(The following article is from the October 1-15, 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: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

     The 2010 Winter Olympics come to Vancouver and Whistler in just over four months, but the uncertainties over civil liberties during this event are growing.

     VANOC, the organizing committee for the games, claims that people will be free to express their views during the Olympics. But the release of documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests paints a very different picture.

     The Olympic Charter, for example, states that "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other sports grounds."

     Some would argue that this clause is intended to prevent disruption of competitions, although the Charter goes further by banning any "publicity or propaganda" worn or used by the athletes themselves - with the exception of commercial advertising.

     This ban is clearly intended to prevent any repeat of Mexico City in 1968, when U.S. athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 meter race, followed by Australia's Peter Norman and John Carlos of the U.S. On the medal podium, the two U.S. athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf to represent black pride. Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S., and wore beads in memory of lynching victims. Norman supported their action, and all three wore Olympic Project for Human Rights badges.

     But the restrictions imposed on Vancouver are far more sweeping, such as the "Host City Contract" signed in 2003 by then-mayor Larry Campbell. This contract commits the city and Olympic organizing bodies to "ensure that no propaganda or advertising is placed within the Olympic venues or outside the Olympic venues in such a manner as to be within the view of the television cameras covering the sports at the Games or of the spectators watching the sports at the Games."

     This clause empowers the 16,000-plus security forces at the Games to stop any unauthorized distribution of leaflets or newspapers, or displays of banners or signs, anywhere near Olympic venues. Since key venues are in the heart of downtown Vancouver, large areas of the city could become "no free speech" zones.

     In fact, the International Olympic Committee document titled "Brand Protection: Olympic Marketing Ambush Prevention and Clean Venue Guidelines," specifically orders "12 to 20 (surveillance) teams covering all venues and the city at any one time, with two shifts of teams per day in venues or areas that require extra attention."

     And it gets worse, since many streets will be designated as "Olympic corridors" for weeks before, during and after the Feb. 12-28 Games. This includes Hastings Street, which runs through the poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside and other areas known for opposition to the $6 billion spending spree to host the 2010 Games. The Centre for Socialist Education which houses People's Voice and the Communist Party offices can easily be seen from Hastings; will this building be compelled to remove any window posters critical of the Olympics? Will residents of homes and apartments along these corridors face similar restrictions?

     One frequent reply to such questions is that these rules are only to prevent "ambush marketing" - a term for businesses which seek to advertise during the Olympics without having paid the IOC for this privilege.

     At this point, nobody at VANOC or City Hall is willing to explain exactly how these restrictions will work. The cloak of secrecy is justified in part by the need to prevent "terrorists" from learning security plans. But in recent days, the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (VISU), which is overseeing security operations, has again stepped up its harassment of critics of the Games.

     In this situation, the Pivot Legal Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association are training legal observers to monitor the Games. Participants will be trained to observe and record important information on infringements of the rights to free speech and assembly, unreasonable searches and seizures, etc. The legal observers may be called upon as witnesses in resulting court cases.

     The groups have also sent letters to VISU asking for commitments that agents provocateurs will not infiltrate anti-Olympic movements, as happened during the August 2007 North American leaders summit in Montebello, Quebec.

     Upcoming legal observer training sessions will take place on Oct. 11, Nov. 22 and Dec. 6, all at 2:30 pm, at the Britannia Community Centre on Commercial Drive. For details, contact Pivot at 604-255-9700, or register by e-mailing info@bccla.org.