTO"

The Group of 8 Leaders and the Group of 20 Leaders are meeting in Ontario, from the 25th to the 27th of June, 2010.

Following the collapse of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, they will be discussing the global economy, development and climate change.

These gatherings are about trying to fix capitalism, a system that cannot be fixed; about creating unsustainable market responses to ecological catastrophe that reinforce systems of oppressions; about ensuring the continued exploitation of people of color and the South and about celebrating war as a means to create puppet allies to maintain imperialist power. The so-called leaders at these gatherings do not represent us.

In opposition and with a will to transform, people across Turtle Island are organizing community-based days of action in Toronto, Canada. The days of action will be led by Toronto-based organizations of people of color, indigenous peoples, women, the poor, the working class, queer and trans people and disabled people.

The Olympic State of Exception
by Michael Truscello

The Olympic torch relay was invented by the Nazis, added to the 1936 Olympics by Hitler to demonstrate an ancient Aryan lineage with the Third Reich, proof of a past and present warrior culture, and foreshadow for a pan-European trail of domination. The contemporary "Olympic Movement," as it calls itself, trots out a similar set of symbols, but now backed by corporate logos and the promise of a portable "state of exception," to use the term articulated by Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt.

Anarchists in Canada, especially those whose primary concern is class war, may not see much value in the protest of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Why so much fanfare for the Olympics, a one-off event, while barely a whimper from radical groups over, for example, the installation of the HST in Ontario and BC, a tax grab that punishes the poor in perpetuity?

AW@L Radio Presents a panel discussion on the 2010 Olympics

Panel participants:

from KW ARA - Mark Corbiere
from AW@L - Dan Kellar and Alex Hundert

-Audio- is online as a rabble.ca podcast.

Today, Canada, VANOC, the Olympic Sponsors and Six Nations Band Council intend to bring the Olympic Torch through Six Nations' sovereign territory. The Hoskanigetah (Men's Fire), Ahgongweh (Women’s Fire), Grand River Onkwehonwe youth & other concerned people have declared that the torch will not be brought through their territory.

Declaration of the Onkwehonwe of Grand River Territory on the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay.

Top 7 Reasons why Haudenosaunee Nations have a responsibility to take a stand against 2010 Olympics & Torch Relay.

Interview w Six Nations spokespersons Lyndsey Bomberry [pt1 and pt2] and Melissa Elliott [link]

Olympic Resistance on the Global Day of Action against Climate Change

From Narrative Resistance, Dec 11

It was not out of place for us to protest the Olympics today, as one might potentially suggest, on the Global Day of Action against Climate Change. For one thing, the City of Kitchener was holding a pre-torch Olympic celebration yesterday on public property at City Hall. Second, because Olympic sponsor RBC and the country of Canada are using the Olympics as a greenwashing campaign, to cover up their true record on climate change and the environment.

[Read More]

MIDLAND, DECEMBER 3 -- Charges of mischief against two elderly activists who were part of a peaceful protest against a dump site near Elmvale, close to the shores of Georgian Bay, were dropped in Superior court here this morning.

Charges of mischief – and, in three case, intimidation - against 16 other Stop Dump Site 41 protesters were stayed and will be withdrawn after 12 months if the accused do not get into trouble at Site 41 again.

“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

Dec.13- Declaration of Onkwehonwe of Grand River Territory on 2010 Olympic Torch Relay

A public mobilization against the Olympic Torch Relay

AW@L and friends from across the region are sending an open invitation for a participatory public event to coincide with the arrival of the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay in Kitchener on Sunday, December 27.

WHAT: A family friendly rally, march and demonstration against the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympics. We intend to create a festive atmosphere that is safe and inviting for activists as well as families. Our goal is to educate and to deliver a message. We will start with interactive events, free hot coffee and food at a rally at the entrance to Victoria Park in downtown Kitchener featuring speakers from the Olympic Resistance Network-Ontario (ORNO) as well as prominent Six Nations youth activists. Then we will all march to City Hall for a public demonstration during the Olympic Torch Celebration.

Resistance spreading as Olympic Torch Relay approaches Ontario.

Press Release
November 29, 2009

HAMILTON—Today, moments after the Grand Entry was completed for the final day of the Canadian Aboriginal Festival in Hamilton, a group of youth will deliver a message, unfurling several banners from the stadium balcony stating: ‘No Olympics on Stolen Native Land’ and ‘Our Land is Life – No 2010 Torch’. The group will also distribute flyers informing people of the reasons for resistance against the Olympics, and inviting people to an information session at Skydragon in Hamilton later in the afternoon.