Anti-Olympic protester supports violent opposition

A self-described "native warrior" and proponent of what he calls "direct action" has told CBC News that he supports virtually any effort to disrupt the 2010 Olympic Games, including acts of violence.

"By any means necessary," said Gordon Hill, who admitted that even the bombing of power lines is an action he would endorse.

Hill said he would not plant bombs himself, but would support and sympathize with those who did.

"You wouldn't be opposed to somebody bringing down a power line, cutting power to the Games?' he was asked in a CBC News interview.

"I would not be opposed to it, no," Hill said.

Acts of vandalism and violent protest have already marked the lead-up to the Vancouver Games.

Protesters, including Hill, stormed the podium and had to be carried away by security personnel when the five-metre-tall Olympic countdown clock was unveiled in February 2007.

The clock itself was twice spray-painted with graffiti, and the Olympic flag was stolen from the flagpole in front of Vancouver city hall. Anti-Olympic protesters barged into the B.C. cabinet offices in Vancouver in May 2007, and vandalized some areas before police stepped in and arrested them.

Hill would not say what kind of resistance he might be involved in when the Games begin in four months, but said he's already planning to disrupt the Olympic torch relay, set to begin on Vancouver Island next week.

"It's going to cross the country and we're encouraging other communities — especially indigenous communities — to come out and express their opposition to the Olympic industry and to colonialism in general," said Hill.

Surveillance level criticized

Last week, Danika Surm, a friend of a Chris Shaw, a UBC lecturer and open opponent of the Vancouver Games, said she was stopped and interviewed by RCMP Olympic security officials outside her community college.

Surm said she was so upset by the intervention that she was contemplating actively resisting the Games, an activity she had not considered before.

Hill said that level of police surveillance and questioning of Olympic opponents, is creating more support for his cause.

"It will make more people who want to be involved in anti-Olympic resistance because they resent this type of harassment," he said.

Those in charge of Olympic security consider violent opposition a real threat as the Games approach.

"We're not coming out of left centre-field with a doomsday scenario," said RCMP Cpl. Dale Bendfeld of the Integrated Security Unit (ISU), responsible for Olympic security.

The ISU now employs 400 officers, with more expected to be added to the unit.

Police wouldn't publicly confirm Tuesday whether or not Hill is one of their security concerns, but had a warning for those who might be planning violent disruption.

"They already have our attention. They're going to continue to get our attention. And if they choose to act in that manner they are going to be arrested," said ISU senior officer and RCMP Asst. Commissioner Bud Mercer.