Torch goes Down in Guelph

December 28th, 2009

[ORNO] PRESS RELEASE

Re: Olympic Torch Relay Protest - Guelph, ON.

People took to the streets in Guelph today to protest the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as the Torch Relay passed through town. We convened at St. Georges Square for a while, holding banners and handing out leaflets, and then proceeded to march south on Wyndham Street and turned down Carden Street to City Hall chanting "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land" and "Homes Not Games".

The protest was organized by Guelph members of the Olympics Resistance Network - Ontario (ORN-O).

Our goal was to draw attention to the social and economic impacts of the Olympics, which include indigenous land theft, increased homelessness and displacement, loss of social services, a massive security presence, and environmental destruction. So far it has cost the city of Whistler, the City of
Vancouver, the BC government and the Canadian government almost $7 billion dollars to host the Games - in a province which is home to the poorest area code in the country. We also wanted to send a message of solidarity to all of those being negatively affected by what is currently happening in BC.

After passing by City Hall, we walked east on Macdonnell Street. As we neared the intersection of Macdonnell and Wyndham, some Torch Relay vans passed us going the other way and then to our surprise the group of runners turned as well. The torch route was supposed to be along Carden Street, but instead they basically ran right into the protest one street to the north. In the confusion, one of the torch bearers fell and protester Brittney Simpson was arrested. Although she was charged with Assault, people who witnessed what happened said the only physical contact they saw was a protester being hit by one of the RCMP security runners.

According to Leslie Wilson, a community organizer who attended the protest: "There seemed to be miscommunication about which route the torch should take. The whole thing escalated because the Torch security was ill-prepared and the police over-reacted."

As of 5pm, Brittney Simpson is still in custody.

For background information about resistance to the 2010 Winter Olympic and the Torch Relay, please see www.no2010.com and http://olympicresistance.net/.

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UPDATE: Brittney Simpson was released around 6pm.

Here are the link to the only articles that even attempted to get the story right--all the Olympic Sponsors pretty much ran the headline and story from the local police press release.

* http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/579210

This second piece is problematic. I was quoted heavily in it despite having emphasized to the reporter that I was several blocks away at the time of the incident. The "minor attack" from the police was an officer punching a young woman in the face. The alleged "stutter step" before the torch bearer tripped was speculation on my part, that the author chose to run. My impression as to what happened is currently that, when the torch relay and protest march ran into each other, instead of holding a line and keeping seperation between protesters and the torch, the VISU/RCMP security team (in the grey suits) panicked, and one member backed into the torch bearer (thats why he is on the ground between Brittney and the torch bearer in the photos). It was at this point, it seems, that RCMP in blue uniforms (less than a dozen of them) rushed in and a little bit of pushing and shoving occured, resulting in one protester being punched in the face. There are very very few eye witness reports that start before this 'melee', it seems that very few people saw what happened before the torch bearer hit the ground. It seems quite clear b now though that Brittney obviously did not shove the torch bearer, as most mainstream headlines are suggesting right now. -alex.

* http://news.globaltv.com/world/Olympic+torch+bearer+knocked+ground+protester+Guelph/2386198/story.html (almost identical on every Canwest source, but the picture changed sometime in the evening)

guelph-torch2