Project Accompaniment and Solidarity Colombia

NO OLYMPICS ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND! EXTINGUISH THE OLYMPIC FLAME!

Upcoming Montreal Events:

-> SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 5pm Art Auction: Creative resistance against the 2010 Olympics Party begins at 5pm, auction from 7pm-10pm 3942 Ste. Emilie, corner/coin St. Augustin http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182621237549 Presented by the Ste-Emilie Skillshare

 > SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 6:30pm No Olympics on Stolen Land Panel and Film Night Featuring Indigenous speakers from the interior of “British Columbia” Films about Defenders of the Land and the Native Youth Movement de Sève Cinema, 1400 de Maisonneuve Ouest (metro Guy-Concordia) Presented by the Indigenous Solidarity Committee and No One Is Illegal-Montreal http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=330773425135 More details below …

-> WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 6:30pm Movie and Discussion Night: Resistance from Vancouver to Montreal Includes excerpts from “Five Ring Circus” and other films 3600 University Avenue, room 112 (metro McGill) Presented by the Ste- Emilie Skillshare and Q-Team. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184893838998

All culminating with: PROTEST AGAINST THE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY IN MONTREAL
 > THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009, please arrive at 5:30pm (sharp) Corner of Notre-Dame est and Place Jacques Cartier, between St-Laurent & Gosford, métros Champ-de-mars or Place d’armes Bring your noisemakers!!! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=190205743855 More details below …

More details about December 6 Panel and Film Night and December 10 Protest ...

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 6:30pm

Panel and Film Night: No Olympics on Stolen Native Land! Featuring Indigenous speakers from “British Columbia” de Sève Cinema, 1400 de Maisonneuve Ouest (metro Guy-Concordia) FREE. Wheelchair accessible.

Join us as we hear directly from Indigenous activists and organizers involved in the defense of their cultures and lands, and in resistance to the Olympics on unceded native territory.

Speakers include:
 > MIRANDA DICK: Miranda is a mother of 5, a part of the Secwepemc Women’s Council, and a Warrior for the Land and People. The Secwepemc people from the interior of “British Columbia” have resisted the Sun Peak’s ski resort on their territory.
 > BILLIE PIERRE: Billie is from the Nlaka’Pamux and Ojibwae nations. She has been involved with boththe Native Youth Movement and co-founded Redwire Magazine and is active with land and human rights campaigns.
 > We will also hear from Guillaume B who has been active with the Olympics Resistance Network.

The evening will also include short films from Defenders of the Land, as well as the Native Youth Movement (NYM). Organized by the Indigenous Solidarity Committee and No One Is Illegal-Montreal.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 5:30pm (sharp!) Protest the Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal

Corner of Notre-Dame est and Place Jacques Cartier, between St-Laurent & Gosford, métros Champ-de-mars or Place d’armes Bring your noisemakers!!!

We encourage everyone to meet by no later than 5:30pm so that we can effectively protest the arrival of the torch in front of Montreal’s City Hall. Latercomers are welcome, but we strongly encourage everyone to make the effort to arrive no later than 5:30pm.

December 10 also marks the day that Sun Peaks Resort demolished two sweatlodges, with the complicity of the RCMP. The sweatlodges were considered sacred to the Secwepemc people of the interior of "British Columbia", and have been replaced by ski trails.

BACKGROUND:

Just months away from the beginning of the Olympics spectacle in Vancouver/Whistler in February 2010, and just days away from the arrival of the Coca-Cola/RBC Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal on THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, local indigenous solidarity and social justice organizers are lending their support to the calls by the Olympics Resistance Network for protests and disruptions of the Olympic Torch Relay.

We highlight our support for Indigenous-led resistance in “British Columbia” to the Olympics. Our Indigenous allies have built an awareness and resistance campaign against the upcoming Vancouver/Whistler Olympics, and we stand in solidarity with their call for “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.”

We also highlight the other negative effects of the Olympics industry, as summarized by the Olympics Resistance Network in Vancouver: “Far from being simply about ‘sport’, the history of the Olympics is one rooted in displacement, corporate greed, fascism, repression, and violence. Only the political and corporate elite – from real estate developers to Olympic sponsors - have anything to gain from the Olympics industry. The negative effects of the upcoming Winter Games are clear: expansion of sport tourism and resource extraction on unceded Indigenous lands; homelessness and gentrification of poor neighborhoods; increasing privatization of public services; union busting through imposed contracts and exploitative conditions for migrant labour; a ballooning $1 billion security apparatus with an attack on basic civil liberties; misdirected $7 billion public spending and public debt; and unprecedented destruction of the environment.”

WHY ORGANIZE AGAINST THE TORCH? [From the Olympics Resistance Network]

The Olympic torch is a propaganda tool that promotes gentrification, repression and environmental destruction. The origins of the Torch Relay lie in the dark history of the 1936 Games in Berlin, where it was devised as a means to spread Nazi fascism and to promote the Third Reich. (See Globe and Mail article here: http://no2010.com/node/1113 )

The 2010 Olympic Torch Relay is a $25 million publicity stunt to promote the Olympic Brand, particularly its top sponsors. The Royal Bank of Canada and Coca Cola are the main sponsors of the 2010 Torch relay. RBC is the top financier of the environmentally devastating Alberta Tar Sands, while Coca Cola has been responsible for health degradation as part of the junk food industry, massive depletion of groundwater and toxic waste pollution in India, and involved in hiring paramilitary groups to violently repress union organizers in Colombia.

Ironically, the Olympic torches themselves are manufactured by Quebec company Bombardier, whose aerospace section is heavily implicated in the Canada-Quebec military-industrial complex.

We encourage you to join us in large numbers in Montreal at our “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land” Protest against the RBC/Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Relay on December 10, and to get informed at the events organized earlier.

The various events against the Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal are organized by members of the Indigenous Solidarity Committee of the People’s Global Action Bloc, Reclaim!, Ste-Emilie Skillshare, No One Is Illegal-Montreal, Q-Team and others.

INFO: Montreal: blocampmontreal@gmail.com - 514-848-7583- www.amp-montreal.net For more information about anti-Olympics organizing: www.no2010.com - http://olympicresistance.net

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