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2009 Poverty
Olympics
The 2009 Poverty Olympics provided a hilarious and serious preview of what international media will see when they come to Vancouver for the 2010 Games.
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 community, 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.
For more information on poverty in Canada go to povertyolympics.ca or ccapvancouver.wordpress.com.
For leads on the homelessness and poverty situation in Canada or on how to attend the 2010 Poverty Olympics, to be held during the Vancouver Olympics in February, 2010, email Jean Swanson jean.swanson [ at ] gmail.com.
Wall Street Journal - February 10, 2009
Game Changer: Recession Recasts Olympic Spending
online.wsj.com
Vancouver Sun - February 9, 2009
'Poverty Olympics' ridicule Games
www2.canada.com
Globe and Mail, Canada - February 9, 2009
Poverty Olympics spotlight Downtown Eastside
www.theglobeandmail.com
The Georgia Straight - February 9, 2009
Organizer expects Poverty Olympics to run alongside 2010 Games
www.straight.com
News 1130 - Febraray 9, 2009
www.news1130.com
Metro Daily News - February 9, 2009
www.metronews.ca
Macau Daily Times - Macau
www.macaudailytimesnews.com
Raise the Rates - 5 Demands
BC needs a long term Poverty Reduction Strategy. However, in the short term, 5 simple policy changes would lift hundreds of thousands of BC’s poorest residents out of poverty and homeless people off the streets:
- Increase income assistance rates for all, including people with disabilities, to a level that provides an adequate living standard; index new rates to the cost of living. More>>
- Remove the arbitrary barriers that keep people in need from receiving income assistance, including the 2-year independence test, the 3-week work search, employment plans, web orientation, lack of transportation, and inordinate documentation demands; guarantee access to income assistance for all BC residents regardless of citizenship status or participation in immigrant sponsorship. More >>
- End the clawbacks – let all people on income assistance have an earnings exemption of $500/month and allow parents to keep all child support payments. More >>
- Increase the minimum wage to $10/hour and index to inflation; ensure that all workers get at least $10 an hour; end the $6 training wage. More >>
- Build at least 2000 units of non-market social housing per year in addition to assisted living units and shelter beds. More >>
Complete document (PDF)
The Appalling Situation
We are shocked by the scandalous and continuing existence of abject poverty in a province experiencing a long-term boom and boasting a budget surplus of $4.1 billion in 2007. This is clearly an infringement of the human rights of BC’s vulnerable people.
Some statistics:
International Human Rights
What
does the United Nations say about Canada’s
record on poverty?
The key point is that BC continues to act in violation
of its obligations under international law to respect, protect and
fulfill the fundamental rights of vulnerable British Columbians to food,
clothing,
and shelter.
Postcard Campaign
Send a postcard to Gordon Campbell
 
to tell him you want action now.
Poverty Olympics February 3, 2008
Photo by Murray Bush, flux foto
Fun and games amid serious talk. Organizers showed the world that "Vancouver has world-class poverty".
See the Poverty Olympics website: povertyolympics.ca
Raise the Rates organized meetings with MLAs to tell them what its like living on welfare. Here are some reports:
- The Advocacy Centre organized a meeting between the Nelson/Creston MLA, Corky Evans (NDP) and five people from Nelson who are on income assistance.
The meeting took place December 17, 2008 at Corky's office. Each person gave a brief presentation about their experiences on income assistance.
- The biggest message was that welfare rates, particularly the shelter allowances, were too low given today's housing and utility costs. Everyone at the meeting was using money from their support allowance to pay for shelter, and three had been homeless within the last year because they couldn't find a safe, affordable place to live.
- Other issues raised included: - the stigma and stereotypes associated with being on income assistance - the barrier created by the complex Persons With Disabilities application - issues around working and finding affordable child care for children under school age - difficulties in finding out what benefits are available through income assistance and accessing them.
All participants presented extremely well, and Corky listened carefully.
There was some general discussion, and I think people felt heard. We were left with the message that we should continue to organize provincially to get the issues on the table for the election in the spring. On the whole, I think it went well. It is important for people to get a chance to share their concerns with their elected representative.
Amy TaylorThe Advocacy Centre201-182 Baker St.
Nelson, BC V1L 4H2
- Dave Diewert reported that Streams of Justice went with 4 people to meet Jenny Kwan and Jagrup Brar, and Vanessa Geary, the NDP policy person on October 16. The people spoke about welfare and raising children, health, work, social stigma and housing and had a discussion afterwards. Jenny said if the NDP were government, they would build 2400 units of social housing now and 1200 per year after that. It was a positive experience and the 4 presenters did well.
- Jean Swanson said that 3 people from Carnegie Community Action Project met Jagrup, Vanessa and Chuck Puckmayer, the NDP Labour Critic on October 16.
Everyone did a good job of presenting and the MLAs were polite. There was lots of discussion. The same promise was made about housing but nothing about welfare rates.
