Council of Canadians: STATEMENT ON THE 2010 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES

The Council of Canadians, one of Canada’s largest public advocacy organizations, with members and chapters across the country, views positively the Olympic goal of friendly international competition between athletes who excel in their respective sports. We understand and appreciate the pleasure and enjoyment so many around the world share in the spectacle and achievements of the Olympic Games.

However, we are gravely concerned by the increasing evidence that these worthy aspects are being overwhelmed, if not totally supplanted, by an “Olympic industry” focused on real estate development and massive corporate marketing opportunities. An “Olympic industry” founded and based in undemocratic and unaccountable national and international structures, implicated in numerous corruption scandals that undermine everything a truly noble Olympic movement should stand for.

In particular, the Council of Canadians believes the February 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler will leave a negative legacy contrary to the goals set forward during the application and approval process to host the games. There is now no doubt that the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and its affiliated partners will fail to meet their commitments with regard to the environment, social programs and fiscal accountability.

The Council of Canadians is committed to working with activists who are highlighting the negative aspects of the 2010 Games, especially the fact they are being held on un-ceded First Nations territories and are providing mining, resort, real estate and energy developers with opportunities to continue expansion of projects on indigenous territories throughout the province.

As well, we are concerned that the civil liberties of local communities and those who have a critique of the Games are being undermined by an unnecessary security presence. The security budget for the games has ballooned to $1 billion, while security and law enforcement agencies have identified protest groups as the most significant threat to the Games. Over 4,500 Canadian military troops will be deployed to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics – twice the number Canada has in Afghanistan.

Read entire statement here

Originally posted here

Mayor open to reoccupying Little Mountain

Tom Sandborn, Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, July 24, 2009

Mayor Gregor Robertson told me in a phone interview on Wednesday he would support a "renovate and re-occupy" solution to the current crisis at Little Mountain, where a dozen remaining tenants and the activists who support them are suggesting that the B.C. Housing application to demolish existing buildings be denied and the current structures be repaired and repopulated.

This is good news for everyone who has been appalled by the spectacle of a functioning and healthy community at Little Mountain being destroyed by the removal of tenants and the prospect of a long and empty delay until the developer, Holborn Holdings, comes up with the money to execute its dubious plans. Activists are further dismayed by persistent rumors that the demolition was being fast tracked to provide a parking lot for an Olympic venue. (Full disclosure: I am an activist who recently participated in a hunger strike for affordable housing.)

However, the mayor told me he thought Rich Coleman, B.C.'s Minister of Housing, wouldn't back re-occupation. In an earlier email exchange, the mayor said the city was required by its agreement with the province to grant the demolition permit that B.C. Housing has requested. So it remains unclear whether the mayor's expressed support for the residents' preferred option will have any effect.

Read the rest here

Shopping Cart Storage: Housing organization to build storage lockers for the homeless

Wed, 07/15/2009 - 01:57 — Darren
Megaphone

Ray pushes a shopping cart, laden with electronics, CDs, a sleeping bag and two pairs of mannequin legs he found in a dumpster behind The Bay, uphill towards Cambie and Hastings.

On top of all his belongings, Ray balances his latest lion—one of maybe 900 he has painted and sold while living on the streets of Vancouver. But with no secure place to store his things, it could all be gone by tomorrow.

“That’s my biggest problem,” says Ray. “You start to get ahead a little and either the city takes it or the police confiscate it or someone rips it off.”

For Ray and other homeless people in Vancouver, the Portland Hotel Society (PHS) may soon have a fix—a set of 50 low-cost storage lockers.

Mark Townsend, director of the PHS, said the lockers would most likely go in what is now a boarded-up, single-story building along Pigeon Park at the corner of Hastings and Carrall.

Built big enough to hold a cart’s worth of belongings, each locker might cost $5 a month, says Townsend. People could access their possessions anytime and PHS staff would supervise all pick-ups and drop-offs.

Read the rest here

Opposition to Vancouver homeless shelter gets filthy

Bag of human waste hurled at downtown facility
Last Updated: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 | 6:14 PM PT

A threatening letter and a bag of human waste were hurled at a controversial homeless shelter on Vancouver's Howe Street this month, occupants and supporters said Tuesday.

Some local residents have recently complained the downtown site has become a magnet for prostitution and drug dealing, but on Tuesday, a rally was held outside of the shelter in support of the facility.

The shelter is one of two that were opened on a temporary basis near the Granville St. bridge last December. Funding for the shelters was extended, and they were kept open longer than originally intended. One of the shelters closed in June, and the Howe St. shelter, which has 38 beds, is set to close at the end of this month.

