The Metro Vancouver community of Delta was the scene of a large torch celebration and Olympic protest on Tuesday.

In the midst of a sea of red mittens, in a city that rarely gets snow or even wears mittens, a group of anti-Olympic protesters peacefully brought forward their message - inspite of police intimidation tactics.

The group stood their ground with banners bravely flying to emphasize their objections to "massive Olympic-related highway expansions in a province that has been attempting to sell the games as environmentally green."  The demonstrators highlighted that "freeways increase dependence on gas-guzzling cars and dirty tar sands oil, while siphoning billions from transit, housing, health care and other priorities."

The protesters were representatives from the Council of Canadians and an anti-Gateway freeway organization. A spokesperson for the Council of Canadians at the protest says, " I want to communicate people's right to protest and not be subject to intimidation from the police. Unfortunately the police were out to intimidate us and stop our freedom of movement and threaten us with arrest, if we attempted to interfere with the torch relay, even though we were nowhere near the torch." 

The group's spokesperson also added, " we got our message out and received a positive response from many folks."

The demonstrators have vowed to follow-up this action by attending the "Take Back Our City Festival" and parade at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Friday February 12 at 3pm, in conjunction with the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics. More then 50 groups endorse this festival.

The Council of Canadians is Canada's largest citizens' organization, with over 70 chapters across the country. They work to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians. The Council of Canadians believes in peaceful protest and non-violent civil disobedience.

More information on the Gateway freeway expansion and the Council of Canadians is available on their websites.

An online poll conducted by the Delta Optimist newspaper showed today that a startling 67% of respondents said: "I wish the Olympics weren't coming."