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Citizens protest Olympic protests

Not all the protesters in Vancouver’s downtown Saturday had the same message.

Shortly after protesters ripped through downtown this morning, flipping dumpsters, smashing windows, and spraying buildings with paint, Isabella Mori stood on the corner of Georgia and Granville Streets in front of a smashed window with her own message of protest. She held a sign above her head that stated, “Being a vandalizing douchebag is not a political statement.”

"When you break things like this, you alienate regular people who might have agreed with your point of view, and by doing that you serve nobody's purpose," the Canadian Press reported Mori saying.

"I think it makes people go, 'You know what, I don't want to hear what you have to say.' It feels like an attack on everyday people who are not necessarily doing something that is bad," she said.

Friday’s more peaceful demonstration also instigated dissent against anti-Olympic protesters. While protestors of the Olympics gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery, a separate group marched through the streets and around the gallery in a “pro-Olympic” rally, holding signs and chanting “You say protest, we say party!”

Christine McLaren reports for The Tyee.


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