Vancouver2010 Olympic Kidnapping Act Protest ,Sun Dec 13 09

Downtown Eastside Residents & Activist gathered at Police HQ to protest

The BC Liberals   Assistance to Shelter Act    AKA:  “The Olympic Kidnapping Act “on Sunday Dec 13 2009  which was hastily  passed  into law last month ,  Which gives Police throughout  the City & Province the power to forcibly move homeless people into shelters   & or to another location ( anywhere in the province )    This Act does nothing to help the homeless people of this city and province  , in fact it displaces  the homeless “ said Harsha Walia  of Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre

Harsha , Tristan Markle of Vancouver Action   stress that this Act is Unconstitutional  &  Unjust  Act needs to be repealed ,  they also said  If the police are not enforcing this  , then it should not even be on the books  , Lauren Emily Gill of Citywide Housing Coalition &  Protesters chanted “ 2010 Homes not 2010 Games ! & Who’s Streets?  Our Streets!  & Stop the Assistance to Shelter Act  ! We don’t want to go to Chilliwack! 

The BC Government has had eight years to care about homeless Men, Women & Children freezing to death on our streets!   

Housing Minister Rich Coleman has said in the past that the purpose of this Act is to prevent the homeless from dying in the streets during extreme weather; many at this protest and throughout BC do not buy that! They believe it is to clean up the streets of Vancouver for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games which runs from Feb 12 – Feb 28 2010.

This Act was passed into law without any consultation with the community’s  , The BC Liberals are aware that this act is vulnerable to  Charter of Rights & Freedoms  challenge ,  Rich Coleman has said that an illegal Act is a  Risk his government is willing to take at this time ,  Pivot Legal Society of Vancouver is challenging the Government on this Act , That court case won’t take place till after the Olympics are over ,  This government has a history of this kind of Law Making Process  SHAME !

Let’s not forget what happened at the 1996 Games, 9000 homeless persons were shipped out of the city for the duration of the Olympics,   SHAME!

I also posted the video earlier this week , I tryed to post both at the same time , It said nothing selected when I tryed to post the video , I find out yesterday the video is on here and my saved draft is no where to be found , oh dear !