Vancouver: anarchist "ringleader" arrested in Olympic violence

WW4 Report on Wed, 02/17/2010

Guillame Joseph-Marc Beaulieu, 27 of Vancouver, has been arrested as the
"ringleader" of the "Black Bloc" anarchists who rioted in the city in
protests against the Winter Olympics Feb. 14. He is charged with mischief
and faces fines of over $5,000. Lliam Brander, 27, of North Vancouver has
been charged with assault. The investigation continues and further arrests
may be pending, police say. Among 11 arrested so far, one is from
Shoreline, Wash. He has been charged with possession of weapons and handed
over to immigration. (Vancouverite, Feb. 16)

Up to 300 masked and black-clad young people rampaged through Vancouver as
the games got underway, overturning mail boxes, spray-painting vehicles
and smashing windows at a department store in a protest billed as an
effort to "Clog the Arteries of Capitalism." (Reuters, Feb. 14)

A Feb. 15 communiqué from the Black Bloc read: "The media are now busy
denouncing the political violence of property destruction, such as the
smashing of a Hudson's Bay Company window, as though it were the only act
of violence happening in this city. They forget that economic violence
goes on daily in Vancouver. People are suffering and dying from
preventable causes because welfare doesn't give enough to afford rent,
food or medicine, and because authorities routinely ignore the medical
emergencies of poor or homeless individuals. This economic violence has
gotten worse as we lose housing and social services because of the Olympic
Games." (Vancouver Observer, Feb. 15)