Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Boykoff Jules

Author:Boykoff, Jules [Boykoff, Jules]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2016-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Vancouver 2010: “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

As the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver approached, a local artist, Jesse Corcoran, created a mural featuring the five Olympic rings encircling four frowny faces and one smiley face. The work was installed outside the Crying Room Gallery on East Cordova Street. Corcoran said at the time, “The oppressive nature of the Games is what I wanted to capture and how the majority is suffering for the minority.”96 His installation, and the imbroglio that followed, distilled the “oppressive nature” of the Olympic state of exception.

In the twenty-first century, Olympic host-city contracts dictate that localities harmonize their laws with IOC rules. To achieve that, the City of Vancouver passed a “2010 Winter Games By-law,” an ordinance that prohibited posters, placards, and banners that were not “celebratory,” although it was legal to hoist “a sign that celebrates the 2010 Winter Games, and creates or enhances a festive environment and atmosphere.” The ordinance criminalized anti-Olympics signs and provided officials with the right to remove them, even if that meant confiscating them on private property.97

Corcoran’s mural attracted the attention of local police who insisted he remove it, as it violated the sign bylaw. The response from activists, civil libertarians, and artists was fierce, and it forced the city to backpedal. City officials argued that the mural was actually removed because of an anti-graffiti bylaw. Ultimately the city relented, and the piece was reinstalled. Activists and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) teamed up and pushed back with a legal challenge that helped defang the ordinance. Nevertheless, in line with the IOC’s “Clean Venue Guidelines,” the revamped ordinance still outlawed signs that undermined the logos of Olympic corporate sponsors.98 Sponsorship had its privileges.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics were marked by vigorous activist fightback, as civil libertarians, indigenous dissidents, anti-poverty advocates, environmentalists, artists, and anarchists teamed up in a city with a long history of direct-action protest. While the Vancouver Sun derided protesters as “whiners and grumble-bunnies” who couldn’t “hold their tongues even on a special occasion” so Canadians could “relax and cheer on the home team,” anti-Olympics activists offered spirited, sweeping criticism: The Olympics were taking place on unceded indigenous (Coast Salish) land; taxpayer money was being squandered on a sports mega-event instead of indispensable social services for those in need; civil liberties were being crushed underfoot by militarized security forces.99

Campaigners emerged in Vancouver in 2002—one year before the city was granted the Games by the IOC—and built momentum right through the Olympics. Activists helped to force a non-binding referendum in February 2003 on whether the city should continue to seek the Olympics. The pro-Olympics side won easily with 64 percent of the vote, assisted by spending 140 times more than the anti-Olympic side.100 The result helped seal Vancouver’s bid, which was chosen by the IOC in July. But the referendum campaign provided a vital precedent for future demonstrators to leverage public conversation around the Games. Today, public referendums are a key tactic in resistance to the Olympics. Plebiscites have torpedoed bids in Germany, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland in recent years.

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