DEAR was raided by Vancouver police searching for 2010 Olympic flag
A Vancouver social advocacy group is reacting angrily to a police raid on its premises Thursday night, accusing the police department of trying to interfere with its operations.
Eight officers conducted a search of storage units belonging to the Downtown Eastside Residents Association and the Anti-Poverty Committee at 16 East Hastings Street.
The police say they were searching the basement area of the building for the city’s Olympic flag, which was stolen from its flagpole at Vancouver City Hall on March 6.
They say they obtained a search warrant after receiving information from a “confidential source.”
The search, which took about an hour, turned up no sign of the missing flag.
Elizabeth Kelliher, the president of DERA, said the raid has shaken her faith that the police treat people fairly.
“I have always, from childhood up, looked to the police department for protection, for making sure that our society was a just one, that nobody was treated unfairly. How can a police department do something that they know has no relationship to the truth?”
Kelliher says the Native Warrior Society has already claimed responsibility for stealing the flag, and police knew that.
She says she believes the police targeted DERA because it actively opposes the 2010 Winter Olympics.
CBC News
