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Olympic Evictions Declared Illegal

Pivot Legal Society and a coalition of advocacy groups won two low-income housing eviction- and rent-increase cases for residents of one of the Downtown Eastside’s low-income hotels today.

Two residents of the Golden Crown Hotel received notice today from the Residential Tenancy Branch that their illegal eviction notices and rent increases linked to the Olympics were set aside.

The eviction notices given were for March 31, 2007, to the 28 units in the Golden Crown Hotel located across the street from the Woodward’s building. The notices and rent increases are linked to the 2010 Olympics as owners of the hotel have indicated that they would like to use the hotel to provide housing to Olympic workers rather than the current residents.

Read more http://mostlywater.org/olympic_evictions_declared_illegal

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo/1770085798/

Pivot Legal Society demands action on shelter stats

Vancouver – Pivot Legal Society is demanding that the City of Vancouver place a moratorium on tickets given to people sleeping outside in light of newly released shelter statistics that say homeless individuals, on over 40,000 separate occasions, were refused access to shelters in Metro Vancouver over a nine month period. Over 17,000 of these turn away incidents involved women and families.

“These turnaway statistics are alarming,” said lawyer David Eby of the Pivot Legal Society. “We have bylaw officers, police officers and security guards cracking down on people who sleep outside, but these statistics make it clear that there is nowhere else to sleep.”

The statistics cannot be extrapolated into numbers of homeless individuals, because neither the participating shelters nor B.C. Housing can say whether the same individuals are being turned away from multiple shelters on any given night or whether individuals give up after visiting just one shelter. The statistics on families and women may count families as one person, or may count children as well as parents, making those numbers less certain as well.

“We need a provincial investigation of the real number of people who can’t find shelter,” said Eby. “We’re calling for a moratorium on police and bylaw officers ticketing people who sleep outside until we figure out whether our shelter system has been overwhelmed by demand.”

There are currently 1,028 known shelter beds in Metro Vancouver, according to the document. The GVRD Homelessness Count indicated that there were 2,592 homeless people counted during its biennial 24 hour count in March of 2008.

Pivot Legal Society released two open letters, one to Sam Sullivan – Mayor of the City of Vancouver and Chair of the Police Board – calling for a moratorium on bylaw and Trespass Act tickets given to the homeless, and one to Rich Coleman – B.C.’s Minister responsible for housing – calling for a formal investigation into the capacity of Metro Vancouver’s emergency shelter system.

Source: David Eby’s Official Vancouver 2010 Olympics Newswire

photo from http://flickr.com/photos/grixti/2069573220/

VANOC is taking a tough stand when it comes to the standards of factories manufacturing 2010 Olympic merchandise. VANOC has banned six overseas factories from making 2010 products, for not meeting social standards.

A ’sustainability report’ released today shows the steps that have already been taken. Ann Duffy with VANOC says they’re working with those factories, to ensure the merchandise that people buy over the next two years is environmentally and socially accceptable. “One of the bid committments for VANOC in terms of hosting the Games was to use our influence to create social, economic and environmental benefits in our supply chain. That included developing the Buy Smart program since we’re going to be purchasing a lot of stuff and a lot of services, we’re looking at our work with our suppliers and our licensees as an opportunity to bring value there as well.”

The 27 page report released today also shows that of 80 audits VANOC demanded of its licensees, corrective action plans were issued for 74. Duffy says they are working with suppliers and licensees to ensure standards are met. “It might be things like their documentation system of how they’re tracking this needing to be improved , or how they’re communicating health and safety tips to employees.”

From http://www.news1130.com

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games logo on the side of a General Electric Evolution series ES4400AC locomotive.

These Canadian Pacific Railway locomotives (#8858 & #8859) were pulling into Waterfront Station today for presentation to the media. They are painted in a 2010 Vancouver Olympics paint scheme since the railway is the newest sponsor of the Olympics in Vancouver as the “official rail freight services provider”.

From http://flickr.com/photos/ahirschfeld/1433989277/

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/12936550@N00/1398834270/

Here is a math and logic puzzle for you. This clock is, obviously at ground level, and is downtown in front of the Art Gallery. This was taken last week-end and as the sign says there are 1049 days left until the start of the 2010 Olympic Games. The catch is… that because of concerns about vandalism of the sign (not everybody is happy about the Games coming to town)… that there is a security guard there 24 hours a day. At the current minumum wage of $8.90 per hour, how much money will be spent paying for security on the sign? The logic puzzle is – why would anybody design a sign that (a) required 24 hr./day security and (b) why would they think that this is a good use of tax money? Go figure!

From http://flickr.com/photos/qat_staff/482149006/

Where is social housing promised by 2010 Olympic Committee???

Construction of the 2010 Olympic Speed Skating Oval as seen from Chopper.

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/murman/626813275

A quick snap shot of the progress of the Speed Skating Venue as we fly into YVR.

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/murman/626813283

photos from http://flickr.com/photos/jkevgen

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) and children ride in a tractor during a visit to a mountainside of Sochi resort, 20 February 2007. Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission arrived in Sochi late on Sunday, their second stop on a three-city tour to evaluate which city will win the right to host the 2014 Winter Games.

From http://flickr.com/photos/62622776@N00/397733072

Photos from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo