Not sure why I'm on this email list, but here's a message I just received from "Free Trade Kills Animals":
ANIMAL CRUELTY OLYMPICS:
As Winter Games Begin in Vancouver, Activists Dressed as Canadian & Norwegian Prime Ministers, WTO General Secretary Club "Baby Seals" in Mock Olympic Event
Protest Decries Canadian Attempt to Use Olympics to Promote Seal Hunt and World Trade Organization Challenge to European Union Seal Product Ban, Protests Use of Seal Fur During Fashion Week
Who: Global Justice for Animals and the Environment, an international grassroots organization fighting against free trade policies that harm animals, the environment, and indigenous communities.
What: In a street theater performance, activists dressed as WTO Secretary General Pascal Lamy, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will club activists dressed as baby seals with mock hakapiks, the device used by sealers to club baby seals to death.
"The officials" will stand in front of a backdrop reading "2010 Animal Cruelty Olympics, Vancouver, Canada" as a play by play announcer on a megaphone narrates the bludgeoning as a sports event. The "Olympians" will be disrupted chanting protesters with signs, banners, and leaflets, who will grab the clubs, rescue the seals, declare a boycott on the Olympics, and demand that the US pull out of the WTO.
When: Monday, February 15th, 12:15PM -1PM
Where: The Consulate General of Canada, New York, 1251 6th Ave between 49th and 50th Sts, Manhattan, New York City.
Why: The protest, along with a demonstration in Tucson, are intend to hold Canada accountable on the world stage in light of a May 2009 vote by Canada's Parliament to use the Winter Games as an opportunity to promote the seal hunt and a November 2009 World Trade Organization challenge to the European Union's May 2009 decision to ban seal products in 2010 (the Parliamentary decision to use the Olympics to promote the seal hunt was also a retaliatory gesture against the EU ban). The protest also marks fashion week, as activists support Europe's attempt to join the US in eliminating seal fur from fashion show runways and clothing stores.
Sounds like quite an event. I'd just like to say to the organizers (if they are reading this) that if the WTO rejects the Canadian and Norwegian WTO complaints, I fully expect an equally elaborate event expressing gratitude to the WTO panelists. ;)
