On the road: The Olympics

by David Ball
SCM General Secretary

(You can follow our SCM Olympics activities on our special SCM Olympics webpage, as well as on Twitter and Facebook )

Sitting on the train somewhere in Northern Ontario, the sun has just set as I head west towards Vancouver. Around us are flat fields of ice stretching towards the horizon which glows dull red to mark the of end my second day traveling to visit SCMs across the country.

At this time a year ago, I was returning on a similar journey by train, with former Co-Secretary Emily Carr, inspired after the San Francisco launch conference of Scm’s North America region. The theme of that historic gathering at Grace Cathedral was “Raising New Prophets: Arising of a Movement.”

Although Emily left us for parish ministry last May, today our staff team in SCM General Office has grown to three – myself, Susannah Schmidt as Staff Associate, and most recently Jan Braun from Winnipeg as General Co-Secretary. Jan will join SCMers from the Movement’s leadership team in Calgary in a few weeks for the semi-annual General Board meetings.

These meetings are being held out west not only because many of those elected are in the Western region, but because quite a few of us will be participating in protests surrounding the Vancouver Olympics next week.

Why are we taking a stand against a popular international sporting event which claims global harmony and the spirit of healthy national pride? Seems like a recipe for becoming unpopular “no-funs” and spoilers. At least that’s what I’ve heard from some members of my family. But when I explain some of the concerns – evictions and homelessness, indigenous peoples’ land rights, civil liberties, destruction of the environment and sex trade/human trafficking to name just a few – it becomes obvious that this is about much more than spoiling Canadians’ sporting fun.

We have tonnes of things that SCMers are participating in, as we learn more about the underlying issues of economic justice, in particular issues of poverty and oppression in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver.

Today, SCMers from Toronto and Ottawa are at a teach-in summit on issues behind the Olympics. Tomorrow, we are going to be welcoming the torch to Vancouver, and joining the major opening ceremonies march. On Sunday, there is a Stolen Sisters March for missing and murdered indigenous women. We then head to host an event on Economic Justice and Spiritual Resistance in Victoria, then returning to Vancouver for a homelessness Tent City.

Wednesday is the big day for SCM @ UBC, which is organizing a mass and march for Ash Wednesday.

You can follow our activities on our special SCM Olympics webpage, as well as on Twitter and Facebook":http://www.facebook.com/scmcanada