by Chris Arsenault, The Dominion

VANCOUVER—As the debate about global warming heated up on the road to climate talks in Copenhagen, companies with investments in Alberta’s tar sands were scrambling to clean up their image as dirty oil producers. Sponsoring the 2010 Olympics—frequently proclaiming themselves the “Green Games”—has become a convenient branding tool for companies profiting from the increasingly controversial tar sands, according to a University of Toronto professor who has written several books on the Olympics. “Big corporations can milk that green image, and they have an excellent venue to do so with the Games because there is so much world attention,” said Professor Emeritus Helen Lenskyj.

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Indigenous Peoples Assembly

Friday, February 5 – Monday, February 8, 2010, Neskonlith, un-surrendered Secwepemc Nation, (so-called Chase, British Columbia, Canada). Contact: nymcommunications@gmail.com. For Indigenous Peoples only.

Weytk Xwexweytp. Greetings to the World. The Secwepemc Peoples and the Native Youth Movement are inviting Indigenous Peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere and the World to come and join with us at an Indigenous Peoples Assembly at Neskonlith, un-surrendered Secwepemc Territory from Friday, February 5th to Monday, February 8th, 2010.

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By BOB MACKIN, 24 hours, Jan 11, 2009

All levels of government have had to come to the financial rescue of the 2010 Winter Olympics, leaving you on the hook for the tab. Once upon a time, when Vancouver 2010 was an itty-bitty bid they were called the “Sea to Sky Games.” Then the International Olympic Committee voted July 2, 2003 in Prague and president Jacques Rogge declared “Vonn-KOO-vah!” had won. Hello, “Canada’s Games.” Years turned to months and months turned to weeks. Now we count the days until the “Bailout Games.”

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By Geoff Dembicki, 8 Jan 2010, TheTyee.ca

On June 16, 2006, 1,000 Dutch soccer fans were forced to strip to their underwear in Stuttgart, Germany. They’d waited in 25 minute lines, shuffling step by step towards the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. At the door, stern FIFA World Cup officials ordered them to remove their bright orange lederhosen. One Dutch man threw his over a fence. A stadium steward approached his waiting friends, likely tossing the confiscated pants into a rubbish-filled storage bin with all the others. Bare-legged Dutch fans ambled to their seats, leg hairs bristling from the draft.

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