ORN-O Blockades Olympic Torch Relay, 8 People Arrested During Shut Down of Trans Canada Highway

For Immediate Release,January 2, 2009
Contact: No2010@peaceculture.org

Aboriginal protesters counter Canada and VANOC's claims that the 2010 Games are supported by First Nations

Nairn Centre, Ontario-Today just before 1pm a group of aboriginal youth and allies briefly blockaded the Trans Canada Highway bridge over the Spanish River (west of Espanola), disrupting the Olympic Torch Relay on its way from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. Youth from several different First Nations attempted to erect a 20ft tripod to block the Torch Relay. All eight have been arrested by local police.

Today's blockade was to draw attention to the real injustices being perpetuated by VANOC and the IOC for the 2010 Olympics; to draw attention away from the sanitized and greenwashed version of Canada that the government and the Games are trying to present. Olympic Resistance Network protests across the country have highlighted the ongoing colonization of unceded Indigenous territories, environmental destruction caused for the Games, and the displacement and criminalization of the urban poor in Vancouver, the squandering of public resources to pay for the Games, and the instigation of a contemporary police state to secure them.

Anishinabe youth Mark Corbiere, said that, "VANOC and the government of Canada can no longer whitewash Canada's brutal legacy of ongoing colonialism, nor its abysmal environmental record; these are the things Canada and VANOC really represent, and we will not let them use the Olympic spotlight to put their lies unchallenged before the global public."

This peaceful blockade, conducted in solidarity with communities affected by the Olympics in British Columbia, comes on the heels of direct actions across southern Ontario, including at Torch Relay stops in Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, Six Nations, Oneida, London, Stratford, Kitchener, Guelph and Barrie. At all of these stops, one of the main messages has been, "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land."

The group explains that this anti-Olympic slogan counters recent media claims that Canada's aboriginal communities support the Games: "VANOC and the government of Canada want Canadians and the world to believe that they have worked with First Nations people in allegedly meaningful ways to create a so-called joint partnership for the Games," said Corbiere. "However," he continues, "the reality is that the organizers of the 2010 Games have taken every opportunity to profit from the destruction of Indigenous lands, appropriate Indigenous culture, create division within Indigenous communities, and generally forward the destructive myth that First Nations are treated with respect and dignity by the Canadian government; we resist against these lies, we resist against Canadian colonialism, and we support those who say no to the tidal wave of Olympic development on our lands."

All Eight people have already been released. ORN-O's legal and media teams are waiting for updates.

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