Montreal: Extinguish the Olympic Torch! No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!

[Please post and forward widely]

Upcoming 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”
and 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
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)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184893838998
Presented by the Ste- Emilie Skillshare and Q-Team.

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!!!
More details below …

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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.

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

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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.
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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 and 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.”

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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.

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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