Housing activists plan Olympic 'red tent' campaign
Activists in Vancouver are threatening to hand out red tents to street people in the hope of attracting international attention to the problem of homelessness in the city during the Olympics and forcing the federal government to come up with a housing strategy.
The Pivot Legal Society said Monday it was ready to distribute 500 of the bright red tents emblazoned with slogans like "Housing is a Right" and "End Homelessness Now!"
The goal is to convince federal authorities to establish a national housing strategy, according to Pivot.
Vancouver prepping for olympics with new crowd control device
Vancouver police have a new crowd control device capable of emitting painfully loud blasts of sound, just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics, CBC News has learned.
The medium-range acoustic device (MRAD) can use sound as a weapon, emitting piercing sounds at frequency levels that cross the human threshold of pain and are potentially damaging to hearing, say audio experts.
But it is primarily designed as a communications device that's clearly audible up to a kilometre away, say police.
'We are not sign police': Vancouver chief
"Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu is sending a blunt message to anti-Olympic activists: stop saying political protest will be stifled during the 2010 Winter Games.
Chu told a news conference at police headquarters Thursday that critics of both the Olympics and the police have painted a dire picture about planned police actions during the Games, and he wanted to set the record straight.
"I'm asking everyone today who's speaking on behalf of the police to just stop," said Chu.
He said false scenarios being described are intended to generate fear and conflict and "are getting ridiculous."
Anti-Olympic signs could mean jail: rights group
A proposed B.C. law would allow municipal officials to enter homes to seize unauthorized and possibly anti-Olympic signs on short notice, civil libertarians say.
Violators could be fined up to $10,000 a day and jailed up to six months, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said Friday.
The proposed law was introduced Thursday as a bill to amend the Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act.
The government said in a statement that the changes will "provide the municipalities of Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler with temporary enforcement powers to enable them to swiftly remove illegal signs and graffiti during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games."
Cost of security rises 5 fold (at least) for 2010
"The cost of providing security to the 2010 Winter Olympics is
estimated to be $900 million but could go higher if threats emerge,
Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said Thursday.Saying he
was confident security planners had now accurately calculated the cost
of protecting athletes, officials and dignitaries, Van Loan nonetheless
refused to say that the new budget would be enough."The one
caveat I make to this is that this is made on an assumption of a
certain level of risk," he said. "If the level of risk goes up or
incidents happen before or at the Games you may have to change that."
Cost overruns to slash social housing in Olympic Village
About 250 social housing units included as part of the Olympic Village project for the 2010 Winter Games may face the axe due to new cost overruns, according to a Vancouver city administrative report.
The cost of the affordable housing component of the project has risen to an estimated $110 million — a 70 per cent increase over the original budget of $65 million — says the report, released Monday night on the city's website.
Protestors mark countdown to olympics
"Around 100 anti-Olympics protesters marked the one-year countdown to
the 2010 Games with a noisy rally and march through downtown Vancouver
on Thursday night.The protest began with a rally in Victory Square around 7 p.m. and
continued with a demonstration up West Georgia to Burrard, with
marchers accompanied by police on bikes and motorcycles.
Cameras will be staying after 2010, don't kid yourself
Of particular concern are hundreds of security cameras expected in
and around Olympic venues. After the 2004 games in Athens, Greece,
police turned the cameras into a citizen surveillance network."I
can ensure you any plan or proposal or supposition that the City of
Vancouver will keep video cameras in the downtown core simply because
they are there after the Games, simply doesn't fly with me," said
Loukidelis. What's needed is a balance between personal privacy and
anti-terrorism, he said.
Olympic Village may cost Vancouver taxpayers $875M
Vancouver taxpayers could be on the hook for as much as $875 million
to complete the Olympic Athletes Village unless city council can reopen
a loan given to the developer or find new financing.
The city has been forking out money to keep construction going since
New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group stopped advancing
funds in September to Millennium Development Corp., Mayor Gregor
Robertson said Friday.
Activists see red (and green) over housing shortage
Housing advocates staged an "art-in" yesterday at Little Mountain
Housing, a social-housing complex in Vancouver slated for demolition.
They were calling attention to the more than 200 livable homes they say could be used to ease the housing crunch.
About
100 artists and supporters gathered to paint colourful scenes of family
and domestic life on cardboard and post them on the boarded-up doors
and windows of 25 condemned buildings.