‘OLYMPIC REFORM’ OR OLYMPIC WHITEWASH?

For Immediate Release May 19, 2009

No PAN-AMERICAN GAMES - PICKET: MAY 19th 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
University of Toronto, Clara Benson Building, 320 Huron Street, south of Harbord.

Toronto- According to Toronto activists, the forum entitled “Olympic reform, a ten year review” hosted by the University of Toronto this week, is nothing but a whitewash designed more to gloss over the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) failings than to provide insight into how the organization actually operates.

Joeita Gupta, Vice-President External of The Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS), calls the forum “a slick piece of pro-IOC propaganda dressed up as an academic exercise. Five of the forum’s nine key note speakers have direct ties to the IOC and most are white males.”

The University of Toronto is sporting its own hopes in preparation of the Pan American Games for a $170 million Olympic-sized Aquatics facility (at Scarborough campus) and a $50 million Centre for High Performance Sport (at the St. George campus). At the same time U of T is looking to increase tuition fees by over 60% for some students with the introduction of Flat Fees at the May 20 Governing Council meeting (4 pm. at UTM, Mississauga Campus). Rather than investing in education during the current economic downturn, all levels of government will invest monies towards the Pan American Games which will cost upwards of 1.77 billion.

Gupta notes, “Mega-sporting events around the world have shown that they come at great expense to the community while limiting human rights, and gentrifying whole neighborhoods in which marginalized peoples reside. At the University of Toronto, the elite sports facility is proposed to displace the Part-time Student Union’s (APUS) current office location. Our members are largely parents, workers, mature, racialized students and students with disabilities who have more pressing needs that are currently not being addressed. This eviction is being anticipated by the same people putting on this conference.”

Despite a resounding ‘no’ vote to the Varsity Stadium in 2002 by the part-time, full-time and graduate constituencies, both the new facilities, will entail additional student levies. According to the University of Toronto’s Executive Committee, students may be asked to pay an additional $50-60 dollars each for the St. George facility. Additionally, discussions are already underway to move ahead with a referendum in 2009 for a levy for the facility in Scarborough.

APUS’ Executive Director, Oriel Varga states, “This is totally unacceptable! These are truly skewed priorities. The University is willing to spend millions for the Pan American Games Bid while they at the same time are proposing a 66% fee hike for our members. Part-time students taking 3 and 3.5 credits will be forced to pay for 5 courses under the Program Fee (Flat Fee) proposal. Additionally the University is expecting our members to finance the operating costs of these facilities while evicting their student union.”

Reached by phone from Vancouver, anti-Olympic activist, Chris Shaw echoed the concerns that the conference was less about academics than promoting the IOC and the Olympics.

“The line up certainly suggests that Dean Kidd has an agenda. It’s great that one critic of the IOC, Andrew Jennings, will be there, but the rest, with very few exceptions can be expected to toe the party line. No one from the Olympic Resistance Network in Vancouver was invited. I see they also made sure to exclude Dr. Helen Lenskyj who is from the University of Toronto and has been a consistently outspoken critic of the IOC’s so-called reforms”.

Media Contacts: Joeita Gupta, 416 918-1935 and Chris Shaw, cashawlab@gmail.com, 604-875-4111 (68373)

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INFORMATION FORUM:

DON’T PLAY GAMES WITH OUR PRIORITIES: No Pan-American Games in Toronto!
Thurs 28th: 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., OISE, Rm 2212

*Anti-poverty activist Josephine Grey (LIFT) and Vancouver Anti-Olympic activist Chris Shaw, (author of Five Ring Circuses: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games), and others will lead the discussion.

Mega sporting events, such as the Olympics and the Pan-American games are a tremendous financial drain on the cities that host them, always engender environmental degradation, contribute to the attrition of valuable social infrastructure, and launch full-fledged attacks on the most vulnerable communities and peoples. Is it the business of a public university to prioritize mega-sporting events over the academic and financial concerns of the students and broader community?

*Refreshments will be provided*
Brought to you by the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS)

THE FREE EDUCATION WEEK MAY 25-30th 2009
www.FreeEducationWeek.blogspot.com