These kinds of protests might be saved exclusively for Vancouver, while guerilla marketers and those wishing to make a buck might focus their efforts solely on Richmond and Whistler.
Last week, Vancouver City Council propoed amendments to 10 components of the the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games bylaw, all of which should pass tomorrow at their regularly schedule bi-weekly meeting.
Now in terms of credit, one must give an acknowledgment to Chris Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe who brought forth a court challenge to protect their Charter rights.
But with Vancouver out of the way regarding fears that Charter rights and freedom of expression would be impinged on, the focus must now turn to Richmond and Whistler.
Bill 13, the Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act, provides the municipalities of Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler “with temporary enforcement powers to enable them to swiftly remove illegal signs and graffiti during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The legislation provides, on a temporary basis, a faster way of removing signs and graffiti during the short period the Games are underway.”
Now as Councillor Geoff Meggs made clear on behalf of the City of Vancouver, the prevention of guerrilla marketing and usurping those unattached to the Olympics from profiting was the main motivation behind the bylaw.
So assuming that the reach of VANOC and the IOC have served as the main impetus behind the introduction of Bill 13 and the subsequent bylaw proposals that the City of Vancouver have brought in, one has to ask what their thoughts are on the City of Richmond and the City of Whistler not yet putting forth any new bylaws to take advantage of these new powers.
Are both cities now going to be the targets of the kind of ambush marketing that Vancouver was so afraid of? And what of the surrounding municipalities across Metro Vancouver – particularly the ones that have major tourist attractions that visitors to the region are likely to take advantage of?
Both are interesting scenarios to consider, as Bill 13 is clearly only impactful if the municipalities identified choose to proceed.
One suspects that the City of Richmond and the City of Whistler are going to be leaned on hard by both provincial officials and representatives from VANOC to implement some kind of protection for logos, trademarks and sponsors in advance of February 1.
The Vancouver example is one that I am sure that both cities will be eager to avoid, in consideration of the controversy and subsequent explanation and amendments that were needed (and even then, Shaw et al. have indicated that they intend to continue their lawsuit regardless of how Vancouver City Council votes tomorrow).
Will Richmond and Whistler be overwhelmed by posters, flyers, graffiti come February?
Watching Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie and Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed over the next few months is going to be very interesting.
