Guillame Joseph-Marc Beaulieu, 27 of Vancouver, has been arrested as the "ringleader" of the "Black Bloc" anarchists who rioted in the city in protests against the Winter Olympics Feb. 14. He is charged with mischief and faces fines of over $5,000. Lliam Brander, 27, of North Vancouver has been charged with assault. The investigation continues and further arrests may be pending, police say. Among 11 arrested so far, one is from Shoreline, Wash. He has been charged with possession of weapons and handed over to immigration. (Vancouverite [2], Feb. 16)
Up to 300 masked and black-clad young people rampaged through Vancouver as the games got underway, overturning mail boxes, spray-painting vehicles and smashing windows at a department store in a protest billed as an effort to "Clog the Arteries of Capitalism." (Reuters [3], Feb. 14)
A Feb. 15 communiqué from the Black Bloc read: "The media are now busy denouncing the political violence of property destruction, such as the smashing of a Hudson's Bay Company window, as though it were the only act of violence happening in this city. They forget that economic violence goes on daily in Vancouver. People are suffering and dying from preventable causes because welfare doesn't give enough to afford rent, food or medicine, and because authorities routinely ignore the medical emergencies of poor or homeless individuals. This economic violence has gotten worse as we lose housing and social services because of the Olympic Games." (Vancouver Observer [4], Feb. 15)
See our last posts on Canada [5] and the anarchist scare [6]
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