PtG
Article 15.07.2009
Canadians shouldn’t accept repressive Olympic security
There’s a knock at the door. It’s the police and they want to talk to you about your political affiliations.
They go door to door asking neighbours about you. They call your family and co-workers and suggest that they might call your employer.
You’re driving down the street. Police stop you for a not-so-routine check and, over the next 40 minutes, you are questioned and your foreign visitors are warned that they need to carry their identification documents with them at all times.
China? No, Vancouver. It’s all part of the security shakedown before the 2010 Winter Olympics are held in what is supposedly one of the freest, most open and transparent democracies in the world.