[Indigsol] No Olympics on Stolen Native Land! Sh(o)ut Down VANOC's John Furlong Tommorow 12:30pm!

[Matt Kristjansson]

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY:

No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!  Shut Down the 2010 Corporate
Circus!

Tuesday March 10

12:30pm

Assemble at the Olympic Countdown Clock (Wellington and Metcalfe) 

and march to the Chateau Laurier (1 Rideau st.) to Sh(o)ut down VANOC CEO John
Furlong.

Bring banners, noisemakers, and placards!
John Furlong of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic 
and Paralympic Winter Games, will be giving a luncheon talk entitled  
“Vancouver 2010 Winter Games: The Successes and Challenges Ahead.” The 2010 
Winter Olympics will take place on unceded indigenous land in two years.
 We wish to make it clear to Mr. Furlong and the public that one of the 
challenges ahead will be widespread resistance to the 2010 corporate circus 
and all it entails: the expansion of sport tourism on unceded indigenous
 lands and increased land tenure to corporations; increasing homelessness
 and gentrification of poor neighbourhoods; increasing privatization of
 public services; union busting through decisions such as the seven-year 
imposed contract handed down to the BC Ferry and Marine Workers Union and
 the recent Canadian Union of Public Employees contracts; exploitative
conditions for workers especially temporary migrant labour; the 
fortification of a security apparatus estimated at $175 million; and 
unprecedented destruction of mountains, old growth forests, streams, 
hunting and fishing grounds, and delicate ecosystems. 
 
Indigenous communities in the interior and on the coast of so called
British Columbia including the Secwepemc people of Skelkwek'welt, the
St'at'imc of Sutikalh, and the Pilalt of Cheam have been critiquing and
resisting the objectives and activities of the 2010 Olympics since 2000.
In October 2007, more than 1500 Indigenous people representing communities
across this hemisphere held the Gathering of the Indigenous Peoples of
America, on Yaqui territory in Vicam, Sonora, Mexico. They stated in their
final declaration, “We reject the 2010 Winter Olympics on sacred and
stolen territory of Turtle Island–Vancouver, Canada.”
 
While the Olympic organizers operate with a budget of almost $2
billion(costs for the Vancouver's Trade and Convention Centre alone has
reached almost $900 million) and other costs to government surpassing an
estimated $6 billion, Vancouver is now home to North America’s fastest
growing homelessness crisis. Dozens of low-income hotels and apartment
buildings are being converted to unaffordable condominiums. Over 126,000
people in 56,000 households in Greater Vancouver are at risk of
homelessness according to the 2001 Canada census. As thousands of people
are forced from their homes, they are then criminalized for being
homeless. Indigenous people account for 30% of this homeless population,
despite making up only 2% of the total population in the province.
 
The 2010 corporate Olympics circus is apparent by examining the
destructive global record of some of its sponsors. These include:
 
• Petro-Canada, one of Canada’s largest producers of oil and gas,
• TransCanada, one of the continent’s largest transporters of oil and gas.
• Canadian Pacific Railway, long an integral tool of colonization



• Royal Bank of Canada- #3 Sponsor of 2010 Olympics (160 million+)and big 
investor in energy projects including the tar sands. 15.7 billion invested 
in fossil fuel production representing 15% of Canada’s greenhouse gases. 
For More info:  www.climatefriendlybanking.com
• Hudson’s Bay Company, another company responsible for the colonization
and theft of Indigenous land,
• General Electric, one of the world’s top three producers of military
aircraft engines and major producer of nuclear power plants,
• General Motors, long a top contractor for the Canadian military and now
the world’s largest automobile manufacturer,
• Dow Chemical, the world’s second largest chemical manufacturer and cause
of the Bhopal, India disaster,
• Bell Canada, who’s CEO is one of the top corporate architects of the
Security and Prosperity Partnership.

 
No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!
Check out
http://no2010.com/ 
http://2010watch.com/
harrietspirit.blogspot.com  
 
for more info call (613)614-4219






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