Five rings to rile them all
Olympic symbols are latest target for poverty activists

JONATHAN WOODWARD
Print Edition 17/03/07 Page S1
Special to The Globe and Mail

VANCOUVER -- The Olympic Rings -- the most recognizable symbol of the values of international co-operation through sport -- are becoming rallying tools for increasingly violent protests on a range of issues, activists say.

"We're protesting the Olympics," said Anna Hunter, an organizer with the Anti-Poverty Committee, which has staged previous demonstrations against the Olympic Clock.

"The rings are their largest symbol," she said. "So the obvious strategy is to attack that symbol, and unite the discontent in Vancouver."

That discontent spilled over Thursday night.

Stirred by posters depicting the rings as motivating the actions of police and big business, about 50 protesters swarmed police officers, smashed newspaper boxes and set fires with accelerants on the streets of Vancouver.

The demonstrators gathered at Victory Square, then trawled the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Police helicopters hovered in the air as masked protesters hauled newspaper boxes across the street. One demonstrator turned on a local TV cameraman, knocking his camera to the ground and attempting to set it alight.

Another threw an egg at a police officer. When that officer arrested his assailant, he was punched in the face, police said.

Another officer was swarmed by about five masked protesters, but that group escaped.

"Whatever cause they came for was a ruse. They were there to do damage to anything and everything," said Vancouver Constable Howard Chow.

Police have said that members of the Anti-Poverty Committee were among the violent core of the demonstration. The committee denied any involvement. But Ms. Hunter said that the riot's effects fit in with the group's larger strategy: to tarnish the rings.

Dave Jones of Vancouver's Downtown Business Improvement Association discounted any connection between the violence and the Olympic Games themselves. "The Olympic rings have become an icon of discontent in general," he said. "These are criminals in protesters' clothing, nothing more."

Three people were arrested late Thursday. Alain Roy, 29, was charged with assault with a weapon and assaulting a police officer, as well as disguising himself before committing an offence. Marianne Elisabeth Choi, 32, was charged with two counts of mischief under $5,000, and arson with disregard for human life. Lauriel Eve Leblanc, 22, was also charged with mischief.

Mr. Roy appeared at Vancouver Provincial Court yesterday afternoon, sporting long dreadlocks and a stringy beard. He was released with several conditions, including a $400 bond, a promise to remain at his address on Denman Island, and that he possess no weapons.

He must not wear a disguise while in public, and must leave any demonstration that turns violent.

Police said they knew Mr. Roy from an incident in Quebec two weeks ago, where they said he was violent and confrontational.

On posters that advertised the rally, the Olympic rings loomed large in the background, as a caricature of a banker in a pinstripe suit holding a bag of money egged on a policeman, with his truncheon raised, about to hit a homeless man. "It is possible to break the police," said the headline of the poster, advertising Thursday's violence.

The Olympic rings hadn't been used as a symbol in previous anti-police rallies. In Montreal on Thursday night, 15 people were arrested in a protest with a similar theme, but there the protest did not mention the rings.