Vancouver 2010 is no stranger to protests. Protesters vandalized the Countdown Clock at the unveiling in February 2007. Since then, both the clock and its round-the-clock security guard have become the most iconic images of 2010 in downtown Vancouver. Protests and vandalism have been a major part of the Vancouver Olympics story from the bid onwards, with other incidents such as the theft of the city’s Olympic flag from city hall.
And yet, as we’ve seen over the last month, these protests have not managed to capture the global (even, in many cases, national) media attention that China has. The most obvious reason is that these protests have been small scale and they’ve been about local issues that, while important (almost anything that puts a spotlight on Vancouver for it’s reprehensible treatment of the homeless and near-homeless is good in my books), fail to resonate like Tibet.
Canada doesn’t have its own Tibet… or does it? Consider the announcement last week by Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, that Canadians who marched for Tibet in anti-Beijing 2008 rallies should be “outraged” by what’s happening in their own country. And, that perhaps the anti-Beijing torch relays should be read as a lesson for how to use the Olympics as an opportunity to tell Canadians (and, presumably) the world about the current abysmal situation many First Nations peoples in Canada face on a daily basis.
Both Olympic host cities have celebrated their ethnic minorities in order to gain points with the IOC (albeit it is backfiring in Beijing and is set to backfire in Vancouver). See, for example, Yingying, the cute Tibetan member of the 08’s Friendlies.
Unofficial Friendlies (Yingying is on top)
Official Friendlies (Yingying is 2nd from the right)
In Vancouver, we have the First-Nations inspired Miga, Quatchi and Sumi. They’re selling briskly, even if some Canadians have found the 2010 mascots too Asian and certainly not Canadian enough (whatever that means… maybe Quatchi should have a Timmy’s Double-Double in his paws instead of a hockey stick).
That host cities use reductionist versions of minorities to make themselves more authentic has become an Olympic tradition itself (think Sydney 2000). So, it should be no suprise that both 2010 and 2008 are trying to score authenticity points with their mascots and other media. A major difference between the two Games, however, is the key role that First Nations groups continue to play as stakeholders in 2010. Imagine such a scenario in Tibet! So, it is important to ask whether First Nations groups can be stakeholders in 2010 while simultaneously using the Olympic spotlight to embarrass Canada into action to atone for its shameful relations with First Nations in BC and across the country. Would such actions come off as two-faced? Or, would media attention that focuses on the divides and differences of opinion within First Nations groups and communities about how to interact with VANOC and other 2010 stakeholders serve to help Canadians and the world develop a more nuanced conceptualization that extends beyond understanding them as a monolithic group?
As the Tibet torch-relay protests have shown, the Olympics are a potentially powerful spotlight for making domestic ‘problems’ become subjects for global debate. They have the potential to recalibrate accepted global norms of the private and the public. Phil Fontaine clearly hopes that in 2010, protesters will be able to use the Olympic spotlight to make Canada’s ‘private’ shame the subject of global public debate.
Personally, I hope they do. But, I remain skeptical. I fear that while the Olympic spotlight is powerful, it is limited by whether the issues that protesters and other groups use it to highlight resonate with the global (aka Western) public. I contend that the power of the pro-Tibet Olympics protests are derived in part – a much larger part than we care to admit – by fears of China, the economic powerhouse, and by Jack Cafferty-style racism. The Olympic spotlight on Tibet is as much about tearing down the Chinese boogeyman as it is about Tibet. What boogeyman is going to empower pro-First Nations rights protests during the Vancouver Olympics? Somehow, I don’t think we’re ready to cast ourselves as the boogeyman. And without him, the Olympic spotlight may be much dimmer in 2010…