Wendy Pedersen of the Carnegie Community Action Project said it is the shelter's residents who are the victims. She quoted from the note attached to the bag of waste.

"Bleep off back to East Van where you all belong," Pedersen quoted the letter as saying, censoring the coarse language. "Get the bleep out now. The bombing will continue. Bleep off, losers."

Laura Track, a staff lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society, called for patience while money for permanent housing solutions is found.

"Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a safe, supportive and stable place to call home," said Track. "But until we have the social housing that's been promised by the provincial government, we have to rely on these emergency stop-gap measures."

Brenda Jamer, who lives in a nearby condominium, said reports that the shelter is a nuisance are false.

"Most of us haven't noticed anything. Very little has changed here," said Jamer.

Link to article

See also Shelter's opponents fear battle is over for them (Globe and Mail)

See also Downtown homeless shelter has its supporters (24 Hours)

See also Homeless shelters a magnet for mayhem in False Creek North (Vancouver Sun)

See also Residents split on life beside shelter (The Vancouver Courier)

U.S. 'homeless czar' says more housing saves money

Last Updated: Thursday, July 16, 2009
CBC News

The man known as the 'homeless czar' in the U.S. says it's cheaper to house the homeless than keep them on the streets.

Philip Mangano, who was the head of former president George W. Bush's Interagency Council on Homelessness, spoke Thursday at a meeting of the Vancouver Board of Trade.

"We're spending, in fact, in the [United] States, more to maintain people on the streets than [the] cost to provide them with a house or place to stay," he said.

According to U.S. government figures, it costs an average of $30,000 to $40,000 US per year to provide various services to a homeless person, while it costs between $22,000 and $28,000 US to provide that same individual with social housing.

Mangano said most attempts to remedy homelessness have been spectacular failures.

"Ad hoc, unco-ordinated crisis intervention … only correlates with increased homelessness and economic irresponsibility."

Mangano said Vancouver already has the key ingredient to solving the problem — a supportive mayor. Gregor Robertson has vowed to end street homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.

However, advocates say housing the city's 3,000 homeless shouldn't just be a municipal responsibility.

"What we desperately need is provincial and federal government money to build lots of housing for homeless people," said Wendy Pedersen, a community organizer with the Carnegie Action Project.

She said a national housing strategy could help fund the construction of thousands of social housing units.

Link to story

No Olympics parking lot at social housing site: VANOC

By Geoff Dembicki
July 15, 2009
The Tyee.ca

VANCOUVER - Organizers of the 2010 Winter Games denied rumours today that the Little Mountain Housing project will become an Olympics parking lot after it’s demolished.

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” VANOC executive vice-president of services and operations Terry Wright said.

Provincial government plans to bulldoze Vancouver’s oldest social housing site have met with vocal opposition of late, though only 12 families continue to live in the shuttered community.

The property sits near the Vancouver Olympic Centre/Vancouver Paralympic Centre, which will host curling events during the Games.

Such proximity has given rise to speculation the site will be used to ease parking constrictions next February, a rumour Wright rebuffed.

Read the rest here

Province, city eye former jail to house homeless

By Irwin Loy
Vancouver 24 Hours
July 13, 2009

VANCOUVER - The province and city officials are eyeing the site of Vancouver’s former jail to house people who are homeless.

The old Vancouver Pretrial Centre near the north end of Main Street could hold 100 units of supportive housing. Both provincial and city officials have examined the site, which had been closed since 2002, when it served as a jail connected to the Provincial Court.

“We’re just working within government to identify that particular facility can be transferred to housing,” Housing Minister Rich Coleman told 24 hours in an interview.

“It’s one of the ones we’re looking at.”

Read the rest here

Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit won't rule out agents provocateurs

By Travis Lupick
Straight.com

The RCMP-led security force for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games won't rule out the use of agents provocateurs to incite protesters to commit illegal acts.

Speaking on behalf of the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit, Cpl. Jen Allan said the ISU is charged with ensuring people's safety. “We are not in a position to detail a specific operational plan as to how we are going to fulfill that obligation,” Allan explained to the Georgia Straight in a telephone interview.

She reiterated the ISU's assurance that all Olympic security operations will be carried out “in line with Canadian laws and Canadian values”.

Robert Holmes, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, told the Straight he received a similar response when he raised the issue with the ISU.

