Globe and Mail
ESPANOLA, Ont. - They wanted to disrupt the torch relay's progress across Northern Ontario and the rest of Canada, but in the end the latest protesters didn't even manage to slow it down.
Less than a week after a torchbearer was knocked down during a protest in Guelph in a move that sent the torch tumbling to the wet ground, a group of eight protesters were hustled off the road before they could even put their banner up.
The Ontario Provincial Police arrested the young people for mischief just before 1 p.m. at the Spanish River Bridge on the outskirts of Espanola, a town approximately 60 km northwest of Sudbury. They were found there with ropes, road flares and climbing equipment, which they intended to use to erect a 20-ft. tripod in the middle of the bridge.
"We were out here today because the Olympics are taking place on unceded indigenous territory out in B.C.," said Mark Corbiere, a spokesperson for the group. "It's a land grab from the colonial history of the Canadian government."
Mr. Corbiere is originally from the Anishinaabe community on Manitoulin Island, and now lives in Kitchener, Ont. He is a member of a protest group called the Olympics Resistance Network.
Had the protestors succeeded, a banner would have hung there that read "No 2010," with a symbol of the thunderbird, which the group has used as a logo in past protests.
"Our goal was ... to peacefully disrupt the torch relay," Mr. Corbiere said. "We were caught red handed by the police."
On Monday, torchbearer Cortney Hansen was knocked down as the relay passed through Guelph, Ont. Protesters denied that they had pushed Ms. Hansen. A Kitchener woman was charged with assault after the incident, and police with the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit said they would review security procedures around the relay.
Extra police officers were on duty to monitor any possible disturbances along the relay route, said Sgt. Mike Pollock of the Sudbury detachment of the OPP. Because the roadway is narrow by the bridge, the protesters represented a public safety issue, he said.
"We promptly removed them," he said. "There's always a plan in place in the case that there are any incidents."
The protesters were held for about an hour before they were released and allowed to leave together in the white van they had used to travel to the bridge with their equipment.
"I don't even think the relay was delayed at all," Sgt. Pollock said.