I arrived home earlier from Victoria where I photographed the beginning of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Torch Relay. Starting early at 8:30 I arrived at the Parliament building with plenty of time to spare. My day didn’t end until 9:30 PM. The morning until 11:30 was spent photographing the Torch Relay ceremony at the Parliament Building. The afternoon, from 2:00 PM until 9:00 was spent with the protestors of the Olympics.

I got the feeling that most Canadians weren’t entirely unsympathetic to the protestors. The final dollar amount is looking to be close to $6 billion, and the complaints are that the money could be better spent.

The Torch Ceremony was very well organized and attended. As for the protest, it was fairly organized with about 350-500 people participating. One thing I found very impressive was the restraint and professionalism Victoria and Vancouver police showed towards the protestors. The protest had no permit for any of it’s activities and shut down several intersections from a few minutes to a full 30 minutes in the case of an intersection in front of the Royal Bank of Canada, which is an official sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

While the protest did nothing to stop the Torch Relay or the Olympics, it did manage to force the relay to detour and shorten much of it’s route, disappointing hundreds of spectators. After forcing the detour, the protest made it’s way to Parliament, where the Police made a weak stand to stop the protest. The truth of the matter however, is that the ceremony was open to the public, and the police acquiesced. By this time the rain was pouring and I walked away, tired and starving.

More photos: http://www.photoshelter.com/gallery/Victoria-Torch-Relay/G00009U06kEI2PGs

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.