A MATTER OF FREE SPEECH

Backgrounder – Anti-Free Speech Primary Documents

Here are some of the documents uncovered by the BCCLA that reveal the anti-free speech agenda of the 2010 Olympics. Read more to learn about the IOC’s plan to monopolize huge areas of Vancouver’s public space for their sponsors, excluding small businesses and those who have messages that oppose the Olympic games.

The Olympic Torch Run Manual that calls on cities to limit the distribution of political leaflets during the torch run:
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The Clean Venue Agreement that outlines a VANOC swat team that will seize offensive literature on public property, how the IOC required VANOC to prevent anyone other than Olympic sponsors from advertising during the Games, and how private security guards will prevent people from holding signs or wearing clothes with political messages in Olympic venues:
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The Olympic Host City Agreement in which the IOC required the City of Vancouver to prevent international media and attendees at Olympic venues from seeing political speech inside and outside the venues, which was signed by then Mayor of Vancouver Larry Campbell:
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The Olympic Charter in which the IOC dictates at Rule 51 that “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.        
Read part 1 >>           
Read part 2 >>

The Manual for Candidate Cities which demands compliance with the terms of the Olympic Charter for all candidate host cities, including Vancouver, during and after the bid process.
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The Olympic Technical Manual on Media, in which the IOC attempts to limit coverage of the Games to coverage that “by its content, spreads and promotes the principles of Olympism,” and which grants the IOC the ability to withdraw accreditation from any journalist at any time for any reason.
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Letters in which the Olympic Integrated Security Unit and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) refuse to refrain from using Agents Provocateur or to assume the leadership of activist organizations, following a request from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association to foreswear the tactics. Such tactics may be permissible under certain interpretations of Canadian criminal and constitutional law, but their legality is disputed by the BCCLA.  
Letter to CSIS >>         
CSIS response >>  
Letter to ISU >>      
ISU response >>

The revised City of Vancouver Olympic bylaws, which make it an offence to interfere with someone’s enjoyment of Olympic entertainment, only permit city staff to issue exemption permits to signs that celebrate the Olympic Games, and introduce a new ticket scheme that could be used to give homeless people $250 tickets for selling things they find in the garbage, and which will result in arrest warrants if they are not paid. In their original iteration, until the City was sued by activists supported by the BCCLA, these bylaws attempted to restrict the political messages on signs within perimeters around venues to those that celebrated the Olympics or increased positive feelings around the Olympics.

The Assistance to Shelter Act that gives police the power to order homeless people to report to the nearest homeless shelter during winter weather, introduced just two months before the Olympics, and widely criticized as giving police a tool to move homeless people from tourist areas where there are no shelters to poor areas like the Downtown Eastside where shelters are located. This law is currently in force.

The Provincial Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, also known as Bill 13, passed just weeks before the Olympics, Part 9 of which purports to allow the Olympic cities of Richmond, Vancouver and Whistler to enter private property with only 24 hours notice to remove, cover or alter illegal signs. Only Vancouver has said that they won’t use this power to remove anti-Olympic political signs. Vancouver will rely on the 30 day notice period in their existing sign bylaws instead. These amendments also give these Olympic cities the power to remove “graffiti” from private property without notice to property owners. The city of Vancouver recently defined an art display on the outside wall of an art gallery that included anti-Olympic sentiments as “graffiti” and ordered the owner to remove it. These new powers come into force on January 1, 2010.

The Federal Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act that gives the International Olympic Committee special powers to protect its trademarks not available to any other private business. It includes trademarks over such generic terms as Winter, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Sponsor, Vancouver and Whistler when used in association with the Olympic games, and permits emergency injunctions to prevent trademark violations that could result in imprisonment of offenders for contempt of court if ignored.

The BCCLA is still seeking a full copy of the VANOC Cultural Olympiad artist contract which contains the following clause, unprecedented in liberal democracies which have hosted the Olympics and concurrent cultural festivals: “The artist shall at all times refrain from making any negative or derogatory remarks respecting VANOC, the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement generally, Bell and/or other sponsors associated with VANOC.” Read more >>