Human rights are no game

Two important decisions were made in Vancouver last week. The first came on Thursday, when city council passed a motion committing the city to ensuring the right of all Canadians to freedom of expression and security of the person – Section 2 and Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – in the lead up to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The city also agreed to write to senior levels of government, VANOC and the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (ISU) "requesting them to publicly reaffirm their commitment," to these rights. This, after author of Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games, Dr. Chris Shaw and others who questioned the sanity and legitimacy of the Games said they were intimidated and harassed by members of the ISU.

The second decision came on Friday and was a major blow to female ski jumpers, when Madam Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon of the B.C. Supreme Court agreed with VANOC – the Games organizing committee – which had argued it could not dictate to the International Olympic Committee what events it could or couldn't select for the 2010 Winter Games. There are parts of the decision that will make arguing discrimination in sport easier for female athletes in the future, but this is cold comfort for the Flying Fifteen – the international group of female ski jumpers who should have the right to compete in 2010.

On the face of it, these two decisions may appear not to have much in common, but they are close cousins.

Both decisions – one by municipal politicians, the other by the B.C. Supreme Court – involve Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its relationship to sport. The first decision arose out of Dr. Shaw's presentation in Coventry, England, at Play the Game: The Sixth World Communications Conference on Sport and Society. There, Shaw laid out his criticism of the 2010 Winter Olympics, from cost overruns to the possibility of "Games security" used as an excuse for robbing people of their human rights.

He spoke of being pulled over in February by the police and detained for 40 minutes, while they demanded proof of identity from his American visitors. In the week before he left for Coventry, he came out of a café near the University of British Columbia, where he is a professor and expert on Parkinson's disease, only to have two police officers confront him, saying they would like to discuss his book. Shaw declined their request.

While listening to Shaw, I knew as a writer who believes that revealing the not-always-rosy story in sport is more important than who won or lost the Stanley Cup final, but more importantly as a Canadian who believes in the rights guaranteed by the Charter, that the ISU and VANOC are threatening the precarious balance in which our democracy exists. Canada must be a country where the freedom of expression of writers and everyone else is what police and the state protect, not jeopardize.

I wrote the Coventry Declaration (available here), which asks Vancouver, B.C., Canada, VANOC, and the RCMP to "state in unequivocal language" that "all Canadians and those who visit Canada" will be protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Declaration was endorsed by the conference, and Canada began to replace China in the Olympics and human rights debate on the Internet.

Last week when head of the ISU, Bud Mercer of the RCMP told Vancouver city council about "Free Speech Zones" that VANOC and the ISU would be setting up, Mayor Gregor Robertson correctly called the idea Orwellian. By sounding like a character out of 1984, Mercer guaranteed the city would be writing letters immediately, and that the international discussion on human-rights and the Olympics would increase considerably.

Perhaps Mercer is also taking notes from the IOC in his understanding of human rights. This antiquated Boys Own Club, located in Switzerland, where they take full advantage of that country's ability to keep untidy files and information away from public perusal, allows the odd woman in – if she toes the party line. The IOC is comprised of 90-something men and 16 women. Canada's Beckie Scott represents athletes, a position Charmaine Crooks once had; two female athletes who benefited from the good work women did to make their sports of Nordic skiing and track and field more equitable. But they have mostly zipped their mouths shut when the IOC disallowed women's ski jumping at the 2010 Games.

Justice Fenlon decided the contract between VANOC and the IOC giving the latter the right to bar any group from competing at the Games, including black people – a question counsel for VANOC had to answer in the affirmative when Justice Fenlon asked it – allowed for blatant and systemic discrimination against women. She found this action did not contravene Section 15 of the Charter, that guarantees equality, because the IOC is located in Switzerland and not under the jurisdiction of our Charter.

She also wrote that – while she had no choice but to allow the discrimination – because VANOC is planning, organizing, financing and staging the Winter Olympics, it is carrying out an activity that is "uniquely governmental in nature" and is thus subject to the Charter. Using this knowledge, Beckie Scott and Charmaine Crooks should now – as advocates of the rights of athletes – be leading the charge for an international athlete boycott of the Games, arguing that no foreign entity like the IOC should be able to sweep away fundamental rights that Canadians hold dear, especially when VANOC – the organization they represent – has such an obligation to uphold Charter rights.

Laura Robinson is a journalist, coach and former member of Canada's national cycling team and a former Canadian champion in rowing. She is the author of a number of books including Black Tights: Women, Sport and Sexuality.

This article was first published in Ottawa Citizen on 14 July 2009, and is repulished on Play the Game with kind permission of the author