Photo Credit: Toronto Star

The coming year will be integral to the rebuilding of Canada’s international image. Regardless of one’s views concerning the Copenhagen climate summit, it is unarguable that Canada’s position in the world has been damaged due to it. The perceived image of Stephen Harper’s government put forward by the majority of the international press was overwhelmingly negative. More importantly, it was seen as a fall from grace by a country popularly looked upon as America’s more liberal, and green, cousin, particularly in Europe.

I recently attended an orientation for a job at the 2010 Winter Olympics. As expected, one of the central themes was the history and tradition of the Olympic Games, from their beginnings in ancient Greece to the global brand of the new millennium. However, it was one particular aspect of the presentation that strikes a chord with Canada’s needs coming into 2010. I was informed that the Olympic movement is a celebration of three pillars: Sport, Culture and Sustainability. It is this last pillar that it is necessary for Stephen Harper and the government to grasp in the forthcoming year.
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Photo Credit: No2010.com

While many aboriginals in Canada are joining in the celebrations and taking part enthusiastically in Olympic planning and promoting, there is a group in Vancouver who stand firm in their opposition of the games saying they are “big business at the expense of the natural world.” The Olympics Resistance Network (ORN) established in Vancouver and mainly based in the Coast-Salish territories is focusing its efforts on stopping the holding of Olympic games on stolen native land.

The ORN holds that “BC is unique in Canada in that most of the province is unceded, non-surrendered Indigenous territories,” and that promotional and Olympic construction on this land (especially in the mountains) desecrates and disrespects sacred indigenous land. “The mountains, pure & undisturbed, are essential to the survival of all people…The mountains are the most spiritual place for us,” the ORN stated.

In addition to their most-touted line: “No Olympics on Stolen Land,” many ORN members are angry at what they are calling the misuse of funds. To them, the billions of dollars being spent getting Whistler and Vancouver ready for the Olympics is a slap in the face while poverty-stricken first nations people are “paying with their lives with inadequate housing and health care.”
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Photo Credit: Aftermath News

The City of Vancouver, The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and the provincial government have chosen to begin installing video surveillance cameras in preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games, with no guarantees that they will be dismantled or removed after the games’ completion. The VPD and pro-surveillance advocates use a continual comparative to London and the city’s use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) to prevent crime, and the success the program has delivered. The BC Civil Liberties Association has a contrary viewpoint, concerned about the intrusion on privacy the program facilitates in comparison with the real benefits in solving and addressing crime. I think it is time to take a moment to look at some “British facts” regarding CCTV cameras.

London’s 2008 metropolitan police internal report obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal-Democrats notes that Great Britain has over 4 million CCTV cameras country-wide, both publicly and privately operated. There are over 1 million such cameras in London alone, 10,524 of which are funded by taxpayers, making London the most “watched” city in the world. Yet their crime solution rate is currently no better than Vancouver’s. The average person in London can expect to be observed on CCTV camera over 300 times in an average day. With only 1% of the worlds population, Great Britain has 20% of the worlds CCTV cameras in operation and the 2008 report from the metropolitan police admits that only one crime per year is solved for every 1,000 CCTV cameras installed in the UK.
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