The question for Vancouver citizens running up to the Olympics and afterwards is whether or not the games have had a net benefit on the City. This was the debate that the plebiscite tested; we were asked to decide if the games were going to be in the best interest of the citizens of Vancouver? There are many claims to what the legacy of the games will be.
While much energy and money are being spent by VANOC, its sponsors and boosters to promote how wonderful the games will be, in the main stream media there is little critical discourse about the games. Most school kids know the names of Olympic Mascots, but where is the larger conversation about what the games promised and what has actually happened? As a friend of mine says: “We all want to be proud of the games when the world arrives in Vancouver, but we are not going to keep our mouths shut about what is going on in this city when they get here.”
On Monday September 28, 2009 the Impact on the Communities Coalition(IOCC) hosted a forum on civil liberties and the 2010 winter games at the SFU Harbour Centre. The forum consisted of a panel representing a broad range of what was being coined as “Olympic skeptics”. The panel was moderated by the Chair of IOCC, Am Johal.
Stefanie Ratjan, a board member of IOCC, was the first to present and spoke to David Harvey’s notion about the right to think of change in the city. David Harvey’s essay, “The right to the city” was basis of the title of the forum.
video clip of Stefanie Ratjan
I googled David Harvey and the essay is available online and the link is below. Here is quote from the essay:
“…it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.”
The right to the City
David Eby, the executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCCLA), was also on the panel. Mr. Eby spoke about the credibility gap between what authorities responsible for the games are saying about how there will be no impact on civil liberties and the raft of new City of Vancouver Bylaws that were passed at Council last June as well as the contracts that the host city entered into with the International Olympic committee.
video clip of David Eby
The diversity of opinions on the panel ranged from speakers that were critiquing the discourse of the games to folks that were actively proposing that the games should be boycotted. Harsh Walia spoke to the contradictions of the games in regard to the vast amounts of money that are being spent on security to protect citizens from terror threats which in itself could be thought of as a form of terrorism of the state on its population. She spoke to the scope of the security of the games and the impacts on city as result.
video clip of Harsh Walia
David Dennis, President elect, United Native Nations, spoke about the effects of power on native people and the resulting loss of language and spirituality. Mr. Dennis also noted that Bud Mercer was the RCMP officer responsible for the Oylmpics Intergrated Security team and had been involve in the Gustafsen Lake police incident. Mr. Dennis also spoke of native youths perception of games and some of their concerns.
A href=” http://www.brentgranby.ca/?p=115”>video clip of David Dennis
Gustafsen Lake and Bud Mercer
Alissa Westergard-Thorpe, Olympic Resistance Network, recounted events of the OPEC conference in Vancouver in 1997 as a pattern of security actions, which are the results of corporate and state interests determining citizens civil liberties.
video of Alissa Westergard-Thorpe
Matt Hern, a writer, artist, community organizer, co-founder of Car Free Day in Vancouver and author of Watch Yourself: Why Safer Isn’t Always Better was on the panel as well. Check it out – Matt has an entry in Wikipedia. Wikipediainterview of Matt by Am Johal
Matt spoke about some of the underlying logic of our notions of safety and security.
video clip of Matt Hern
Finally Jeff Derksen, an critical theory professor at SFU, poet and co-collaborator of the Flying University and author of Transnational Muscle Cars Jeff’s bookrounded out the evening by expanding on some David Harvey’s themes. Jeff spoke to the notion of how space in a city is a process. Public space is made by the activities that make it and conversely the use of security is a way of making space private.
video clip of Jeff Derksen
Flying University
The last words goes to Am Johal from his introduction to the event. Am made the point that there is a huge issue of balance in regard to how much media the positive messages around the Olympics have had. Olympic skeptics have been have been positioned by VANOC and its boosters as being too negative and one-sided in their discourse around the games. Am makes that point that in comparison to the resources that are being put into security and communications for the games,the capacity of the groups participating in the forum on the panel was quite limited. Given the uneven communication capacity it is important that citizens of Vancouver have a range of critical perspectives on the games, which activists on the panel represent.
video clip of Am
