I really do quite dislike this Vancouver Sun columnist, I really do:
Games contract binds Vancouver to play by IOC rules, or not play at all
By Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun columnist
August 6, 2009 7:35 PM
It's easy to understand why the International Olympic Committee would want any disputes with host cities decided by its own "court," so that it is beyond the grasp of courts in countries whose judicial systems are dodgy.
But why on earth did Vancouver's former mayor Larry Campbell sign the host city contract governed by Swiss law and agree that "any dispute concerning [the contract's] validity, interpretation or performance shall be determined conclusively by arbitration, to the exclusion of the ordinary courts of Switzerland or of the host country?"
The sports court — the IOC's arbitration process — deals with issues of athletes' disqualifications due to doping or other infractions. It has rarely, if ever, dealt with the myriad other issues from sponsorship agreements to taxes to financial disbursements that are covered in the Vancouver agreement.
Signing off Vancouver's right to access Canadian courts in the event of a dispute with the IOC is just one of the troubling pieces of the 61-page contract signed in 2003 and obtained by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association under B.C.'s Access to Information Act.
The contract's preamble declares that the IOC is "the supreme authority of and leads the Olympic movement." And the Olympic ayatollahs required that the city stage the Games in full compliance with the Olympic Charter and that it agrees to "conduct all activities in a manner which promotes and enhances the integrity, ideals and long-term interests of the IOC and the Olympic Movement."
I've added the emphasis because in a pen stroke, Campbell signed away the real responsibility of democratically elected mayors and councillors to promote, enhance and represent the long-term interests of their citizens.
There is no mention in the contract of human rights or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Instead, it stipulates that the city must abide by the Olympic Charter and be in "full compliance with universal fundamental ethical principles, including those contained in the IOC Code of Ethics."
In effect, the city and the IOC have attempted to contract their way out of Canadian legal jurisdiction and beyond the reach of constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms.
It's something that the civil liberties association is considering challenging in court. Another group, Impact on Communities Coalition, filed two complaints with the United Nations High Commissioners of Human Rights last week. One deals with civil liberties and the city's omnibus bylaw, while the other is about inadequate tenancy protection.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon has already ruled that as a government agency, the Vancouver organizing committee is subject to the Charter. However, she also decided that despite Vanoc having to be Charter-compliant, there was nothing Vanoc could do to force the IOC to include a women's ski jumping event.
It's the Olympic Charter that now-Senator Campbell signed on to obey in 2003. He bound the city (and his Vision party successor Gregor Robertson) to its provisions limiting propaganda free speech and agreed to even stronger restrictions in the contract.
Contrary to the Canadian Charter's guarantee of free speech and peaceful protest, the Olympic Charter says: "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any of the Olympic sites, venues or other areas."
(Despite the word's negative connotations, propaganda's dictionary definition is a statement of principles or beliefs.) Under the Vancouver contract, no propaganda or advertising material can be within view of spectators at the venues or television cameras covering the sports or "in the airspace over the city and other cities and venues hosting Olympic events during the period of the Games."
To meet its contractual obligations, Vancouver's council recently passed an omnibus bylaw amending dozens of existing laws. Among the changes are the creation of so-called free-speech zones and blocks of the city (including David Lam Park, the main library's precinct and the Vancouver Art Gallery) where no political pamphlets, leaflets, graffiti or "non-celebratory posters" will be allowed.
Despite that, Robertson insists all of Vancouver remains a free-speech zone. He defends the bylaw as a balance between safety and security and respecting citizens' rights. But asked whether he would have signed the contract in 2003, Robertson hedged.
"I would like to know if the city could have negotiated something different," he replied.
Meanwhile, Vanoc has asked other municipalities along the 44,000-kilometre torch relay route to pass bylaws ensuring that no political messages be distributed or visible. It's not clear how many have agreed, nor is it clear whether the IOC will ask that the torch route be altered if they refuse.
That's the sword of Damocles that the secretive elites of the international Olympic movement hang over the heads of enthusiastic sports bodies, organizing committees and politicians.
Play by our rules or not at all.
dbramham@vancouversun.com
No medals for Vancouver council in the free-speech event
By David Eby, Vancouver Sun
July 29, 2009
While the International Olympic Committee earns a gold medal in the race to protect its sponsors and the Olympic brand, the same cannot be said of its performance in the competition for free speech and democratic rights.
For example, Rule 51 of the IOC Olympic Charter prohibits any "demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." Not exactly the stuff of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but then again, nobody elected the IOC to protect democracy.
In countries such as Canada, protecting our sometimes messy but always cherished freedoms is the task, in large part, of our elected representatives.
Unfortunately for Vancouverites, our city council hasn't turned in a medal performance in the free-speech competition either. They've just rushed through a package of bylaws that skate over the free-speech rights of, in no particular order: small and independent businesses, artists, rock bands, protesters and Vancouver residents as a whole. Haste in passing the bylaws, last-minute amendments and council's surprise about negative public reaction show a lack of care, or concern, for the implications of the changes.
Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs defends the new bylaws, suggesting the B.C. Civil Liberties Association is "going too far" in criticizing the initiatives. Apparently without appreciating the irony involved, he advises that council values free expression rights because, among other initiatives: "Security planners . . . are creating certain high-profile areas, close to the heart of the action, where protesters are sure to be heard and seen by IOC and world leaders."
Beyond the alarming possibility that the majority of council believes that limiting free speech to particular areas, high profile or otherwise, somehow demonstrates a commitment to free speech, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association points out that council's new bylaws and motions:
- Restrict access to more than 40 downtown residential and commercial blocks deemed Olympic "venues" or "sites," including parks, community centres and the central library, to people who consent to "security screening" and in which displaying "any [unlicensed] sign" is prohibited unless the sign is "celebratory."
- Allow the city manager to make any rules she sees fit restricting access to these city blocks and public facilities, without approval from council.
- Give special Olympic exemption permits across the city to signs that are "celebratory in nature" and, by extension, refuse permits to signs that are critical or, presumably, melancholic in nature.
- Call on the province to authorize the city to prohibit leaflet distribution if the leaflet is offensive to authorities and might end up as litter, punishable by fines of up to $10,000 per day, ostensibly to reduce work for city trash collectors.
- Conscript taxpayer-funded city workers to enforce trademark rules on behalf of the IOC, which at least makes use of the extra staff time created by eliminating those hated discarded leaflet-pickup shifts.
- Eliminate the low-cost posters found on construction hoardings and utility poles that typically advertise concerts, protests, community meetings and art shows, because during the Olympics such affordable and accessible posters are a "nuisance and eyesore" when compared to the simple beauty of an unmolested construction hoarding.
Given this remarkably poor performance by the majority of our elected municipal representatives in protecting free-speech rights in Vancouver for the Olympics, is it going too far to point out that there is no sure footing when ice skating in July?
Council's prize of a gold medal from the IOC for passing these bylaws may be judged differently by voters who know what a democracy truly values.
David Eby is executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association.
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