Chanting "Homes not Games" and "No Games on Stolen Native Land", thousands of anti-Olympic protesters welcomed the Winter Games to Vancouver with a rally and march on Friday (February 12).
The Take Back Our City protest, organized by the 2010 Welcoming Committee, began in the afternoon at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Protesters then marched down West Georgia, Homer, and Robson streets until they hit a wall of police at Beatty Street, in sight of B.C. Place Stadium, where the opening ceremony was taking place.
Take back our city
Anti Olympic Convergence Day 1
festival Of Resistance
Bird's eyeview of torch disruption at Vancouver's Downtown East Side
ORN Press Feb 12
Sochi 2014 Resistance
John Hager and Tamara Barsik from the No Sochi 2014 Committee spoke out against the next winter Olympic Games, to be held in their traditional territory in south west Russia.
Hager and Barsik are members of the Circassian diaspora. Since 1870, nearly all Indigenous Circassian people have been driven out of their lands, and forced to resettle elsewhere. From Jordan to the USA, Circassians have resisted the 2014 Games since the beginning of the bid process.
For Hager and Barsik, the 2014 Games, held on stolen Circassian lands in Sochi, represent the consolidation of Russian rule over their territories
Torch bearer forced off Commercial Drive
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