Stratford Torch Disruption

Dec 28th, 2009

At noon yesterday, a group of people assembled on the front steps of Stratford's city hall to voice their opposition to the Olympic torch's passage through through the town. Carrying banners and signs painted with messages of Indigenous sovereignty, environmental preservation and anti-poverty advocacy, they were successful in informing many crowd-goers of the detrimental effects of the 2010 games. A large percent of people that came out to see the torch were receptive to the group's messages, stopping to listen to their speeches or giving a passing thumbs up.

Consisting of a handful of Stratford residents and a few allies from Guelph, the group demonstrated outside city hall for about an hour before moving into the pro-Olympic crowd with their banners and signs, shouting anti-Olympic slogans and statistics. When the city's PA system started blasting the national anthem, the small group drowned it out with their chant of “No Olympics On Stolen Native Land.” They continued to disrupt the national anthem despite being physically and verbally assaulted by crowd-goers. It was clear that the protesters were more vulnerable to pro-Olympics animosity because they were so few in number. The crowd was much more violent and confrontational towards them than they would have been towards a larger group of demonstrators.

They then marched down Ontario Street, along the route that had been cleared and blocked off to allow the torch runners passage. Flanked by police officers, they proceeded down Statford's main drag chanting and calling out for the crowd to question Canada's 6-billion dollar Olympic expenditure when their own community is lacking in affordable housing, adequate social programming and suffers from epidemic rates of poverty, crime and drug abuse. Opposition to the Olympic games will continue as the torch makes its way across the country, and our communities will continue to build networks of mutual aid and support in the absence of state support.

It takes a spark to start a praire fire
[from the ORNO newswire]