Three public appearances for the Olympic torch, three nasty protests. Get used to it, get ready for more and, almost certainly, get ready for worse.

There is no chance that the path from here to Beijing in August will be a tranquil one.

For those who have made a free Tibet their cause, this is a unique, historic opportunity. They'll never have the planet's attention like this again. For anyone else among the legions who have a grievance with the government of China, now is the moment to grab the spotlight.

And since the Chinese response when challenged tends to be light on public-relations niceties, light on hand-holding diplomacy and heavy on defiance and force — consider that the first volley in Canada was to summon reporters to an audience with China's ambassador to Canada so he could call the Dalai Lama a liar — the stage is set for a moment of reckoning about what the modern Olympic Games are really about.

Canadians had best be prepared with an answer, because we're going to need one.

So far, polling suggests that most public sentiment is on the side of proceeding with Olympic business as usual, and though a few foreign leaders have begun to express unease, most are still pledging to show up for the opening ceremony and reject any suggestion of a boycott. (Our own Prime Minister says he isn't going to make it to the Games, but won't say why, and won't own up to being party to a protest — thus for the moment having it both ways.)

Understandably, the vast majority of athletes, much of whose young lives have focused on getting to these Games, don't want anything to interfere with their dreams.

They point out that past walkouts didn't accomplish much in the grand scheme of things — and they're almost 100-per-cent right about that, as could be said about most demonstrations and most issues.

But what they can't argue credibly is the notion that the Olympics themselves are apolitical, that this is about sports, period. That won't be true until they take down the flags, stop playing the anthems, stop the spectacle from being used as a grand propaganda exercise — and, as a result, governments stop paying the tab.

The masters of the Olympic empire are also trying to play the purity/futility card, most recently in the form of Dick Pound (who in a previous incarnation as International Olympic Committee vice-president sat dutifully by as, among other things, his boss, Juan Antonio Samaranch, refused again and again to acknowledge the families of the victims of the Munich massacre).

Like the athletes, the IOC and its corporate sponsors have a whole lot to lose here.

They decided to lie down with the Chinese government (not the first time they've cut that kind of bargain) in the interests of global harmony, greater understanding — and, especially, commerce — so can't exactly turn away in horror now.

Both argue that no country is in position to cast the first stone, that over the expanse of history we all have committed our unpardonable sins. True enough.

Here, organizers of the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Games and the Canadian Olympic Committee have to be particularly concerned that if we do anything to spoil China's party, they might be motivated to recall some of our less proud moments as a rationale for dampening festivities two years hence.

So we have to go. We have to compete. We have to march in the big parade. We have to stand up for the Olympic "ideals" no matter what might be happening in the outside, imperfect world.

But here's the problem. Let's say for the sake of argument that a hundred people have perished so far in the Tibetan protests and their aftermath.

What if, as August approaches, that's up to 200 or 500 or 1,000? What's the magic number of dead Tibetans and Chinese civilians that might make us reconsider?

What if China cracks down harder on dissidents, announces that it will restrict what foreign reporters can do or see during the Games, makes it clear that the approach of the Olympics has caused it to harden, rather than soften, state attitudes toward free speech and human rights?

Are we still going then? Is it still just about sports? Are we willing to march into that stadium as proud, smiling Canadians, giving their blessing, playing their role, either oblivious or complicit?

Are we willing to be used as extras in a new Leni Riefenstahl production?