Anti-Olympic protesters use Internet to get message out

As athletes from around the world hope to set records at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, protesters could set their own.

Those opposed to both the Games taking place on what the Olympic Resistance Network calls 'unceded Indigenous land' and 'the range of social injustices perpetrated' by them, are expected to rely on cyberspace in a big way to get their message across.

'There will be the most Internet-related activity ever — light years ahead of anything we've ever seen in terms of civil disobedience,' says Leo McGrady, a veteran litigation lawyer, who runs the boutique litigation firm McGrady & Company, in Vancouver.

'People will be tweeting, and using YouTube and Facebook extensively.'

To help ensure people exercise their democratic right to disagree without breaking any laws, McGrady — with the assistance of one former and two current lawyers in his firm — has released an Olympic Edition of his Protesters' Guide to the Law of Civil Disobedience in British Columbia.

The first edition was a three-page tip sheet written in the late 1960s, when as a newly minted lawyer McGrady — now 66 years old — witnessed a fellow lawyer and friend arrested 'unnecessarily' at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration after he took offence that police were redirecting protesters.

Several versions of the guide followed, including one released in 2002 that responded to anti-strike legislation introduced by B.C.'s provincial Liberal government. Some 220,000 copies of that edition were printed and distributed, according to McGrady.

The latest Protesters' Guide for the Olympics covers 43 pages — or about double the length of the 2002 edition — with new sections addressing provincial and municipal legislation designed to protect the Olympics and its sponsors.

The guide features information on the rights and responsibilities of protesters, including a section that provides advice on participating in demonstrations ('Photo and video documentation may keep the police in line, or may prove useful evidence in cases where the police step out of line.')

One of the most dramatic illustrations of that occurred in August 2007 when more than 200 angry protesters (including many trade unionists) approached a steel fence guarded by nearly as many police at the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting between Stephen Harper, George W. Bush and Mexico's Felipe Calderón in Montebello, Que.

Among the demonstrators was Dave Coles, president of the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (and a current client of McGrady's on an unrelated issue), who recognized that three of the masked protesters armed with rocks and trying to incite violence were police officers.

The confrontation was captured on video posted on YouTube, showing a group of young men — also wearing black bandanas — shouting 'Policier, policier!'

It was later revealed the masked trio were members of the Sûreté du Québec and since then, they have been summoned to appear before Quebec's Independent Police Ethics Committee.

One of those YouTube postings of the agent provocateurs has been viewed more than 496,000 times — and that medium could be an effective tool during the current anti-Olympics protests to not only record police misconduct but to also deter officers from embarking on any 'excesses' of their authority, says McGrady.

He believes the Internet will also be used to mobilize demonstrators.

The Vancouver-based Olympic Resistance Network — one of about 40 organizations supporting a 'Take Back Our City' rally that coincides with the opening ceremonies — has a comprehensive website (olympicresistance.net) listing protest-related events as part of its 'global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence' against the 2010 Winter Games, which it calls a 'two-week circus.' (The site also has a Know Your Rights section for protesters.)

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