VANCOUVER - Throngs of masked protestors, Molotov cocktails in hand, breaking fences and causing injury. That’s an unlikely scene come February 2010, but one Olympics security boss Bud Mercer won’t rule out.
“Locally, provincially, nationally and internationally,” Mercer told city council today, “there are groups which are considering and planning to engage in criminal protesting during the 2010 Games.”
The majority of anti-Olympics dissidents will showcase their views in a lawful manner, the RCMP assistant commissioner and head of the 2010 Integrated Security Unit added.
But the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle and Quebec City’s 2001 Summit of the Americas clash teach a strong lesson, Mercer said.
“North America, and specifically Canada, is not a stranger to criminal protest during major events.”
To bolster his case, Mercer produced images he found during a quick perusal of the internet. The official Games mascots carrying Molotov cocktails. A photo of a banner reading “Riot 2010”.
"You pulled some things off a website that to me look like cartoons," Coalition of Progressive Electors councillor Ellen Woodsworth said. “I’m concerned that you’re holding these things up as an example of criminal behaviour.”
Woodsworth wanted council to endorse the Coventry Declaration this afternoon. But a planned motion was delayed until Thursday, to allow public comment.
The document, drafted at the recent Play the Game conference in England, takes aim at attempts to harass or intimidate writers who exercise free speech.
Last month, civil liberties lawyer Jason Gratl wrote a sharp letter to Mercer claiming plainclothes intelligence officers publicly approached anti-Olympics protestors in a threatening way.
Mercer played down those allegations today. “We have to make contact and we have to open dialogue,” he said.
Olympics critic Chris Shaw said he’d prefer to see the ISU hold public meetings, rather than meet with protestors one-on-one.
“They may not mean it to be intimidating but it has that impact on many people,” he said.
Geoff Dembicki reports for The Tyee.
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dorothy
2 years ago
Maybe this will help
I don't know who drew the cartoons, and of course their brains could be put together quite differently from mine. But it seems to me, that applying simple logic of sign language and artisitic expression might rather indicate that the Olympics, here represented by the mascots, were being depicted as the rioting party, since they carry the explosive stuff. Thus, rather than expressing an intent to do rioting with explosives, the artist seemingly meant to express that this is how he or she sees the Olympic effort. I suppose if one ponders the societal hairpin turns we might have to contemplate in order to see this enterprise successfully through, this could, by some people with less fortitude and less adaptive capability in their banks, be viewed as something akin to a riot, certainly an upset.
Personally, I believe it is better to allow such expression of anxiety, rather than try to prevent it, as this will leave people with no outlet and might tip some over the edge to actually do worse. This ought to be dealt with by people who really know about conflict resolution, maybe profilers or counselors, not approached by the bull-in-a-china-shop method. Can we not find qualified people out there? Never mind the bill, we don't want blood in the arena...I am a Vancouverite of many years, and I love this city, and I don't want it to come out of this uglier and more brutal. Try to do this thing right.
Janie Jones
2 years ago
Criminal protest?
If there's any lesson to be learned from the Quebec 2001 Summit it's that Canadian police were actually caught attempting to stage riots:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2007/240807_stage_riots.htm
Grumpy
2 years ago
Whoa..............
........looks like the chap has read some of the Tyee's postings and is getting windy. Maybe Campbell and the IOC want to start clashes to pretend that the rioting is an attempt at revolution.
Looks like he is throwing down the gauntlet.
Gary
2 years ago
Criminal???
The only time you get a "criminal protest" is when an arrogant government and its dictatorial leader pass legislation that makes protesting "criminal"
G West
2 years ago
Umm?
Has Mercer checked under his bed?
You can find "bogeymen" almost anywhere - even on the internet...How do people like this get to have positions of power and influence?
BC Boy
2 years ago
Protest Whiners
Let's get real here folks, and end the paranoia.
There will be protests, but make sure those protests are jsut limited to raising
voices and signs on the sidewalks and let the people who want to enjoy the games go through without having to be bothered with
masked anarchists and other yahoos in the rent a crowd.
If you want to protest, do it politely with the respect of others. The protestors don't have any more rights than anyone else, and they can protest all they want if it is kept civil (signs and banners)
As stated the protest ares are there if you want 'em but don't need to be there exclusively.
In fact who wants to pay attention to Garth Mullins and other yahoos who figure they have rights over anyone else? Mullins is getting boring with his perpetual protesting of anything that is higher than a campground tent in the forest.
The expression of anxiety? Does the public at large have to be bombared by it Dorothy?
No way. If they want to express their anxeity go to the top of Mount Seymour walk an hour on the trails there and then stop and begin to yell out and throw things around.
Try to do it right this time. No disruption of events and stand over there on the sidewalk and state your opposition
and leave the rocks and other junk at home.
dave49
2 years ago
New term: criminal protest
Interesting that a Google search for a definition of "criminal protest" comes up blank.
This is already about spinning the media impression of opposition to the Olympics, and we've got eight months to go to the Games.
Kam Lee
2 years ago
gordo - criminal
If you are looking for criminals, look no further the our leader Adolf...err gordo and his gang. Next in line are the vanoc gang. They have shown all them good badguy thingies. Liers, cheats, carpetbaggers. Be more afraid of them BC.
Dungeness_Crab
2 years ago
Janie Jones' link is on the
Janie Jones' link is on the money.
I think we can count on an agent provocateur or two to foment the very aggression Mercer seeks to "save us from.'
Class warfare by any other name is still warfare.
Maurice Cardinal
2 years ago
Two Types of Olympic Protester
Here's an excerpt from my book, Leverage Olympic Momentum. It was published in 2006, but it will give you an overview of how the "scaremongering" plays out and what to expect in Vancouver this February.
"Police forces use fear to raise funds, and unfortunately in some respects they are justified. The Olympics attracts two basic types of terrorists - 'professionals and amateurs.' Professional terrorists are well known to government and military organizations.
Terrorists of this caliber are a serious threat, but in some respects they are easier to defend against because in order to get involved in Olympic action they have to devise a coordinated plan. When everyone is on the alert it is incredibly difficult to execute an attack. However, as we saw a few years ago in the Atlanta Olympic bombing, amateur terrorists easily slip through the cracks. Amateur terrorists have personal vendettas, or they operate on behalf of small, and less visible organizations.
It is this type of terrorism that poses incredible danger because it comes from where we least expect - within the community. Amateur terrorists keep police chiefs up at night from the moment the Bid is won until all the Olympic sports fans leave the city. Anti-terrorism is big business in Olympic regions and includes everything from a spectacular increase in wiretaps in the years leading up to the Games, to spying on average community organizations to ensure terrorists are not infiltrating them for access to volunteer groups."
You can find more 2010 info here . . .
http://www.olyblog.com/f/07/CityTVSimiF06202007.shtml#BETTYK