ABSTRACT
On 17 September 2000, members of the Sydney-based Anti-Olympic Alliance challenged Olympic legislation by handing out illegal materials to visitors at a downtown plaza that had been designated an Olympic ‘live site’ and, hence, one of the many areas of the city subject to the full force of new laws controlling public behaviour. The climate for political protest – whether anti-globalization or anti-Olympic – has become significantly more repressive since mass protests against the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999. Undemocratic decision-making on Olympic budget issues has often resulted in taxpayers’ shouldering huge Olympic debts for years after the Games are over. Specific examples of these trends include the following: Federal, provincial and local governments directed about CDN$461 million towards the construction of Calgary’s Olympic village and other facilities in preparation for the 1988 Winter Olympics. The Berlin NOlympic group, organized in 1993, opposed Berlin’s bid for the 2000 Olympics.
