Vancouver View-City Council Amends Olympic Bylaws

The Vancouver city council passed amended bylaws aimed at protecting Olympic sponsors on Thursday, but civil rights advocates continue to question the measures.

“Vancouver has held lots of international events previously without needing special bylaws that restrict what people can and can’t say or without these disturbance offenses,” said B.C. Civil Liberties Association executive director David Eby. “I don’t quite understand why the Olympics is so different except for the fact the IOC is asking for this.”

The council revised the unpopular July-passed package that created bubble zones around entire commercial and residential neighborhoods for the first three months of 2010. The council reduced the size, scope and schedules of restricted areas. The council also repealed the previously outlawed distribution of newspapers with less than 70 percent advertising.

The city will have power to enter private property with a court order to seize dangerous signage or remove graffiti. Fines range $250 to $10,000 Canadian dollars, but city manager Penny Ballem said the city wouldn’t use provincial government-granted powers to jail offenders.

Ballem said commercial literature, megaphones and bottles would be seized at the airport-style security checkpoints at the city’s two live sites. Live sites will be operated like any entertainment venue where demonstrations will not be allowed.

“If they come in with literature that is anything other than commercial, they can distribute that, but if they start creating litter or a mess we have the ability to stop that,” said Ballem, one of the city’s two members of the VANOC board.

The July bylaws angered local media companies, independent retailers and civil libertarians. Olympic Resistance Network members Chris Shaw and Alissa Westergard-Thorpe filed a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit to challenge the bylaws.

Eby said the amendments answer most of their concerns, except for the commercial restrictions. “Chris had said he wanted to leaflet around his book, Alissa said she wanted to sell anti-Olympic T-shirts and pins,” Eby said. “Those activities would still be prohibited.”

Eby said no decision has been made on whether the BCCLA-backed lawsuit will proceed.

Mayor Gregor Robertson said enforcement of the bylaws at Games-time will need to be “thoughtful and considerate” so as to maintain citizens’ rights and freedoms.

“Hopefully this all goes much more smoothly than some have predicted,” Robertson said.

Study finds "Slightly Positive" Effects from Olympic Preparation

Preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics had a “slightly positive” impact from 2002 to 2006, according to a University of British Columbia study funded by VANOC.

The second of four Olympic Games Impact reports said those impacts were mainly felt in “economic and socio-cultural spheres,” but UBC Professor Rob Van Wynsberghes said more time and data are needed to measure how the Games are affecting the economy and environment of the host city, province and country.

Homelessness increased in Metro Vancouver and air-quality decreased in Whistler and Squamish, the study found. Researchers said they could not blame the Games for the six-year doubling of homeless from 1,121 to 2,660 in Metro Vancouver nor credit it for expansion in homeless shelter spots from 682 in 2002 to 1,420 in 2009.

Air quality in Whistler and Squamish may have suffered temporarily from Games construction, though Metro Vancouver air quality improved from 2002 to 2006.

The Games may have helped more companies form in the region, though the 2002 to 2006 period coincided with an economic boom. The biggest spike in tourists happened before the Games were awarded in 2003.

Vancouver 2010 is the first organizing committee required to conduct an Olympic Games Impact Report (OCG), which is intended to assist future bid and host cities maximize benefits and minimize drawbacks. VANOC paid $300,000 for the report while UBC matched it with a $300,000 in-kind donation. Further reports will be issued in 2010 and 2013. Protestors to keep Protesting

Anti-Olympic protesters vow not to give up after police infiltrated their ranks during when the Canadian torch relay began Oct. 30.

“While the police will increase their surveillance activities and their attempts to divide us, we are seeing increasing resistance across the country with additional protests planned against the torch relay in Quebec and Ontario,” the Olympic Resistance Network said in a statement released on Thursday.

“We encourage more residents who are enraged and affected by the impact of the Games to get involved and to express their right to dissent against this five ring circus of oppression."

Victoria Police chief Jamie Graham boasted to a security conference in Vancouver on Nov. 30 that an undercover cop drove protesters in a bus to an anti-torch relay rally.

Last chance to jump in 2010

The lawyer for 13 women from five countries who are hoping to ski jump at the 2010 Winter Olympics is taking the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Ross Clark applied Dec. 1 for leave to appeal a Nov. 13 British Columbia Court of Appeal verdict and is seeking an expedited hearing. The Games begin Feb. 12 with a men’s only ski jumping event.

A provincial appeal court tribunal upheld a lower court ruling that said the IOC controls Games programming. The IOC decided in 2006 not to add women’s ski jumping and cannot be forced to follow the Canadian constitution.

The appeal court allowed VANOC to seek repayment for its legal bills from the plaintiffs. “VANOC will seek costs,” said defense lawyer George Macintosh.

With reporting from Bob Mackin