The Canadian Olympic Committee will not muzzle athletes on the topics of China's human-rights record and politics at the Beijing Olympics in August.
Chris Rudge, the chief executive officer of the COC, said a policy statement by the Belgian Olympic Committee this week, gagging its team members on political issues while at Games venues and the athletes village, does not set a precedent.
"We won't use that as guidance," Rudge said. "It is not our intent to give any kind of edict."
But the Human Rights Watch organization is concerned that the Belgian gag order could lead other countries to follow suit.
"I'd say it's dispiriting and it bodes ill for what other national Olympic committees might choose to do," said Phelim Kine, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. "There have been indications from the Chinese side that there will be no tolerance for dissent. The fact that teams are becoming complicit with that is unreasonable, and not keeping with the Olympic spirit. The Olympic Charter is dedicated to fundamental ethical principles, and obviously the expression of opinion on social or political topics should fall within that fact."
The Belgian Olympic Committee said on Wednesday it would issue a strict code of conduct for its athletes competing in Beijing.
"Not a single participant in the Games will be allowed to give a political opinion at the Olympic venues (e.g.: competition sites and the Olympic village)," it said in a statement.
The committee further ruled that its Olympic athletes will be barred from wearing any distinctive insignia protesting China's human-rights record.
The committee said athletes would be free to talk about "issues that are personally relevant" outside the Olympic venues.
China has been the target of many protests over its government's treatment of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, supporters of an independent Tibet and the government's sale of weapons to the government of Sudan.
The Belgian committee said the Games "are not a remedy for all social ills … [but it is] convinced that the Games would have a positive influence on the social development of a country like China."
Rudge said Canadian athletes will go through an extensive orientation before Beijing, as they do before any other Olympics or Pan American Games abroad, "to tell them about the local social environment and local issues, basically to keep them safe and out of trouble.
"There are many groups watching what goes on in China. They have concerns and issues and they want to see them addressed. There are always issues before a games, issues that are important to conscience of a nation," he said. "Our athletes are mature enough and smart enough to know what they want to say and when it's appropriate to say it. We respect their rights and opinions."
The U.S. Olympic Committee has not prohibited its athletes from voicing opinions in China.
The USOC usually takes it cue from the U.S. Department of State. As of yesterday, the department's travel website carried no warnings or alerts specific to China.
