AW@L at city council: Civil liberties vs. Olympic torch relay

Legal Professionals and AW@L went to Kitchener City Council on November 5th to demand clarity on the city's agreements with VANOC. Specifically, the issue of VANOC's recommendations to cities along the Torch route to repress freedom of expression.

This audio has both speeches as well as interviews with the two speakers. Music from The Class War Kids and The Rebel Spell round out the show.

AW@L representative Adam Lewis, addressed Kitchener City Council: "If VANOC and their corporate sponsors RBC and Coca Cola - two of today's leading social and environmental corporate villains - are going to bring the Olympic circus to our community as a celebration of the so-called Olympic ideal, then we intend to be there to reveal their party for what it really is-a celebration of colonialism, elitism and excess, that has caused immeasurable social harm to the City of Vancouver and incalculable environmental destruction to the unceded Indigenous territories of the Coast Salish Peoples along the Vancouver-Whistler corridor in British Columbia."

Davin Charney, a speaker from the legal community also expressed concerns that the City of Kitchener has failed to guarantee that they will not suppress freedom of expression during the Olympic Torch Relay's pass through KW and at the Olympic Celebration in Kitchener on December 27. Charney pointed to the City's response to a letter from the BCCLA regarding "the public's right to freedom of expression," that expressed "concern that some of [VANOC's] guidelines invite municipalities to engage in unconstitutional and illegal conduct.".

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