Open letter to Globe Columnist Gary Mason
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 by David Eby
Hi Gary:
I don’t even know what to say about your latest column “Blaming B.C. Olympics for Housing Ills is Wrong.”
Before I read your piece, I would have hoped that an investigative journalist like you would spend some time looking behind the claims of government to address whether or not they were actually true. I would also have hoped that you would read the complaint, and not just the news coverage of the complaint, before slagging it as blaming the Olympics for homelessness.
In sum, I would figure that simply because your paper was an Olympic sponsor, you would not just rephrase the official line from the Premier’s office on the complaint in your column without more. You did none of those things, you called it in on a critical issue for many people in B.C., and so I am sorry to say that my respect for you – whether you care or not – took quite a hit today.
Yours truly,
David Eby
Blaming B.C. Olympics for housing ills wrong
GARY MASON
gmason@globeandmail.com
April 15, 2008
VANCOUVER -- The poor Olympics. They can't win.
Two University of British Columbia students, backed by a handful of non-profits, are filing a human-rights complaint against Canada with the United Nations Human Rights Council over the lack of affordable housing in Vancouver.
The 2010 Winter Games is being blamed for making an existing housing problem worse. Among other things, the complainants are worried that thousands of the poor will be evicted from their single-room occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside to make room for visitors arriving for the winter sporting spectacle.
Now, I'm all for students fighting for important domestic and international causes. There is a long and illustrious tradition of this that dates back centuries. Or at least to the Vietnam War. In this case, however, I think any link between Vancouver's housing problems and the coming Olympics is misguided if not dead wrong.
The most important and lasting legacy of the 2010 Winter Games will not be the gleaming new sports facilities left behind or the global goodwill Canada engenders as host nation - it will be the efforts made to help the poor and the homeless here. That and the cleanup of the most shameful neighbourhood in the country.
The provincial government has already announced 3,000 new units of social housing, with promises of more to come. As part of this program, the government has purchased 17 low-rent hotels, mostly in the Downtown Eastside, with plans to buy more. Instead of turning the hotels into gleaming new properties that could cash in on the Olympic surge, the properties will be renovated and properly run as low-income housing.
Some of these places were among the most poorly run, squalid hellholes in Canada. Now people may be able to live in them with a sense of pride, one that could have a positive ripple effect in other areas of their lives.
The provincial government has set aside more than $41-million in funding for various social housing initiatives over the next few years. This includes in-house support services for those requiring almost daily medical and counselling assistance.
Last week, Premier Gordon Campbell announced another $10-million to help finance a city-led effort to renew the area in and around the Downtown Eastside, something that should have been done ages ago.
And yesterday, Mr. Campbell said his government was committing $5-million for the expansion of Covenant House Vancouver, which is a shelter and resource centre for homeless youth. This will allow the centre to open 32 new beds.
This is not meant to be a rah-rah, isn't-the-provincial-government-wonderful column.
When it comes to helping the poor and disadvantaged, governments can always do more. But often when you give them even the slightest credit for doing something positive, you're accused of suggesting they've done enough.
They haven't. And I'm not.
What I am saying is that the 2010 Olympics has been the impetus for virtually all these recent initiatives. No, it shouldn't have taken the spectre of being embarrassed in front of the world for the government to do something about the situation - but it did. The Olympics may end up being the best thing that ever happened to the poor and homeless in this city.
The mass evictions being predicted by some won't happen. The provincial government has said it won't let it happen and so has the Vancouver Organizing Committee. Both know it would be a colossal public-relations disaster.
Still, all the recent initiatives won't be nearly enough to help all those needing roofs over their heads. According to figures released last week, the number of people living on the streets of Greater Vancouver is 2,592 - up 37 per cent since 2005.
A problem to be sure, just don't blame it on the Olympics.
RSS
Email
Twitter
The other issue is this: this is PROVINCIAL money - not just Vancouver money. What about the lack of affordable housing everywhere else in this province? It's not a problem specific to Vancouver, but that's going to be where it's most noticeable. Also, if they can afford the Olympics, they can get us an MRI machine out here in the boonies so we don't have to wait 3 months for an MRI. Etc. Etc.
Grr.
I just found your blog this morning, BTW. I'll subscribe so I can keep up to date.
Ah, I see you addressed this in a post further down.
This is the email i sent to gary mason...
Dear Mr. Mason,
I have been a fan of your journalism since first reading your articles in the Vancouver Sun. I am a highschool teacher in the lower mainland, educated at UBC, and have played, and continue to play, a variety of sports at a very high amateur level. While I whole-heartedly support sports and other physical endeavours and recreational pursuits, my position towards the 2010 Olympics has changed drastically since learning of the effects the Games have and will continue to have on my Vancouver community. I celebrated the winning of the games when I first learned they were awarded to Vancouver; now, however, I am quite adamantly opposed to the Olympics because of the tragic and inhumane effect they are having and will continue to have on the most vulnerable members of our community.
Your article, "blaming olympics for housing ills is wrong", is, unfortunately, one of your worst pieces to date. How a reputable investigative journalist like yourself failed to report on the reality behind the government rhetoric is deplorable. "I think any link between Vancouver's housing problems and the coming Olympics is misguided if not dead wrong"; perhaps you should interview Am Johal or David Eby and find out what's really happening on the ground. Perhaps your opinion would be swayed if you interviewed tenants residing in the downtown eastside and learned of their illegal eviction stories. Please read David Eby's blog http://davideby.blogspot.com/ ... he has pasted hyperlinks into your article that challenge everything you convey as being 'factual'. In a true democracy, the press has a responsibility to inform the people at large of the TRUTH, and neglecting to do so (whether to sell papers or to promote Government/business interests) is unbecoming of a journalist and jeopardizes your integrity. As a respected journalist, you have lost integrity with this article; you have the ability to win it back by writing a legitimate and informative article. Please do your research.
The situation for many residing in the downtown Eastside is very visibly dire. The complaint sent to the United Nations by UBC student Mike Powar makes a very strong case that Canada is violating fundamental human rights with regards to housing in the downtown eastside, and I hope that through ‘embarrassment’ and ‘shame’ the government will finally take affirmative action to improve the lives of our society’s most vulnerable. There’s no place like home…. In a country as prosperous as Canada, there’s no place for homelessness.
As much as I support the Tibetans and the ongoing struggle for human rights protections in China, it would be hypocritical of me to ignore the human rights violations taking place in our own back yard. The government can and should do more to ensure that adequate social housing is available to all Canadians, regardless of one’s socio-economic situation. As homelessness in our city as well as the rest of the GVRD increases, the situation is much more than embarrassing, it is tragic, and our government should feel ashamed of their inadequate ‘solutions’ to this issue.
To claim that "The Olympics may end up being the best thing that ever happened to the poor and homeless in this city" is outright outrageous. Mr. Mason: I expect better from you.
Anon: Excellent letter.