UBC students tutored on Olympic security rights

Some University of British Columbia students will be getting extra tutoring tomake sure they know their rights when the IntegratedSecurity Unit arrives on campus for the 2010 Winter Olympics in February.

About 330 students are to betrained tostaff a legal assistance hotline or act asobservers of security operations during the Games. The Student Legal Fund Society has teamed up with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association to host the workshops.

Organizers of the workshops expect that somestudents will be involved in protests both on and off the campus, where UBC is hostingice hockey events at the newly expanded Thunderbird Arena.

Emily Griffiths, president of the Student Legal Fund Society, said thegroup will put up more than $18,000 to train students, stressing thatthis isn't about encouraging themto protest but about making sure their rights are protected.

"Because of the nature of the Olympics and the way that it affects students on campus and the ways that students on campus have been treated in the past by law enforcement, we are very nervous," said Griffiths.

Memories of APEC

Griffiths was referring tothe 1997 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation conferenceat UBC, when studentsprotesting against several unelected nationalleaders were pepper-sprayed by the RCMP, and signs urging free speech and democracy were destroyed by police.

The police action led to the creation of the Student Legal Fund, to which each UBC studentpays an annual fee, and toapublic inquiry which found that police actions "did not meet an acceptable and expected standard of competence and professionalism and proficiency."

B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director David Eby said his organization also is putting up $18,000 to fund the student training.

"Our proposal is to provide know-your-rights workshops and legal observer training for students to do legal observing on campus during the Olympic period," said Eby,"so that students are fully prepared during the Olympic period so we avoid another APEC-type situation."

The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit is headed by the RCMP and includes members of the Canadian Forces and municipal police departments.