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Posts Tagged ‘Martin Macias Jr.’

Students at W. Earle Miller Public School

In an editorial comment from Wednesday’s Metro Vancouver, Paul Sullivan outlined his five reasons to not ‘Believe’ in the Olympic Games. While I can appreciate the jab at CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the games, I find little else to agree with in his reasons. Lets take his points one by one.

Number 5: Sullivan says “The Olympic mascots are endangered or non-existent species [...] Somehow this says it all.” I have no idea what this says. Yes, the Olympic mascots are hybrids of endangered and mythical creatures. The animals that are threatened or endangered have not reached that point because of the Olympics. To my mind, all this says is that VANOC is conscientious of the amazing wildlife that BC is privy too. What does highlighting that fact say? If anything it brings further needed attention to animal populations under threat.

Number 4: “The Games will cost at least $6 billion [...] what are we going to do with a $104.9 million toboggan slide?” The first point to note with this claim is the standard tactic of anti-Olympic voices citing the figure of $6 billion as the cost of the games. As I’ve pointed out before, that number includes the construction costs of the Canada Line, the Sea-to-Sky Highway improvements, construction of the Vancouver Convention Centre, improvements to the Port Mann bridge and the construction of the Pitt River bridge. I strongly suspect that most, if not all of these infrastructure projects would have been undertaken were Vancouver not playing host to the games. They certainly are not ‘but for’ the Olympics. I should hope that any Vancouver resident is at a bare minimum proud of the fabulous new Canada Line. At a cost of $1.7 billion the rail line represents almost 30% of the oft quoted $6 billion figure; it is worth every penny and happy to have that argument with Sullivan. It baffles me how people seem to treat the $6 billion as money that is just lost. Do I really need to point out that these are investments? There is a reason that the latest quarterly growth figures from the Conference Board of Canada have BC atop the pack in terms of economic performance. I presume I don’t need to explicitly state why this is. I imagine that with the bobsled track we will see stronger luge, bobsled and skeleton teams in the future, as well as a new yearly World Cup event in Whistler. Wait for it; I expect that will bring a positive economic impact to the community.

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Photo from Mr. Macias' Twitter Account

On Saturday, after undergoing several hours of questioning from Canadian customs officials, Martin Macias Jr., an activist with ties to the Olympic Resistance Network attempting to travel to Vancouver to cover and participate in various anti-Olympic protests and rallies, elected to return to the US instead of remaining in Canadian custody. The above linked to CTV news report does indicate that Macias was the given the choice to remain detained in Canada and await trial for withholding information. Being a working student, this was not an option for Macias and he returned to the States. The ORN reports that Macias has no criminal record that they are aware of.

While the decision to grant entry to the country ultimately lies with Canada Border Services, I am of the opinion that we should only be turning people away with just cause; as of right now there does not appear to be any in the case of Mr. Macias. Personally, I have a much different viewpoint of the Games than the members of the Olympic Resistance Network, but I completely defend their rights to participate in peaceful protest (although other tactics have been espoused by the group), as well as report on it. The city, VANOC and ISU have all been slow in the past when addressing free speech concerns. While this is a slightly different case, in that it involves a US citizen travelling across our border, it still falls into the same broad category, and Canada Border Services joins that group of organizations engaging in poor information management that only serves to make them look bad. With the ORN hosting a two day conference (or ‘convergence’ as they term it) set to begin on February 10th we can be certain that Mr. Macias will not be the only one with a negative Olympic voice attempting to enter the country. One certainly hopes that they will have better luck than Mr. Macias had should there be no overt reason to deny them entry. Border services have currently indicated that the specifics of Macias’s case cannot be discussed due to privacy concerns; with the agency indicating that “Canada’s admissibility requirements will not change for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic games” a better accounting of the reasons for denying entry to Macias are certainly in order.

• In Response To Paul Sullivan's '5 Reasons' Against The Vancouver Games [/caption] In an editorial comment from Wednesday's Metro Vancouver, Paul Sullivan outlined his five reasons to not 'Believe' in the Olympic Games. While I can appreciate the jab at CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the...
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