Carnegie Community Action Project
International Media Release
February 9, 2009
Poverty Olympics bulletin #1
2009 Poverty Olympics provides hilarious and serious preview for Vancouver Olympics 2010
(Vancouver, BC, Canada) – 2009 Poverty Olympics provides hilarious and serious preview of what international media will see when they come to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics.
About 400 people from Vancouver, Canada’s poorest neighbourhood took advantage of the one year countdown to the 2010 Olympic Games with a message about poverty in Canada. People in Canada live in shocking poverty, Wendy Pedersen told the crowd gathered for the Poverty Olympics. Her neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, has an HIV rate the same as Botswana’s. Street homelessness increased 373% between 2002 and 2008, and British Columbia has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for 5 years in a row (21%).
Pedersen said the government could have ended poverty and homelessness with the $6 billion they are wasting on the Olympics.
The rest of the Poverty Olympics was a humorous and blunt satire of the real Olympics, with a Torch relay, opening and closing ceremonies and “games.” One game was Sweeping Poverty Aside (curling) which featured Team Vanoc against Team Poverty. Team Vanoc (Vancouver Olympic Committee) swept away objects on the ice with “bailout” brooms, while blocking Team Poverty with sand on the ice and an actual rope labeled rent increases and evictions.
The Poverty Olympic Mascots, Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach, and Chewy the Rat, danced through the opening ceremonies singing Money makes the World Go Round and flinging fake money labeled “Olympics 2010, blank cheque” throughout the audience.
The Poverty Olympics was endorsed by Raise the Rates, Carnegie Community Action Project, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, BC Persons with Aids Society, Power to Women, and Streams of Justice.
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Who are we?
Poverty Olympics Bulletins are brought to you by the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), a project of the 5000 member Carnegie Community Centre Association in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. To read previous bulletins please go to CCAP’s blog. For information about the Poverty Olympics, check out www.povertyolympics.ca.
Some Photos and Videos:
Photos by: Goh Iromoto & Bharbara Gudmundson & The Blackbird’s slideshow
Videos: Poverty Olympics Athlete’s Village & Wrestling for Community: Developers versus the Downtown Eastside
National Media coverage including:
Game Changer: Recession Recasts Olympic Spending
Wall Street Journal
February 10, 2009
BC Business
February 11, 2009
‘Poverty Olympics’ ridicule Games
Vancouver Sun
February 9, 2009
Poverty Olympics spotlight Downtown Eastside
Globe and Mail,
February 9, 2009
Organizer expects Poverty Olympics to run alongside 2010 Games
The Georgia Straight
February 9, 2009
Poverty Olympics Comes with a Serious Message
News 1130
February 9, 2009
Activists Take on ‘Housing Hurdles’
Metro Daily News
February 9, 2009
Carnegie Community Action Project
401 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C. Canada
(604) 839-0379 or (604) 729-2380
www.ccapvancouver.wordpress.com
International Media Release
March 16, 2009
Poor protest Olympic “street sweeps” and ticketing in 2010 Olympic city
Vancouver, BC, Canada: About 100 people gathered in cold and snowy weather yesterday to protest against pre-Olympic police tactics that are harassing the poor in their own neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, home of the 2010 Olympics. Organized by the Downtown Eastside Power to Women group, the event included an illegal vending tent right in front of police headquarters on Main St.
The women and their allies in several neighbourhood groups were protesting a police plan to increase the number of tickets they give out for violations of minor laws such as selling things on the street and jaywalking. In 2008 police gave out almost 2000 tickets for minor offenses in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside (DTES). This year the police “business plan” calls for a 20% increase in tickets. It also calls for police Beat Enforcement Teams to check a minimum of 4 local residents per block in the DTES as they walk around the community.
The tickets, which cost a minimum of $75, cannot be paid because the people have no money. Continuous police checks are a form of harassment of people as they walk in their own neighbourhood and make some people fearful of even going outside to get medical and other treatment.
Chanting, “Stop the war on the Poor,” and “2010 housing, not 2010 Olympics” protesters gathered in front of the police station to sell their wares, and defy unjust laws.
British Columbia has had the highest rate of poverty in Canada for 5 years in a row and has no plan to reduce it. About 11,000 to 15,000 people in BC are homeless, yet the government prefers to spend money on the Olympics, rather than on needed housing. Residents of the Downtown Eastside have the same HIV rate as people in Botswana.
Downtown Eastside residents are afraid that police will use their unpaid tickets as an excuse to send them out of the city during the Olympics, so visitors won’t be appalled by the level of poverty in such a rich country.
The illegal vending action was endorsed by the DTES Women’s Centre Power to Women Group, the DTES Elders Council and Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
For information, contact Harsha Walia (Power to Women) 778-885-0040; Jean Swanson (Carnegie Community Action Project) 604 839-0379 or Wendy Pedersen (Carnegie Community Action Project) 604-729-2380
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Who are we?
Poverty Olympics Bulletins are brought to you by the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), a project of the 5000 member Carnegie Community Centre Association in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. To read previous bulletins please go to CCAP’s blog. For information about the Poverty Olympics, check out www.povertyolympics.ca.
Some Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackbird_hollow/sets/72157615350016358/
National Media coverage including:
Stop the War on the Poor, says DTES Protestors
Downtown Eastside residents angry at police crackdown
24 Hours
March 15, 2009
Downtown Eastside residents protest police ’street sweeps’
The Canadian Press
March 15, 2009
Police cracking down on poor: Activists
Metro Vancouver News
March 16, 2009
Police accused of harassing the poor with nuisance tickets
The Province News
March 15, 2009
Downtown Eastside residents fear they’ll be jailed during Games
Some people can’t afford to pay fines given during ticketing sweep for civil disorder
Vancouver Sun
February 16, 2009
24 HOURS News
February 16, 2009
Downtown Eastside residents say tickets unfair
CTV News
February 15, 2009
“Downtown Eastside crackdown misguided, groups say”
Police increase tickets, street checks
Globe & Mail
February 12, 2009
Downtown Eastside groups oppose ticketing campaign
The Province Newspaper
February 16, 2009
