Unlike Premiers, Drunk Drivers Might Not Be Able to Enter Canada
In doing some research into the emerging Olympic hangover, I found this piece about tourism in Vancouver. A good warning was about tourists with criminal records not necessarily being able to enter the country. If that only applied to BC premiers, Gordon Campbell would have been stuck in Hawaii for the last 7 years and [...]
CBC Treats VANOC Like a Crazy Drunk with a Gun
Regardless of whether CBC should have put its logo on something that also had the Canadian flag, VANOC pulled out its big Tonya Harding stick and hit the CBC on the kneecap because people were taking the flags into the brand-sterile Olympic venues. “But we know that VANOC is very vigilant about anything related to [...]
The HST Is Actually a Tax Cut?
What do neoliberals like to do? Sell everything owned by the public. Reduce government operations through privatization. Defund the government so it can’t do much anymore. Marketize all things that rest within the realm of community. So when we heard of the hideous, regressive HST coming to BC, people flipped out because it punishes the [...]
Healthcare Before Olympics: Michael Moore-Style
We’re days away from the end of the $8 billion obscene Olympic party. Last year, BC’s health authorities were defunded by $360 million. Cut, cut, cut. Soon the 16-day bash will be over, the guests will leave and we’ll return the empties. Then we’ll walk around the house and tally up the damage. Holes kicked [...]
Danny Williams, Class War, and the Illusion of Choice
I was going to write something about the Newfoundland and Labrador premier skipping to Florida for minor heart surgery. He said, “This is my heart, it’s my health, it’s my choice.” I was going to write about how obvious the two-tier [class war] society is emerging in Canada. I was going to write about how [...]
National Housing Strategy Rally in Vancouver: Bill C-304
Halfway through the Olympics on Saturday, February 20, hundreds gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery to call for a national housing strategy. NDP MP Libby Davies’ private members bill C-304 lives on despite Stephen Harper’s cynical proroguement of parliament. Despite killing all his own pending legislation, the prime minister can’t kill private members bills by [...]
The Canadian Olympic Mentality: There is an I in Team
Canada is turning into a place I don’t recognize. The men’s hockey team just played a lame 1st period against the Americans. We’re losing 2-1 so far. Passing seems to no longer be a Canadian virtue. Players carry the puck past the blue line then try to score themselves. Where is the team mentality? Where [...]
Understanding Violent Olympic Protests
Friday’s anti-Olympics rally and march was a virtually fully peaceful event with some clear, powerful and coherent messages inserted into the global communication stream. But then Saturday turned violent. But it is really not that simple. Friday was the Olympics 2010 Welcoming Committee. Saturday was the 2010 Heart Attack, designed to stab the core of [...]
Protesting the Corporate-Debauched Olympics
I’ve spent the weekend reflecting on the success of various confrontations to the Olympic brand and the emerging global corporate feudalism. I’ll start off with a recognition that I’m sitting here in my “I am a free speech zone” t-shirt, having celebrated Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year and observed Vancouver’s Missing Women Memorial March, [...]
VANOC, the Party-Poopers
Once upon a time, VANOC’s idiocy was relatively new to us. Five years ago, they tried to prevent others from using the number 2010. You can read about its brush with the law here. VANOC is like the host of a party that you never meet. You have no say in how they plan the [...]
CBC’s Annoying Olympics Boosterism
Yesterday, the CBC’s annoying Olympics boosterism was complemented with weak reporting on agents provocateurs and missing an opportunity to nail the IOC on rule of law hypocrisy. I have only slightly more ability to tolerate the CBC over corporate media when it comes to promoting the Afghan occupation and how amazingly, incredibly awesome the Olympics [...]
The Olympics: A Failure of Legitimacy
There are many levels of debate about the value of Olympics: social, economic, cultural, political, etc. But one level seems to undergird them all: moral legitimacy, in which the Olympics is bankrupt. For me it began crystallizing in late September, 1988. Ben Johnson won Olympic gold in the 100m, then lost it just days later [...]
Olympic Threat Mathematics
Almost a year ago I wrote about how VANOC was exploring risks to Olympic corporate sponsors. People don’t like them because they have co-opted the Olympics and are pimping the athletes and glee-seekers for their own exposure, which is now most evident in Olympic logos all over the TV, skyscraper advertising condoms downtown and inane [...]
contributors