Read the rest here

Public Forum: "The Tar Sands Project: Social and Environmental Impacts

Streams of Justice Public Forum:

"The Tar Sands Project: Social and Environmental Impacts"
Special Guest: Harjap Grewal, researcher with the Council of Canadians
Monday, July 27th
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Grandview Calvary Baptist Church
1803 East 1st Avenue
Vancouver

Harjap will be presenting on the significance of the Tar Sands "giga-project", the largest industrial project in history. While the stories and realities of communities in Alberta are horrifying, people are only now becoming aware of how infrastructure based in BC is vital to expansion plans in the Tar Sands. He will be talking about the tar sands in Alberta, local infrastructure, local environmental impacts, links to the 2010 Games, what people can do about it, and a vision of environmental justice that is rooted in anti-colonial values.

Harjap Grewal is a activist and organizer that has been working on migrant justice, indigenous solidarity and variety of other issues in Vancouver. He has been researching and doing public education on the tar sands for the past year and has recently started working in the Regional Office of the Council of Canadians.

Downtown Ambassadors accused of discrimination against homeless

By Katie Mercer,
The Province
July 8, 2009

Vancouver's Downtown Ambassadors program will have to defend itself against a complaint that it discriminates against the homeless.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed bids from the city and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association to have the complaint by Pivot Legal Society and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users thrown out.

Laura Track, staff lawyer for Pivot, said the ambassadors are "displacing people who are homeless" by not allowing them to sit, sleep or panhandle on sidewalks.

Noting the pending Olympics, Track said she thinks it's important that security guards and law enforcement operating in Vancouver "know what is and isn't OK when they're dealing with people who use the streets to sit and panhandle." Pivot and VANDU have complained that the program discriminates against the homeless.

The complaint is also seeking compensation of $20 — to a maximum of $1,000 — for each homeless person who has been discriminated against.

Charles Gauthier, spokes-man for the business association, said the complaint is an unfounded "malicious cause of action. If we were effective with what Pivot accuses us of, there would be no panhandling in the city," Gauthier said.

Link to original article

See also B.C. Human Rights Tribunal rejects efforts to dismiss complaint against homeless (Vancouver Sun)

Province says no to renter protections during Games

Posted By: Jackie Wong
07/02/2009 12:00 AM
Westender.com

The City of Vancouver’s requests to increase legislative protection for tenants of rental apartments during the 2010 Winter Olympics have been denied. In a June 10 letter to Mayor Gregor Robertson, BC Housing Minister Rich Coleman wrote that he deemed it unnecessary to amend the Residential Tenancy Act during the Games. Coleman also wrote that expanding Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) services in Vancouver during Games time would be unnecessary, despite the City’s requests that came before council in an April 9 motion.

Mayor Robertson sent a letter on behalf of council to Minister Coleman on April 28, which outlined the City’s requests that the Province temporarily amend Residential Tenancy legislation and increase tenant outreach service, in the interest of protecting renters and preventing evictions during the months leading up to and following the Games.

“Affecting the rights of property owners in the manner suggested may also be seen as unfair to those property owners,” Minister Coleman wrote in the letter justifying his refusal to amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit Olympic evictions, as per council’s suggestion. “In a time where housing is scarce and private landlords are providing a valuable housing alternative, it is important to encourage them rather than to discourage them.”

Whether “housing alternative” is an accurate choice of words is a moot point, however, given that, according to 2001 Statistics Canada census data, more than half of households in central areas of Vancouver are rentals. (Minister Coleman did not return WE’s phone calls by press time.)

Read the rest here

B.C. housing minister apologizes to Vancouver mayor for calling city’s tactics on homeless ‘amateurish’

By Neal Hall,
Vancouver Sun
June 29, 2009

VANCOUVER — B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman apologized Monday to Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson for calling the city’s bargaining on housing homeless people “amateurish.”

“I apologized to the mayor for it,” Coleman said during a joint news conference with Robertson.

They both smiled when the matter was raised by a reporter.

“I think it was taken out of context,” Coleman said of his comment to a reporter over the weekend, but added he regrets making the comment.

“I think some criticism through all this is fine,” Robertson said.

Read the rest here

See also Shelter fuss exposes amateurs (The Vancouver Courier)

Mayor shuts down controversial no-barrier shelter under Granville Bridge

Last Updated: Monday, June 29, 2009
CBC.ca

One of two emergency shelters under Vancouver's Granville Bridge will be closed immediately under the terms of deal reached between the city and the province.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman agreed on Sunday that funding the 36-bed shelter at 1435 Granville St. will end, and the shelter will close on Wednesday.

B.C. Housing will move as many people as possible from the shelter into new accommodation, the province said in a release Monday.

Read the rest here

See also B.C. to cover cost of emergency shelters (Globe and Mail)

See also HEAT shelters get one-year reprieve (Globe and Mail)

See also Community uproar closes Vancouver shelter (The Province)