(The following article is from the February 15-28, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou, Vancouver

The latest controversies around the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler include disputed claims that security forces have "consulted" with opposition groups, and fears that surveillance installed for the Games will be permanent.

     The privacy commissioners of Canada and British Columbia warned on Feb. 2 that hundreds of cameras being installed at Olympics venues must not be used to spy on residents. After the 2004 Olympics in Athens, police turned the cameras into a surveillance network.

     "(Once) the games are over, the surveillance may not disappear, and there may be new ways that are thought up to justify keeping the surveillance apparatus with us," said federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. "That's very, very worrisome."

     Stoddart and B.C. privacy commissioner David Loukidelis spoke at a Victoria security and privacy workshop focused on the Olympics.

     "I can ensure you any plan or proposal or supposition that the City of Vancouver will keep video cameras in the downtown core simply because they are there after the Games, simply doesn't fly with me," Loukidelis said.

     The first Olympic security exercise will take place Feb. 9-13, involving frigates, jets, and hundreds of soldiers and police. An estimated 4,000 Canadian Forces troops will be assigned to Olympic duties in 2010, leading to worries about conflicting demands for helicopters in Afghanistan and Vancouver.

     But those responsible for security measures have already been caught in a blatant lie about meeting with critics of the Winter Games to discuss security plans. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, who leads the Olympic security team, recently told the media that protest groups are "at the table".

     "Our community relations group actively is reaching out to protest groups that we have identified or that have been self-identified and we'll continue to work with them to determine how we fit, how we can help, how can we can facilitate," said Mercer. The Integrated Security Unit (ISU) is a consortium of local police, RCMP, the Canadian military and other agencies.

     Prior to winning the Games bid, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), the government and the ISU pledged to work with residents to make sure civil rights are protected. But none of the groups organizing protests leading up to and during the Olympics have heard from the ISU, which refuses to list those it claims to be consulting.

     Anyone remotely familiar with local politics knows that the main such group is the Olympic Resistance Network, which includes a wide range of Aboriginal people, civil rights defenders, and other opponents of the Games.

     ORN activist Harsha Walia says "It appears that (the security unit) and (Games organizers) are trying to fool the public yet again with their false claims. They want us to believe that Olympics security measures will respect the democratic rights of protesters, when the reality is the stark opposite: Such measures are intended to dissuade... and repress Olympics opposition."

     Activist groups like the Anti-Poverty Committee and No One is Illegal have been labelled "potential" threats, after protests such as egging the Olympic countdown clock - hardly tactics capable of derailing the Olympics. Neither group has been contacted by police, but some members have been approached to become informants. The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has called for Olympic protests, but Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says the organization has not been contacted by the police.

     The total security budget for the 2010 Games, originally pegged at $175 million, is now estimated at nearly $1 billion. Different levels of government are wrangling over which sets of taxpayers will be saddled with the bill.

     Bud Mercer is now talking about creating "protest parks": "What we're suggesting is that we'll work with you and try to designate a place where you can get your message out and it'll be a place that you may be more comfortable with than standing on the sidewalk." The reality is that such "protest pens," as they are called here, will be far from Games sites and mass media coverage - for "security reasons" of course.

     This trial balloon is simultaneously quite transparent and absurd. Despite their $1 billion price tag, the ISU are probably incapable of uncovering or preventing any serious attempt to attack the Games. Knowing this, the ISU hopes to fool the public by pointing a finger at grassroots opposition movements.

     Groups such as the ORN have already disrupted several public relations stunts held by the Olympic promoters and their corporate sponsors. ORN activists will continue to embarrass the Games organizers by finding creative ways to publicize issues such as homelessness, poverty, and the theft of Aboriginal lands in British Columbia. But as decades of experience in Vancouver has shown, the only real violence related to such protests will come from heavy-handed police and military attacks on demonstrators.

     To head off any resulting public anger, Mercer and other ISU spokespersons are cultivating the impression that they have "bent over backwards" to meet with protest groups. Organizations which refuse to accept the "protest pens" will automatically be labelled "violent trouble-makers". The ISU can then wash its hands of the inevitable state violence, proclaiming that "we tried to ensure peaceful protests."