THE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY WILL BEGIN IN VICTORIA!! HELP BUILD OUR MOVEMENTS FOR JUSTICE AND DIGNITY!! COME TO A DAY OF WORKSHOPS AND DISCUSSION ON ISSUES, STRATEGIES AND ACTION!!
As the 2010 Olympic Winter Games approach, opposition and resistance are rising. On the mainland, the Olympics have already resulted in infrastructure development on unceded Native land, environmental destruction, gentrification in downtown Vancouver, increased funding for "security" forces and unethical labour practices. These issues are intensifying against a backdrop of escalating public debt. But the issues at stake on the mainland also touch communities on Vancouver Island – before, during and after the Olympic Games. With the torch relay beginning in Victoria on October 30, it's time for our movements to come together, organize our opposition, and make our voices heard!
You are invited to a day of workshops focused on building coordinated campaigns and actions in Victoria.
A FREE LUNCH WITH LOCAL ORGANIC FOODS WILL BE SERVED.
(1) SCHEDULE AND WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS
++ 11:00 am – 11:30 am ++
Opening and welcome
++ 11:30 am – 11:45 am ++
Local organizing against the 2010 Games and the Torch Rally
* No 2010 Victoria
++11:45 – 12:45 ++
WORKSHOP SLOT A
==> Workshop 1
Ecodefense and the Law of the Land
* Zoe Blunt
Not a legal rights workshop, but a look at how development and colonization destroy the natural world and our communities. We examine the challenges of defending the land and ways to leverage more pressure on the powers-that-be. The Law of the Land says those who "own" the land make the laws, and vice versa.
==> Workshop 2
Dealing with Impacts of Housing and Homelessness in Victoria
* David Turner - The Committee to End Homelessness
The impacts of displacement of housing and tenants in Vancouver leading up to the Olympic Games are recognized. This is a brainstorming session to plan strategies to reduce such impacts in Victoria.
==> Workshop 3
Decolonization and Land Restitution
* Check our website at
++ 12:45 pm – 1:30 pm ++
FREE COMMUNITY LUNCH
++ 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm ++
WORKSHOP SLOT B
==> Workshop 1
Local Legacies of Our Colonial Inheritances
* Serena Kataoka
The 2010 Olympics has been bought and sold on “legacies” at the cost of accepting our inheritances. This workshop will explore how we can assume response-ability for our colonial inheritances, such as Victoria, BC... and the world. Might we make other legacies possible?
==> Workshop 2
Health Care Workers fighting for justice: The General Strike and Beyond
* Marilyn Rust and Bob Wilson - Hospital Employees’ Union
After the Gordon Campbell's government decimated BC's public sector Hospital Employee Union members stood up and fought back, despite the labour movement, and sometimes their own leadership, trying to stop them. Come and here stories from the front lines of the general stike that was and the one that will be in March 2010.
==> Workshop 3
Harm Reduction Victoria
* Kim Toombs
Harm Reduction Victoria is a grassroots organization that began in response to the imminent closure of Victoria's only fixed site needle exchange. Since the closure HRV has also been challenging the creation of a harm reduction no-go-zone in Victoria's inner city, and to demanding the immediate creation of comprehensive health services (including supervised consumption site) for people who use drugs. HRV hopes to inform and engage other activist and community members about this vital struggle.
++ 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm ++
WORKSHOP SLOT C
==> Workshop 1
Minstrels of Bremen: Tentcities and the local impact of 2010
* Rose Henry, Trish Palichuk and Nathaniel Uhlman – Temporary
Autonomous Shelter Committee (TASC)
Reflections on Seattle's tentcities as a model for resistance and solidarity by the homeless and their allies against the impact of the Olympic Games.
==> Workshop 2
Society of Living Intravenous Drug Users - SOLID
With a general consensus that the Olympics do not benefit people who use drugs and will only increase the discrimination, violence and poverty, members of the Society of Living Intravenous Drug Users (SOLID) will give insight into the issues that currently affect their community/ies here in Victoria.
==> Workshop 3
Prostitutes Empowerment Education and Resource Society (PEERS)
* Tracy Fawkes, Theresa Riggs and Sarah Stewart
PEERS provides support, resources and programs for past and current sex workers—male or female—as well as help with housing, training and volunteering opportunities, advocacy and public education around sexual exploitation and the issues of adult sex work. Come hear PEERS' reflections on the Olympics.
CLOSING PLENARY
++ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm ++
==> Building local alliances in opposition to the 2010 Games and Torch Relay
* Presenters from all workshops
A plenary of people involved in a diversity of local movements will come together to share ideas for action as the Torch Relay and Games draw near. Share your ideas and leave the teach-in inspired!
FOR MORE INFO
