Well, the games have finally begun and I think most people in Vancouver, or at least most that pay attention to these things – relatively few – are sighing with relief that a large protest march against the Olympics went over with next to no violence. It was the big unknown in the 2010 Winter Games equation – how bad was it going to get?
Credit goes to the protesters who were generally your average “nice” but concerned Canadian citizen and it also goes, in no small measure, to the VPD who turned up in ball caps rather than more intimidating riot gear. It seems our security services are learning from mistakes made in the past, when they’ve met bravado with bravado.
It seemed a good time was had by many, legitimate concerns were heard by the international media (though, good luck finding an article in the foreign press about those issues today) and people made it home safely, save for a few police officers who were hit with flying traffic pylons.
An antipodean photographer who came prepared with ballistic glasses, helmet and mask asked me incredulously about David Eby’s speech, whether it was true that Canadian security forces had indeed been paying visits to the homes and workplaces of anti-Olympic activists in the lead-up to the games. I wonder if the media wasn’t a little disappointed.
That was the big hump that many people were holding their breath over. There will be smaller protests by more and less radical groups but they will be isolated for the most part and probably won’t represent the concerns of most of the people at Friday’s march.
Oops… it’s started already.
Pics shortly.
