Vancouver is a city of diversity and extremes; it is home to some of the wealthiest echelons of our society while Canada’s poorest postal code is just down the street, more than half of the population speaks a first language other than English, it is Canada’s densest city, and yet is surrounded by pristine wilderness. Ironically, the only thing steady about Vancouver is the weather. As the world’s focus falls on Canada and its hosting of the XXI Winter Olympics, members of the community of Vancouver will be using the occasion to highlight many of the social ills plaguing their city.
While the origins of Vancouver’s social ills are many there should be no one in Canada unfamiliar with the many hardships facing this community, particularly in the Downtown Eastside. With HIV prevalence rates on par with anything seen in sub-Saharan Africa, the Downtown Eastside is also home to crippling rates of crime, drug use, and violence. Sex trade workers are pushed to this area through exclusion elsewhere and creeping gentrification. Despite these many problems, the community is also home to North America’s first safe-injection site, InSite, and some of the most active and involved social advocacy groups in Canada. With the arrival of the Winter Olympics this year, the effects both good and ill, have been profound.
On the one hand, the date of the Olympics coincides with a commitment by the city of Vancouver to eradicate homelessness and provide sustainable low-income housing. What’s more, the Olympics have brought the issues on the ground into sharp focus, both here at home in Canada and internationally. Unfortunately, the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC) and the City of Vancouver don’t seem interested in seizing this historic opportunity. It has become abundantly clear that the pledge to provide affordable housing will not be met on schedule; the City has already postponed their homelessness elimination date back to 2015 and most activists doubt even that will be sufficient. Moreover, the lustre of the games have attracted immense interest in an already expensive city and the resulting increases in property values and living expenses have pushed many low-income families over the brink into homelessness, with more than seventeen single-room-occupancy hotels sold in the past year and yet more on the auctioning block.
In addition to creating homelessness, the Winter Olympics also have the City of Vancouver on the offensive to create a polished image in time for the games. Among some of the initiatives put through on this front are the Civil City programme and a contentious bylaw change limiting city residents right to protest. Proposed and created by former Mayor Sam Sullivan, the Civil City Initiative is a programme that aims to cut down on visible homelessness, the sex and drug trades, and aggressive panhandling. Touted by city officials as a way to clean up the image of Vancouver and cultivate a safer city, critics claim it criminalises poverty and does nothing to address the underlying causes of these problems. Regarding the by-law change, the City of Vancouver recently passed an amendment prohibiting the unauthorised distribution of material relating to the Olympics during the games with a special exemption for “celebratory signs, which are defined as those that celebrate the 2010 Winter Games and create or enhance a festive environment and atmosphere.” Currently, a lawsuit supported by the BC Civil Liberties Association is before the courts claiming that this is an unconstitutional violation of Freedom of Speech though it remains to be seen whether the courts will hear the case in time for the games.
Additional changes brought about in preparation for the Games include the destruction of the Eagleridge Bluff wetlands to make room for an expanded highway between Whistler and Vancouver, the creation of designated “free speech zones” akin to those used in Beijing, the relocation of homeless closest to the games venues, and a $1 million bill to taxpayers for the purchase of 1000 luxury suites at the Olympic venues for BC MLAs.
Ultimately, the Winter Olympics might be the cause for celebration and sportsmanship, however the current games – like so many before them – have not been without criticism. In a city like Vancouver, where the social conditions for some are as bad as anything seen in Canada, the Olympics have not been the shining inspiration all the media hype and corporate sponsorship would have us believe. At stake are the lives and rights of real people, whose problems will be aggravated by the Olympics and will certainly still be there once the hype, like the Olympic torch, has blown out.