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.

This information outreach initiative comes in the wake of months of organizing to educate people about the negative impacts of the 2010 Olympics, and in advance of the Olympic Torch Relay which will reach Hamilton on December 19. Last October, a group of Six Nations activists joined non-native activists from across the region in a brief rail blockade of the Olympic Spirit Train during its cross-country promotional tour.

Some of the issues that the group wants to draw attention to include the environmental destruction caused in preparation for the games, the criminalization of homelessness as well as dissent in Vancouver, the brutal impact the Games will have on Indigenous women in the Lower Mainland, the intensive militarization of security for the Games including the presence of American military on Onkwehonwe territory, Canada’s ongoing colonization of Indigenous nations and territories and the failure of Canada to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Youth from Six Nations have drawn a lot of attention over the last few months by initiating a series of community meetings with the Band Council to discuss the upcoming Torch Relay stop scheduled for their Territory on December 21. Statement was made from Young Onkwehonwe United: “Our goal is to raise awareness, true awareness of the impact of the 2010 games on Onkwehonwe (Indigenous) peoples and to provide a forum where Onkwehonwe people can unite around this issue.”

During the last Olympic Torch Relay for Beijing 2008, there were major protests along the torch route by activists protesting human rights abuses against the Tibetan people by China. At the time, then AFN Cheif Phil Fontaine said "It's OK to express outrage with the Chinese government's position against Tibet, but [Canadians] should be just as outraged, if not more so... with what is being done to First Nations here."

The public meeting in Hamilton this afternoon will be closed to media, but representatives from Young Onkwehonwe United (YOU) and the Olympic Resistance Network-Ontario (ORNO) will be available for comment. Call Melissa Elliott at 519 757 5436 or email No2010@peaceculture.org.

Photographs and video of the banners at Copps Coliseum will be made available upon request.

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