CanWest News Service;
Vancouver Sun
Friday, March 09, 2007
VANCOUVER - Three masked men - all members of a group called the Native Warrior Society - have claimed responsibility for stealing the City of Vancouver's Olympic flag.
The flag disappeared early Tuesday from outside City Hall.
On Thursday, Vancouver police received a photo and letter signed by the society. The letter states the flag was stolen to honour Harriet Nahanee, a Squamish Nation elder who died Feb. 24 of previously undiagnosed lung cancer after serving nine days in a provincial jail.
She was jailed for breaching an injunction prohibited protesters from interfering with a Sea to Sky Highway route through Eagleridge Bluffs in West Vancouver.
An attached photo shows three masked men standing, fists raised, in front of what appears to be the stolen flag.
"We stand in solidarity with all those fighting against the destruction caused by the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. No Olympics on stolen native land!" the letter states.
Const. Tim Fanning said detectives are investigating. It's now known if the flag in the photo is real or whether the image has been digitally altered.
Fanning said police are aware of the Native Warrior Society, but he could provide no information as to who its members are or what they may represent.
Meanwhile, Rene Fasel, chair of the IOC Vancouver co-ordination commission, dismissed any IOC concern over the theft of the flag, saying people have a right to protest.