[All] Fw: [AW at L] Public Mobilization Against the Torch, Dec.27

Tue Dec 1 23:40:45 EST 2009

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***please forward widely***

“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

 A public mobilization
against the Olympic Torch Relay 

AW at 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.

WHEN:  Sunday December 27, 4-8pm.

WHERE:  Rally at the Victoria Park Clock Tower,
downtown Kitchener, off Gaukel Street.

WHY:  In response to callouts from the Olympic
Resistance Network (ORN) and the Native Youth Movement (NYM), AW at L—a
community-based direct action group, along with some of our allies are teaming
up to co-host a peaceful rally during the Olympic Torch Celebration. We invite
all of our friends and allies from across the region to converge in Kitchener
in order to send the message to VANOC and to Canada that they can neither
whitewash the ongoing colonization of First Nations, nor can they greenwash
this country’s abysmal environmental record. We will use their Olympic circus
as an opportunity to shine the international spotlight where it belongs, on the
truth.

We are calling for this
gathering because VANOC, Canada and the Olympics’ sponsors are trying to use
the Olympics and the world media spotlight they bring to cast Canada’s
international image in a certain light; as a “post-apology” country where the
State’s relationship with First Nations is positive and progressive. But this
official presentation is a tragic farce. The truth is that this country’s
relationship with Indigenous Peoples is shameful. Canada is one of only three
countries that has not signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. The Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission
collapsed. Our land claims process is so backed up that at the current rate active
claims will not be solved for more than another two centuries. Canada and the
provinces have repeatedly and endemically violated treaty after treaty. The
Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympic Games are taking place on unceded
Territories of the Coast Salish people. Kitchener is on the Haldimand Tract,
which is part of the Grand River Territory, which is Six Nations Land.
Kitchener-Waterloo, like Vancouver-Whistler, is stolen land.VANOC, Canada and Olympics’
sponsors are trying to use the Olympics to cast themselves as “green” global
citizens, when in fact that is a sham. Canada as well as the Royal Bank of
Canada (one of the Olympics’ and the Torch Relay’s primary sponsors) have been
identified by major Environmental NGO’s as among the world’s worst climate
change offenders. Canada has
made the least progress of all developed countries on our Kyoto Protocol
commitments, and Canada
has been one of the most disruptive and uncooperative countries when it comes
to international climate change talks. Canada’s Tar Sands collectively comprise
one of the most environmentally destructive projects on earth, and RBC is the leading
financier of Tar Sands projects, which like many environmentally destructive
projects has a disproportionate impact on Indigenous communities. In the
Vancouver-Whistler corridor, the environmental impact of the 2010 Games is
incalculable.

VANOC, the City of Vancouver,
Torch Relay host cities and Olympic sponsors are trying to use the Olympics to
make themselves appear socially responsible to their constituent communities. This
is yet another lie. In Vancouver, in preparation for the 2010 Games,
neighbourhoods have been brutally gentrified, drastically increasing
homelessness and the marginalization of the urban poor. And to make matters
worse, new bylaws have been passed in Vancouver that essentially criminalize
homelessness and poverty. In Torch Relay host cities, as on the West Coast,
public funds are being diverted to pay for a corporate party; while in
Kitchener the City’s New Years eve budget is being redirected to pay for
VANOC’s Torch Celebration at City Hall, in Vancouver over six billion dollars
of tax payer money is being used to pay for the 2010 Corporate Circus.

The 2010 Olympics are ushering
in a new era of militarization and police repression. Activists across the
country have been routinely harassed by CSIS and the RCMP in the lead up to the
Olympic Games. During the games, new high-tech weaponry has been purchased for
use against protesters and American military personnel are being brought in to
help police the crowds. The security budget for the games is going to total
over 1 billion dollars — during a financial crisis, no less.

So, as long as you are willing
to abide by reasonable standards of “family friendly” behaviour, we urge
everyone to attend this educational and festive public rally, march and
demonstration against the 2010 Olympics. Bring warm clothes and things like
banners, placards, costumes, noise makers, and oh yeah... lots of energy.

This event is less than a
month a way, so there is much to do. If you would like to help out in any way,
please contact No2010 at peaceculture.org. That’s the same email to query if you
want more info. We will have point people in Six Nations, Hamilton, Brantford,
Guelph, Stratford, Toronto and London to coordinate carpooling, so if you need
a ride, or have room for people in one, please let us know. 

See you in the streets!

AW at L Olympic Resistance
Committee

AW at L’s website is
http://peaceculture.org

Contact for more info:
No2010 at peaceculture.org

 ===

For more info on
the Olympics visit

No2010.com

OlympicResistance.net

No2010Victoria.net

Peaceculture.org

========================================
PEACE
-alex.

519 500 1878
alex at peaceculture.org
http://twitter.com/alexhundert

http://alexhundert.wordpress.com
http://peaceculture.org

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