Olympics Retort

With now just under two weeks to go before the 2010 Olympics officially open, behind the scenes preparations are feverishly happening in the two opposing camps: the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) with its myriad elements and the anti-Olympic convergence with its own diverse collection of groups and issues.  
 
I've spent enough time in the military to have a pretty good sense where the police and military must be in their pre-Games preparations.  And, as a member of the resistance, I know how things are shaping up on this end as well.
 
So are my thoughts about where everyone is as the countdown clock runs out:
 
The police and military units have received their final orders and, barring changes in their intelligence briefings, pretty much know where they will be positioned, have completed their reconnaissances, know where their reserves are going to be located, and have given their own updated "warning orders" to their subordinates.

They have received most or all of the "kit" they will need. 

Recently, a series of Olympic flags went up on lamp posts along a stretch of the Dollarton Highway in the District of North Vancouver.  These were specifically within the boundaries of the Burrard Band (Tsleil-Waututh), one of the four Native “host nations” to the 2010 Games.  I wrote the following letter to North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton.

Dear Mayor Walton:

I have noted with some dismay the recent placement of VANOC signage on lamp posts along parts of the Dollarton Highway.  These signs include the corporate logos of several Olympic sponsors, notably RBC and Coca Cola.  For me, the inclusion of corporate logos (and hence advertising) on public property represents an unwanted intrusion of the corporate sector onto the "Commons".

Given that as a taxpayer I have paid part of the costs of this public infrastructure, I am frankly offended by these signs.  Furthermore, I do not recall that the issue was presented to the public by Council for approval.

I don't usually gamble, mostly due to lack of skill and knowledge of the odds, but when it comes to the Olympics I’d bet on practically everything on the horizon.  Why? Because predicting future Olympic outcomes are less about chance than sound empiricism. 

My statistical abilities have in fact been particularly acute about Vancouver's 2010 Winter Games, now just over three weeks from the opening ceremonies.  So here are a few of my predictions for February’s circus, one for each day:

1. The weather will remain wet and nasty, truly earning Vancouver its reputation as the "wet coast". Tourists and local Oly boosters crammed into the so-called celebratory sites will enjoy the participatory sports of puddle jumping and dancing between the raindrops.  The only snow on the ski hills will have to be moved in from higher elevations at –guess what?- more costs to the rest of us.  Those trying hard to celebrate the circus will quickly grow moldy and conclude that future trips to Vancouver in February are not wise.

Anti-Olympic organizers in Vancouver scored a hat trick over the last seven days, beginning with a declaration from the “Security Games” forum issued after last weekend’s meeting at the Simon Fraser Harbour Centre campus. 

The opening panel on Friday morning on privacy and security in 2010 (Nov. 20^th) saw presentations by the deputy Information Commissioner for Canada, Chantal Bernier, B.C’s information commissioner, David Loukidelis, BCCLA policy director, Micheal Vonn, and this writer. The two information commissioners spoke about the more theoretical aspects of information and privacy legislation and how it should work. Vonn and I dealt with the realities: CCTV cameras -likely to be a permanent fixture after the Games – invading public spaces and the dichotomy a situation where security services can, and do, obtain information about individuals and groups with little or no real oversight while being able to hide behind the legislation to conceal information from the public.