How the Vancouver Olympics Violate Civil Rights

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-11-14 15:38:00 UTC
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Over 1,000 low income homes destroyed. Tenants evicted. Plans to forcibly remove homeless individuals from the streets.

If this sounds like the workings of a repressive government regime, you're partially right, only this is the ugly reality of the workings of the Olympic industry. These heavy handed tactics are being used today to prepare Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, exposing the ugly side of an otherwise awe-inspiring event.

Olympic-driven housing destruction and tenant displacement is not a new phenomenon, according to an In These Times article by Gaus. Indeed, some 30,000 residents were displaced due to construction prior to the 1996 Atlanta Games and a whopping 300,000 housing units in Beijing were demolished - displacing over 1,500,000 people - for the 2008 games.

Today, this trend is continuing in Vancouver. "Since Vancouver was awarded the Games in 2003, over 1,100 units of low income housing have been lost in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside," Laura Track, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society (a BC public interest advocacy group), told Bev Yaworski of Suite101. "The legacy of affordable housing promised in the Olympic bid is nowhere to be found: social housing at Athlete's Village was slashed and is looking ever less likely; evictions continue apace, and 14 City-owned sites on which the provincial government has promised to build social housing sit empty and idle."

These recent developments have prompted watchdog groups to file human rights complaints with the United Nations against the Olympic organizing committee and the governments of B.C. and Canada.

But even in situations when low-income housing is not intentionally demolished, the speculation associated with Olympic host-cities will often have the same effect, according to In These Times. "What mass-produced arrest citations and bulldozers don't accomplish the market's invisible hand usually does. Real-estate speculation and ballooning rents push out vulnerable populations with inescapable regularity."

This is an unfortunate twist on what is otherwise an inspiring world event. Perhaps the Games would lose their allure if the ugly truth about the preparations for the games were exposed.

Update: The Homeless Forums is keeping a close eye on developments in Vancouver as they unravel, tracking the news and comments from homeless people on the streets. Check out the thread here.

Image: cheukiecfu

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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