One battle is over for Chris Shaw, another one continues.
The best-known critic of the 2010 Winter Olympics dropped an Oct. 7 civil rights lawsuit against Vancouver city hall after it softened bylaws meant to protect Olympic sponsors.
“I see it as the glass being half-full,” Shaw said on Monday. “We accomplished a lot of what we wanted to accomplish.”
Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe were plaintiffs in the B.C. Civil Liberties Association-backed action.
BCCLA executive director David Eby said every section named in the lawsuit was amended or removed from the bylaw. BCCLA will monitor police and bylaw officers during the Games.
“We’ve got 30 lawyers on-call and prepared to respond to issues brought to us by the public and our legal observer teams,” Eby said.
Shaw, meanwhile, said he was approached on Jan. 21 in a parking lot near his laboratory by Sgt. Denis Dionne of the RCMP Joint Intelligence Group. Shaw and other anti-Olympic activists have been under police surveillance near their homes and workplaces. Shaw said it’s deliberate intimidation intended to silence dissent.
“If they really wanted to talk, they could always pick up a phone,” he said. “This is not China, Russia or Iran.”
Meanwhile, 24 hours regrets a cutline error on yesterday’s front page noting Pivot Legal Society would sue if the city refuses permission for Pivot to distribute 500 tents. Pivot actually said there would be a “legal reaction”.
