From Infoshop

From 150-200 people participated in the Anti-Olympic Torch Light Parade marking the 1-Year Countdown to the 2010 Winter Games on Feb 12, 2009 in downtown Vancouver. After rallying at Victory Square at 6PM, where a 'torch of resistance' was lit and used to burn a Canadian Olympic flag, the demonstration marched to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, where a 2010 concert was taking place and dozens of police were assembled to stop any possible disruption. From there, the protest moved up Georgia St. to Burrard, stopping at various corporate sponsors, including the Hudson's Bay Company, Royal Bank of Canada, Bell, and CTV. About a dozen torches were lit on the protest route, which ended at the 'Countdown Clock' located at the Art Gallery. Several targets were hit with paint bombs, including the clock as the rally ended. There were no arrests.

Anti-Olympic protestors hold counter ceremony

By Jack Keating, The Province February 12, 2009

More than 150 protestors marched from Victory Square through downtown Vancouver in an anti -Olympic torch light parade Thursday night.

The parade, to mark the one-year countdown to the Olympics, was held to highlight all of the “negative social impacts” the 2010 Olympics will have on Vancouver.

The march left Victory Square where one protester burned an Olympic flag with a torch, and they marched by the Queen Elizabeth Theatre where dozens of police stood guard to prevent any attempt to enter the theatre where an Olympic gala event was being held.

The marchers, with about 10 flaming torches and chanting “homes not Games”, continued along Georgia Street to Burrard and then down Robson, stopping at some of the corporate Olympic sponsors offices, before ending up at the Olympic clock outside the Art Gallery.

Dozens of police on bicycles and motorcycles and others filming the march with video cameras kept a close watch on the parade.

There was a brief standoff between protesters and Vancouver police officers on bicycles at the clock that ended peacefully.

However, after the protest ended someone threw a red paint ball that splattered against the bottom of the clock.

Speakers from The Olympic Resistance Network, which organized the march, at Victory Square urged people to fight against the “2010 corporate invasion, police state tactics, homelessness, criminalization of the poor, ecological destruction, public debt, colonization and other negative social impacts” they say the Olympics will bring to Vancouver.

One speaker talked about the 370 per cent increase in homelessness in Vancouver in recent years while more than a billion dollars is being spent on the Olympics.

Anti-Olympic activist Garth Mullins said the parade was an alternative to VANOC’s “spin” on the 2010 Olympics.

“We’re trying to use the torches, which are the symbol of the Olympics, to actually take them and shine some light on the impacts of the Olympics on the poor and homeless people in the Downtown Eastside,” said Mullins.

“And also on the environment, indigenous people and people whose civil liberties are going to be eroded and crushed in Vancouver.”

Mullins also criticized Operation Silver, a massive security operation underway by the army, CSIS and police.

"We feel that their security plans are going to be very detrimental to people’s civil liberties and we’re also trying to shine some light on that,” said Mullins, wearing a jacket with the orange-coloured words “Resist 2010” across the back.

Alissa Westergard-Thorpe thought the rally and parade was a success. “I think it’s important that with the one-year countdown we get our voices out especially as the city, VANOC and the police are trying so hard to suppress dissent in the city,” said Westergard-Thorpe.

“And I think more and more people will be concerned over the next year as you see the police state build up and you see the economic waste and the environmental destruction associated with the Olympics even more people will care when the Olympics actually and I think a lot of people care right now.”

“I think merely the fact that we’re able to go out and march in the streets and express our viewpoint is always a success, especially when they’re trying so hard to restrict our right to protest.”