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June 30, 2009
Campbell Turns Back on Kids
Editorial, Victoria Times Colonist
What is Premier Gordon Campbell thinking? The province, according
to Statistics Canada, has had the highest rate of child poverty
in Canada for the past six years. The problems are increasing as
more people lose their jobs.
Yet Campbell has refused to meet with the Representative for Children
and Youth to discuss ways of improving the lives of poor children.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond asked for a joint meeting with Campbell
and NDP Leader Carole James. The situation is urgent, she said,
and should be above partisan politics. The leaders should co-operate
on plans to make things better for children at a tough time.
More>>
June 5, 2009
The Buzz About Bee Stings and the Poor
Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star
In his book, The Persistence of Poverty: Why the Economics
of the Well-off Can't Help the Poor, Karelis begins by asking
the question mainstream economists – and the general public
– often ask about the poor.
Why are they more likely than the middle-class to quit school,
have children young, not work, abuse drugs, break the law and spend
recklessly rather than save for a rainy day? Surely the poor have
more incentive to work to improve their condition and to complete
school when higher education is linked to better jobs and more pay.
Likewise, the consequences of having children you can't afford,
being constantly impaired, having a criminal record and refusing
to save, are far more dire for someone already struggling, he says,
explaining traditional middle-class reasoning.
However, this behaviour becomes rational when seen from the point
of view of the poor, says Karelis, a former president of Colgate
University in rural New York state. He likens it to a person being
swarmed by bees.
More
>>
April 30, 2009
Why inequality is fatal - Book Review
Michael Sargent, Nature
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always
Do Better
In their new book, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
extend this idea with a far-reaching analysis of the social consequences
of income inequality. Using statistics from reputable independent
sources, they compare indices of health and social development in
23 of the world's richest nations and in the individual US states.
Their striking conclusion is that the societies that do best for
their citizens are those with the narrowest income differentials
— such as Japan and the Nordic countries and the US state of New
Hampshire. The most unequal — the United States as a whole, the
United Kingdom and Portugal — do worst.
More
>>
April 13, 2009
BC's Badly Broken Welfare System
Andrew MacLeod, TheTyee.ca
BC Libs created 'overly complex' maze that kept needy off rolls: ombudsman
The good news is the provincial government is promising to fix the
welfare system. The bad news is they broke it really, really badly and
much damage is already done.
"A lot of these problems have been really bad for seven years," said
Sarah Khan, a lawyer with the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
"Many of them have been chronic since 2002."
The problems go back to the period after Premier Gordon Campbell's BC
Liberal Party first formed government. As the Tyee reported in a 2004
series, Campbell's reforms led to a huge drop in the welfare caseload.
While the government claimed the drop was from people going back to
work, much of it with the help of private job placement companies,
there was plenty of evidence the new rules were being used to rule
ineligible people who would previously have gotten help.
More >>
March 23, 2009
Welfare application process 'unduly complex': Ombudsman
Andrew MacLeod, the Tyee
What we have known all along:
"The ministry's income assistance application process is unduly complex and not designed to meet the needs of the people who are applying for assistance," found Ombudsman Kim Carter in the 121-page report, Last Resort: Improving Fairness and Accountability in British Columbia's Income Assistance Program.
The report is the result of a systemic investigation into the provincial welfare system sparked by a 2005 complaint from the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
More >>
March 17, 2009
Poverty Olympics
International Bulletin #2
Wendy Pedersen, CCAP
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.
More >>
February 16, 2009
Homeless take centre stage in B.C. Throne Speech
Justine Hunter, Globe and Mail
VICTORIA — Programs designed to house the province's most entrenched homeless population will be expanded this year, Premier Gordon Campbell promised Monday.
With less than a year before the 2010 Winter Olympics bring the international spotlight to Vancouver, the government set out a new commitment in the Speech from the Throne to combat poverty, drug addiction and mental-health issues in the country's most impoverished neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside.
More >>
February 8, 2009
2009 Poverty Olympics a success
Raise the Rates
The 2009 Poverty Olympics provided a hilarious and serious preview of what international media will see when they come to Vancouver for the 2010 Games.
More >>
February 5, 2009
Time for a Poverty Reduction Plan for BC
(Vancouver) Two hundred organizations from across the province joined together today in a call for all-party support for a legislated BC poverty reduction plan.
The groups are signatories to an open letter calling on all political parties to commit that, if elected in May, they will implement a comprehensive poverty reduction plan that includes:
- Legislated targets and timelines to reduce BC’s poverty rate by one third within four years, and end street homelessness within two years; and,
- Policy actions in seven key areas that would end deep poverty, improve conditions for the working poor, and focus on groups that are most vulnerable to poverty.
More >>
December 18, 2008
Citizens meet with MLAs
Raise the Rates
Raise the Rates reports on meetings with MLAs to tell them what its like living on welfare.
More >>
News archive >>
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