Opportunity To Wake Up Toronto Social In-Activists

Just use your imagination

By BILL LANKHOF

Toronto 2015 kicked off its two-day bragfest to win the Pan Am Games yesterday with breakfast at the CN Tower.

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There's nothing like a little uncivil disobedience to spice up the Games

rmickleburgh@globeandmail.com

For those expecting a barrel of fun on the streets of Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Games, the Olympic Resistance Network's latest video helpfully details "direct actions" taken so far to protest against the coming event. And I quote:

March 12, 2007: "Another VANOC event is disrupted when more than 200 protesters drown out the event with chanting and foghorns."

April 24, 2007: "A VANOC volunteer recruitment event in Halifax is disrupted when dozens of Olympic resisters rush the podium yelling 'No Olympics on Stolen Land!' "

May 22, 2007: "Members of the Anti-Poverty Coalition trash the offices of Ken Dobell, a member of VANOC and adviser to the B.C. Premier."

Aug. 19, 2007: "In Ottawa, a group of anarchists smash the windows of Bell Canada, national partner for the 2010 Olympics."

Dec. 10, 2007: "In Vancouver, the windows of a REMAX office were smashed ... in solidarity with all those fighting the Sun Peak ski resort and the 2010 Olympics."

Feb. 18, 2008: "Members of Native 2010 Resistance disrupt a press conference held by the Assembly of First Nations. The indigenous women pour bags of apples on the podium where Phil Fontaine is speaking. They claim the chief is a sell-out. Red-skinned, but white on the inside."

March 11, 2008: "One of many actions against Royal Bank of Canada occurred in Ottawa when a trashcan was hurled through their window."

May 7, 2008: "A Peter Klewitt and Sons truck was torched."

June 24, 2008: "Several military vehicles are set on fire in Vancouver against the Olympic police state. That same night in Toronto, another 13 vehicles were destroyed by fire at a General Motors dealership."

Ah, the delights of free speech and protest, hallmarks of a civil society.