GamesBids.com: Possible Massive Disruptions During Vancouver Games

Possible Massive Disruptions During Vancouver Games
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GB Staff on Sunday, February 7, 2010  2:07pm EST
 
The Ottawa Citizen reports that details of a planned February 13 street march,
called "2010 Heart Attack: clog the arteries of Capitalism", appeared on a U.S.
based anarchist website and Vancouver's Olympic Resistance Network site calling
for anti-Olympic activists from across the continent to clog the streets of
Vancouver and disrupt the first full day of the Winter Games.
According to the Ottawa Citizen the planned march will take place outside an
area designated near the Pacific Coliseum for protesters to assemble. That site
and other "safe assembly areas" are not meant to stifle dissent said police, but
to provide areas where protest is possible.
Protesters are urged to support "each others' chosen method of resistance while
not threatening the lives of those around us. It is a way by which we hope to
create space for the realization of tension, uncertainty, action, humour and
beauty as we strive for new ways to engage with each other and against a common
enemy".
Responding to the demonstrations Vancouver 2010 organizers will have more than
15,000 police, military and private security guards on hand at a total security
budget of $900 million.
Assistant RCMP Commissioner Bud Mercer reportedly said no citizen would be
allowed to disrupt the Games in a way that breaks the law. "Everyone has the
right to enjoy the Games. Not just the Olympic Resistance Network".
Meanwhile 1130 News reports an American reporter has been prevented from
entering into Canada. According to the Olympic Resistance Network, the reporter,
20-year-old Martin Macias Jr., arrived from Chicago Saturday but was held by
Canada Border Services for several hours. He was then put on a flight to the
U.S.
1130 News reports the Network's Chris Shaw said, "I suspect the authorities in
the states had shared information with authorities here. He was known somehow
with someone who held dissenting views on the Olympics and that was enough to
get him barred from our country".
Macias is reportedly a leading member of "No Games Chicago" - a group that
opposed Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games - and hosts a community
radio show in Chicago.