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DTSTAMP:20260427T221636Z
SUMMARY:Poverty Olympics
DESCRIPTION:From Steven Hui's Georgia Straight article of January 16:\
 n\nFive days before the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouv
 er, community groups will stage a protest event designed to internatio
 nally embarrass the Canadian, B.C., and city governments into addressi
 ng poverty.\n\nThe 2010 Poverty Olympics, the third edition of the ann
 ual street-theatre event, will take place on February 7 at the Vancouv
 er Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall (487 Alexander Street) i
 n the Downtown Eastside.\n\nOn Sunday (January 17) at 1 p.m., the firs
 t-ever provincewide Poverty Olympics torch relay will kick off with an
  event at the Olympic countdown clock by the Vancouver Art Gallery.\n\
 nFebruary’s opening ceremonies and games will feature a singing of t
 he Poverty Anthem, sporting events (Welfare Hurdles and Skating Around
  Poverty), mascots (Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach, and Chewy 
 the Rat), and the \"Bad Guys\" (Mr. Bid and Mr. Con Dough).\n\nIn a le
 tter on the event’s Web site, the Poverty Olympics organizing commit
 tee warns Olympic visitors that they won’t be able to avoid seeing t
 housands of homeless people on Vancouver’s streets.\n\n\"Unless we d
 o something about this shameful situation, visitors in 2010 will be tr
 eated to a city with more homeless people than athletes competing in t
 he Games!\" the letter states.\n\n\"Grinding poverty and growing homel
 essness are happening despite some bold promises to create a positive 
 Olympic legacy — promises such as building more social housing, redu
 cing homelessness, and not displacing poor people to make way for Olym
 pics-driven development.\"\n\nThe letter adds that organizers have ask
 ed the International Olympic Committee to make the Poverty Olympics an
  official part of the Games.\n\n\"We hope that shining the internation
 al spotlight on the dark side of our prosperous city and province migh
 t finally convince our governments to take action,\" the letter says.\
 n\nAccording to the Poverty Olympics site, there are 10,000 homeless p
 eople across British Columbia, including more than 2,000 in Metro Vanc
 ouver.\n\nA report—prepared by a University of British Columbia rese
 arch team for the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee and released 
 in December 2009—found that homelessness more than doubled in Vancou
 ver between 2002 and 2008.\n\nThe Poverty Olympics site calls the prov
 ince \"a gold medalist when it comes to poverty\". B.C. has posted the
  worst child-poverty rate for six straight years.\n\nOrganizers are de
 manding the provincial government increase welfare rates by 50 percent
  and index them to inflation, the federal government create and fund a
  national housing strategy, and the City of Vancouver establish a mora
 torium on the conversion and closure of residential hotels which house
  low-income tenants.\n\nThe groups involved in organizing the event ar
 e Raise the Rates, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Carnegie Com
 munity Action Project, B.C. Persons With AIDS Society, Streams of Just
 ice, and Vancouver Area Network of Drugs Users.\n\nFor more informatio
 n visit http://villagevancouver.org/events/poverty-olympics
DTSTART:20100207T080000Z
DTEND:20100208T075900Z
CATEGORIES:sports, protest
LOCATION:Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall in the D
 owntown Eastside
WEBSITE:http://povertyolympics.ca/
URL:http://povertyolympics.ca/
CONTACT:info@povertyolympics.ca
ORGANIZER:Poverty Olympics Organizing Committee
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 file/get/2051038012?profile=original
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE;CN="Randy Ch
 atterjee":http://villagevancouver.org/profile/RandyChatterjee
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