KEN DOBELL EVICTED BY APC!!!!!

The Anti-Poverty Committee successfully launched its VANOC eviction campaign by evicting Ken Dobell from his office located at the World Trade and Convention Centre in the Office of the Premier. His belongings have been put into boxes and thrown into the hall.

The people have announced that Ken Dobell is THE perfect mascot for the 2010 games. He proves that there is no conflict between big business and all levels of Government.

Ken Dobell is, among other things, director of the 2010 Legacies Now Society and the Canadian Council for Public-private partnerships. A member of the board of the 2010 Bid Corporation in its early years, Dobell now serves on VANOC’s Board of Directors, where he chairs its Finance Committee.

When not acting as a symbolic figurehead, Kenny rakes in $250-an hour as ‘special adviser’ to Premier Gordon Campbell. Not so coincidentally his second job is as a lobbyist for the City of Vancouver, which has hired him to influence Campbell on development issues. What this amounts to is pillaging public resources for private profit.

This eviction was carried out in a non-violent manner with respect to the workers inside. This is contrary to the evictions that take place every day in the Downtown Eastside. Often the police serve as the City’s eviction service and assist in the displacement of people from their homes. In cases such as the Marr Hotel and the Burns Block, poor people are evicted from their homes violently. In the case of the Burns Block people who had lived there for 20 years were evicted with less then 30 minutes notice. Their belongings [were] thrown to the curb.

So long as people are being evicted from their homes to make room for the 2010 Olympic games, we will continue targeting VANOC representatives in their offices. It is from these offices that life and death decisions are made.

We plan on escalating our siege and making the profiteering off displacing poor people from their homes and territories too costly to continue. To get involved in this campaign and other organizing efforts of the APC check out http://apc.resist.ca and find out how to throw down with us!

NO OLYMPICS ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND! NO 2010!

DEMANDS

1. IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF THE 2010 OLYMPIC GAMES.

2. DIRECTION OF ALL OLYMPIC FUNDS TO NEW HOUSING AND SOCIAL PROGRAMS.

3. WITHDRAWAL OF COLONIAL OCCUPIERS FROM ALL UNCEDED INDIGENOUS TERRITORY.

4. DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR REINSTATION OF ALL FUNDING CUT TO SOCIAL PROGRAMS BY THE PROVINCIAL LIBERAL GOVERNMENT.

5. KEN DOBELL’S IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION FROM AT LEAST TWO OF THREE CONFLICTING POSITIONS.
_________________________________
_________________________________

Premier's offices trashed
Anti-poverty/Olympics protesters perform mock 'eviction'

by Jack Keating, with a file from Lena Sin; Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - The Province
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=52ebcb2...

VANCOUVER - Anti-Olympic activists trashed the premier's downtown offices yesterday, protesting the evictions of poor people from the Downtown Eastside for the 2010 Games.

They trashed the reception area, and the office of the premier's chief of staff, Laura Dauphinee, but did not get into Premier Gordon Campbell's inner sanctum or reach the office of Ken Dobell, one of the targets of the protest.

Dobell is a member of the Olympic organizing committee and an adviser to the premier.

"We had three individuals come up to the office under the pretense that they were dropping or delivering flowers," said Const. Howard Chow. "It's a secured area after you get behind the first set of doors.

"There is an intercom and two employees were inside the office.

"Once the door was opened all three barged in. When they got in they immediately proceeded to start destroying the office."

The protesters from the Anti-Poverty Committee (APC) tipped over furniture, broke vases and threw newspapers, magazines and pamphlets to the floor of the seventh-floor offices in the World Trade Centre Office Complex at Canada Place.

Pictures of a smiling Campbell, including one with Prime Minister Stephen Harper cutting a 2010 Olympics ribbon, looked down on the litter-strewn floor.

After trashing several rooms, but not the downtown cabinet room, the protesters sat down on the floor awaiting police.

"There was a lot of furniture overturned, a fax machine damaged, a number of ornaments and pottery that has been smashed," Chow said."The two staff members were visibly shaken. They were frightened for their safety."

Chow said two adult males and a juvenile female were arrested. They were in custody last night and face charges.

"They're not protesters, these aren't activists," he said. "When we have individuals showing up to offices, to homes and they're intent on committing criminal acts, they're criminals. And that's how we're going to treat them."

The APC said in a news release it was evicting Dobell from his office. It said the eviction "was carried out in a non-violent manner with respect to the workers inside."

The female protester, as she was led away in handcuffs by police, said: "We evicted their office like they've evicted thousands of people from the Downtown Eastside. Except these people still have a place to sleep tonight."

Another of the protesters said: "We were just performing an eviction of Dobell and Campbell, seeing as they seem to think it's fine to evict other people."

A shaken Mike Morton, Campbell's press secretary, entered the office minutes after the protesters had been arrested about 2 p.m.

He confirmed that the premier was not in the office at the time.

"They did not get into the premier's office per se," said Morton. "They got into the office next door, to his deputy chief of staff's office."

Morton and the police said a security review is under way.

"Our No. 1 concern always is the safety and security of the staff," said Morton. "They are OK, but it has been a very difficult afternoon for them. It's upsetting to everybody involved and it's difficult. These are days that are not fun."

Morton said Dobell "uses an office [here]. He does not have an office per se. He has the use of an office on occasion."

The protesters' decision to pose as a delivery team comes just three days after a police officer posed as a newspaper reporter to lure the APC's David Cunningham to a public place to be arrested.

Cunningham last week announced that the APC was ready to "evict" Olympic committee members from their homes and offices. After his arrest, Cunningham was charged with uttering a threat and released on a peace bond. "So long as people are being evicted from their homes to make room for the 2010 Olympic Games we will continue targeting VANOC officials in their offices," Cunningham, 28, said at a news conference just before yesterday's protest. "It's from these offices that life and death decisions are made. We plan on escalating our siege and making the profiting of displacing poor people from their homes too costly to continue."

Police asked reporters how they heard about yesterday's protest, wanting to know how some of them got to the scene before the police. jkeating@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2007