Olympic Torch Rerouted to Avoid Protesters
Protesters forced the Olympic torch relay to change course as the flame entered a troubled Vancouver neighborhood on Friday, its final day.
About 150 protesters gathered in the Downtown Eastside area amid hundreds of Olympic fans waiting for a glimpse of the flame. A dozen mounted police stopped the placard-carrying protesters from surging ahead and confronting the relay. The convoy quickly changed the route and continued.
Photos: Olympic Tourch Crosses Canada
"We want people to realize the Olympics is not simply about sports and athletes," said Harsha Walia of the Olympic Resistance Network, a conglomeration of protest groups. "We have no problem with sports and athletes. We just think it's appalling for them to go through the neighborhood most affected."
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Meanwhile, an Olympic luger from the country of Georgia died after a crash during training. The death cast a shocking pall over the Olympics hours before the Games were to open.
Friday is the 106th and last day of the relay. The Olympics begin with the lighting of the cauldron at the opening ceremony. Earlier in the day, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger carried the flame in the city's Stanley Park. He handed the torch to former track star Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 Summer Games.
In the Downtown Eastside - an impoverished neighborhood only a few blocks from a hotbed of Olympic activity - about 600 people had gathered on sidewalks and street corners, about half to watch and the rest to speak out against everything from the cost of the Olympics to tight security.
As several sponsor vehicles approached, protesters blocked the middle of the street and chanted, "You're not getting through!"
The standoff lasted about 15 minutes and was mostly peaceful. Officers eventually pushed forward and cleared the middle of the street, but by then the torch had already gone by on another nearby street, where protesters raced to catch up.
A police spokesman said there were no arrests at either site.
The Olympic Resistance Network said the diversion was a sign of success, although the main goal of the protests was spreading their messages. Walia said residents of the Downtown Eastside - known for its poverty and drug problems - were told they wouldn't be displaced, but that an estimated 1,200 have been.
"The Olympics have done more damage than good," said Lauren Gill of Homes Not Games, another group. "But one positive is the world getting to see what Vancouver really is. One block down from the games, you're not seeing a world-class city. Downtown Eastside is an international model of disaster."
While the protest was relatively tame, it was quite a contrast to anything seen at the Beijing Olympics.
Protesters banged drums, waved all sorts of flags and held up placards and banners in and around the streets. One woman held up a gloved hand with a maple leaf on her palm that carried the words "Riot 2010," and another woman wore a ski cap that had stitched across the front, "The 'free speech zone' is called 'Canada."'
A half-block away, people leaned out the third-story windows of the British Columbia Marijuana Party headquarters and waved a takeoff of a Canadian flag that featured a marijuana leaf in place of a maple leaf.