In February 2010, as the Winter Olympics were taking place in Vancouver, activists in London organized the Tar Sands Oilympics. The Oilympics were a creative protest against the destruction of Indigenous lands in Canada by multinational corporations including Olympics corporate sponsors.
“The London Tar Sands Network and London Rising Tide hold the inaugural Tar Sands Oilympics in Trafalgar Square, London. Corporate contenders RBS, Shell and newcomer BP compete for the chance to wreak environmental havoc in their scramble for Canada’s tar sands. In the process they will lay waste to vast areas of boreal forest, poison First Nations communities and push the planet towards catastrophic climate change. The race for the most polluting fossil fuel resource on the planet is on. Forget the Winter Olympics in Canada, the real competition for the future of the planet is here.”
“If you can cheat and lie, then you’re going to do well in the Oilympics.”