Picket outside the Royal York Hotel, Oct 16th at noon
For immediate release: October 14, 2009
TORONTO - As No Games Toronto (NGT) gains momentum, top officials of the Toronto 2015 Bid Committee are writing speeches for a luncheon on Oct 16th 12:00pm at the Fairmont Royal York. The question up for discussion is “why should Toronto host the 2015 Pan Am Games?” Certainly the Bid Committee’s remarks will ignore the $2.4 billion cost to the taxpayer, and the history of debt and social damage that mega-sporting events leave behind in their host cities. NGT also congratulates No Games Chicago for their very influential public awareness campaign against Chicago’s failed 2016 Olympic Bid. Many Chicago residents appreciate that the Olympics are a bad idea.
“While the Committee’s reality-defying rhetoric promises jobs, infrastructure, money, and prestige for Toronto, the truth has always meant exploitation of vulnerable workers, especially migrant labourers, enormous debt dumped on taxpayers, and targeted-policing of homeless, marginalized people and dissenters,” says NGT spokesperson Joeita Gupta. Less than five months away from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, costs and security have both skyrocketed. Although Vancouver taxpayers were promised that the Games would only cost $660 million, the price has ballooned to over $6 billion. Meanwhile the RCMP, in disregard of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, continues to harass Anti-Olympic advocates and their friends, showing up at their work, school, and homes to have “informal” conversations. In fact, RCMP officials have travelled as far as Toronto to pursue anti-Olympic activists.
On Friday NGT will answer the question, “Why should Toronto host the Pan Am Games in 2015?” with a very firm, “Toronto should not,” for the very obvious reasons noted above. We will be outside of the Royal York Hotel with information for passers-by.
At the end of the summer, NGT’s flying squad tracked the Pan American Sports Organization’s tour of the city. As PASO evaluated how equipped Toronto would be to host the Games, NGT launched a campaign to demonstrate how unsuitable the Games would be for Toronto. Now we will take our message to the Bid Committee: rather than debt and police harassment, we want fully-funded public services, and our Charter rights to be respected.
As Toronto has stopped the Olympics from coming here twice before, and No Games Chicago stopped their city’s Olympic bid, we know this can happen, but it depends on you! Please join us at the Fairmont on Oct 16th at 11:30 a.m. and bring as many friends and allies with you as possible. Together we can stop the bid!
Contact: Joeita Gupta 416 918 1935
or
Murphy Browne 416 978 0832
or
Murphy Browne 416 978 0832
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