Squatters at 'Olympic Tent Village' say they're digging in for long haul

By Sam Cooper
The Province
February 23, 2010



Squatters at the “Olympic Tent Village” — established nine days ago on a private downtown Vancouver lot — say they are digging in for the long haul.

Anti-Olympics activists moved onto the lot on West Hastings Street — which is slated for development by Concord Pacific and has been leased to VANOC for the duration of the Games — originally planning to camp out for five days, according to squat organizer Dave Diewert.

But Diewert now says there’s a growing list of over 20 camp residents who need permanent housing and squatters won’t leave until the City of Vancouver and B.C. Housing find them homes.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was asked Tuesday morning if he is concerned about conflict as the squatters persist, and said: “No ... I think their protest has been very respectful, and we’re on the same page with [organizers] in asking for a national housing strategy.”

There are about 140 tents pitched on the lot, and about two dozen are now residing in the camp, Diewert said. That is down from 70 to 100 staying overnight during the first week, and numbers could continue to drop as rain moves in, Diewert admitted.

The site now has a medic tent, a kitchen tent and a fully serviced porta-pottie.

Organizers were rushing to weatherproof several “community” tent areas as wind and rain whipped the site on Tuesday afternoon.

Diewert said everyone in the camp could find shelter space in Vancouver, but they prefer arrangements on the lot.

“You can sit around the fire, there is community,” Diewert said. “People feel safe here.”

Organizers have set up a security force and there are “community agreements” on drug use and conflict resolution, Diewert said. All significant decisions, including the future of the camp, are made together, residents say.

“If officials ask us to leave, we’ll do a community process and decide how we want to proceed,” Diewert said.

Diewert compared the “Olympic Tent Village” with the Downtown Eastside Woodward’s squat of 2002, which started as a “political action” but lasted over 90 days, he said.

Angel Hamilton, a 30-year-old graduate student at Capilano University, said she has stayed in the West Hastings tent village from the first night, and is filming a documentary on the site.

Pointing to “democratic” decision making and “guerrilla gardening” initiatives, she said for some residents “there is momentum behind keeping [the camp] here.”

Peter Deranger, a 68-year-old Dene nation man, said “people don’t want to shut [the tent village] down — we can keep it open.”

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