Stratford is a town in Ontario, near Kitchener. It is internationally known for its Shakespeare festivals. SAFE is the Stratford Action for Equality, a group of working class youth in the city fighting for social change. Julian Ichim is a SAFE organizer:

On Monday Dec. 15th [2008] members of SAFE marched into Stratford city council holding placards demanding that the City of Stratford take a stand in regards to the human rights abuses taking place as a result of the Olympics by refusing to allow the torch to come to Stratford unless the Olympic committee immediately halts all destruction of unceded native land, the social cleansing in Vancouver, and the displacement of low income housing to make room for there condos of the rich.

Ichim in his presentation to council stated that “if we call these attacks on poor people in Beijing human rights abuses we would be hypocritical to turn a blind eye to the same thing happening here.’

SAFE also announced there on year plan of action to stop the torch from coming to Stratford City council then stated that they will create a subcommittee that will meet in Jan to discuss all things relating to the torch run in Stratford.

Later that evening SAFE dropped a banner that stated “NO OLYMPICS ON STOLEN LAND.”. SAFE will continue the struggle in council and on the streets to stop the torch from coming into the city of Stratford Dec 27th 2009.