With less than a month until the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are scheduled to start, voices of dissent are being heard more and more loudly these days. Just in the past couple of days, as the torch makes slowly its way to the Olympic site, reports of protesters welcoming it side by side with Olympic supporters and fan made headlines both online and offline.

Last week for example, the torch is said to have been effectively blocked in several First Nation territories while in others it was met by a line-up of aboriginals bearing signs in the memory of the hundreds of murdered or missing aboriginal women. On the other hand, other First Nations representatives like former head, Phil Fontaine, carried the torch without facing disruptions. Recently Reuters Canada  reported on talks about convergent efforts of Olympic opposition to meet in Vancouver during Games time. While Reuters quoted a medical researcher at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Olympic Resistance Network, a coalition of activist groups, News1130 has published the program of another activist coalition aiming to organize no less than seven protests, including during the Games.

From these reports and many others, a handful of issues prone to contestation emerge: Olympic related spending and building with touches on local economy, minority relations, including native heritage and real estate development. But such talks are not singular, nor typical for Vancouver. Sydney in 2000 was the centre of aboriginal rights talks and protests, Athens in 2004 saw demonstrations for worker rights and safety, while protesters in Turin in 2006 voiced their environmental concerns as well as those related to Olympic spending and tax burden while in Beijing minorities, environment and security were all subject to scrutiny. Most of these protests were peaceful although showed opposition (physical and declarative) towards the Olympic symbols and Olympic officials. Having this comparison in mind, it could be argued that protests during Olympic times are part of the Olympic experience. It could also be suggested that activist groups are using the visibility of the Games to further their causes, their message being a rather anti-globalization one that happens to portray the Olympics as a globalization symbol.

But good or bad publicity for the Games, activists or host cities and countries, the Olympic protests represent a fertile ground for academic observation and discussion. To me, questions about similarity and differences of protest themes, communication methods and strategies are relevant. In fact, I cannot stop wondering what are the differences between the rhetorics surrounding the Beijing protests – some directed by western activist groups from western locations on behalf of Chinese people - and the ones surrounding Vancouver – directed by local activist groups concerned with local issued that have the potential to resonate worldwide. Furthermore, what influences the reaction to a protest – peaceful, indifferent or violent?

I hope the following weeks spent in preparation for Vancouver while continuing work on my thesis would help provide some answers.

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You can read more of Ana ADI’s writings on her blog.