2010 Olympics. Watching the watchers
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- “Despite claims that they won’t be censoring political expression during the Olympics, the City of Vancouver has already started doing just that,” says the 2010 Legal Observer Program.
“Click the cops to explore Vancouver’s censored sites, and some places where citizens fought back against the censors and won their right to expression.”
Click one, and you’ll see something like this >>>
- What it is: Olympia Restaurant
- Why it was almost gone: VANOC didn’t like that a restaurant was using their rings without ponying up the sponsorship money. They demanded that the restaurant change its name and stop using the symbol.
- Why that’s ridiculous: Olympia Restaurant had been using the name and the rings for 25 years before they even heard of VANOC. To quote the owner, “How many pizzas do I have to sell to fight this case?”
- Happy ending: After a massive outpouring of support from the public, VANOC backed down. The Olympia Restaurant is still serving, and still proudly displaying their own Olympic rings
Or this >>>
- What happened: Kids skating in front of the media scrum for the official re-opening of Robson Square rink were told to tape over the logos on their jackets so they wouldn’t be seen by television cameras.
- The response: VANOC wrote this one off as an overzealous employee misunderstanding guidelines on brand protection.
- The reality: It probably was an overzealous employee who didn’t understand official guidelines. However, the fact that even the most zealous employee could think that you should cover children in tape to avoid branding scandals is deeply concerning. If VANOC employees don’t understand the rules, how can the general public expect to know what is okay and what isn’t?
As p2pnet reported on Saturday, “anti-Olympic artwork hung outside the crying room on East Cordova Street in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside,” said The Blackbird on Flickr in September.
But City of Vancouver bylaw inspectors called it ‘graffiti’ and demanded its removal.
The Pivot Legal Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association say they’ve teamed up to train legal observers for the 2010 Olympic Games.
“Like many of you, Pivot and the BCCLA are concerned that when the more than 7,000 police officers, 5,000 private security guards and 4,500 members of the Canadian armed forces arrive in Vancouver this February, their presence may get in the way of citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” the say, going on >>>
Bylaws recently passed by the City of Vancouver suggest that we have good reason to be worried.
We plan to be ready, with dozens of people prepared to act as eyes and ears on the streets. Legal observers will be trained to watch for violations and to document and report them.
As a legal observer, you will help ensure accountability of law enforcement during the Olympic Games. You don’t need to have any legal background to get involved. We encourage you to sign up for a training session and find out more about what’s involved in being a legal observer.
Email info @ bccla dot org for more information.
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p2pnet – Vancouver censors anti-Olympic art, December 12, 2009
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December 14th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Here’s a full explanation:
http://www.matthewgood.org/2009/11/rules-and-bylaws-in-olympic-harmony/
It is well researched, quoting the ByLaws directly as well as IOC rules, which seem to be the reasoning for the behaviour. It also quotes the Province’s (paper) interview with the City of Vancouver and how they have no problem with peaceful protests and dissenting of the Olympics.
However, much like the issues with “take that down, it’s anti-Olympic” I am fully certain that the rights to dissent and peaceful protest will be met with that sound machine Vancouver’s Finest (VPD) will undoubtedly have on full time, aimed at any crowd of people, no matter what they are doing.