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This event is a festive and creative demand for the Canadian government to respect and uphold human-rights, international law, the right to self-determination and civil rights. This event will also feature Gold Medal Award ceremonies for human rights violations, war mongering, and police brutality.
The 2010 Winter Olympic Games reveal the same consistent, predictable and historical pattern of militarization and anti-democratic acts as they have everywhere that they are hosted. StopWar is especially concerned with the militarization of Vancouver and Whistler during the Games, with its accompanying restrictions on the democracy and safety of our community. Enormous resources, including one billion dollars of spending, considerable military personnel and equipment, and countless thousands of police and private security personnel are being deployed. The Games are accompanied by the largest domestic military and security operation in Canadian military history. Featured among the identified "threats" to the Games are domestic protest.
The Olympic Truce movement has similarly revealed the hypocritical and rhetorical commitment of the Canadian government to peace that is contradicted by action. Despite Canada being in its 9th year of waging war on the people of Afghanistan, the Canadian Olympic Truce is calling on the world community "to cease hostilities during the Games and promote the ideals of peace through sport", however, Canada has no plans to cease causing death and destruction in Afghan society. In an ironic twist of history, we remember that the 1980 Olympic Games hosted by the Soviet Union were boycotted by over 60 countries, including Canada, in protest of the Soviet occupation and war in Afghanistan that had begun a year earlier in 1979.
Bring you costumes, signs, banners and musical instruments! Join us in calling attention to the Canadian governments disregard of human rights, international law, the right to self-determination and civil rights. We call on the Canadian government to end the occupation, war crimes, and human rights violations from Afghanistan to BC, to sign the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights, and to abide by International law. To bring aid not militarization to Haiti. To bring equity not militarization within Canadian communities.
