Douglas Haddow, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 January 2010

It’s now two weeks until the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic games, a city-defining event that is a decade in the making. But a decade is a very long time. Much of what seemed sensible in the early 2000s has proven to be the opposite: for instance, allowing investment bankers to pursue profits willy-nilly was acceptable when Vancouver won the bid in 2003, but is now viewed as idiotic. So it comes as no surprise that just days before the opening ceremony, Vancouver is gripped by dread. Not the typical attitude for a host city, but understandable when you consider that everything that could go wrong, is in the process of going wrong.

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January 30, 2010, Petti Fong, Toronto Star

VANCOUVER–Putting a dollar figure on the cost of the Vancouver Olympics is no easy task. The bottom line is a moving target, with supporters saying the benefits of hosting the Games far outweigh budget numbers, and critics charging that the Olympics are a poor reason for governments and sponsors to overspend. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, known as VANOC, insists its $1.76 billion operating budget is on target. So far, no one has produced the numbers to prove it wrong. But ever since 2003, when Vancouver won the right to host the Games, the cost of putting on the events has kept rising.

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Vancouver Courier, Friday, January 29, 2010

On Feb. 12, an assortment of groups calling themselves the 2010 Welcoming Committee will hold an anti-Olympics rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery at the same time as the opening ceremonies. Here are some of the protestors:

Name: Robert Ages, 56, Birth place: Ottawa, Residence: Ladner
Day job: independent economic and financial consultant. Education: undergrad in economics from York university, finance MBA from University of Toronto.
Groups: national treasurer for the Council of Canadians, a group founded in 1985 to oppose the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
Reason for protesting Olympics: “The involvement of a number of corporations as Olympic sponsors who are exactly the same corporations [the Council of Canadians] is opposing every day, whether in regard to the tar sands or privatization of water–they’re the same people.”
Interesting fact: first protest was at age 13 for student rights.

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Am Johal, Jan 29th, 2010, Vancouver Observer

Welcome to Vancouver Olympic Economics 101. As cities around the world fall all over themselves to bid to become the host city, civic elites bombard the public with tales of rosy financial projections. As the logic goes, to oppose the Olympics is to stand in the way of economic development. Armchair newspaper columnists misframe social critics and advance the Olympic project. In reality, the economy of a host city goes on steroids. Construction costs double, real estate speculation heats up, impacting affordability. Public money gets diverted for speed skating ovals and luge tracks. No one wants to talk about the principle of “opportunity cost.” Cost overruns are classified as contributions to the GDP. We need to make our city look pretty for Bob Costas and NBC.

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By Arthur Manuel, Georgia Straight

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will happen, and very little attention has been given to Canada’s dismal human rights record on indigenous peoples. This has to be contrasted with how Tibet human rights issues were raised during the 2008 Summer Olympics in China. Canada decided to do its torch relay inside Canada and used the Four Host First Nations to divide and rule over indigenous peoples in Canada. It is important not to pick on the Four Host First Nations, because it is Canada that is the real culprit in this human rights travesty. The economic initiatives accepted by the Four Host First Nations cannot override the human rights of indigenous peoples. In fact, the preparatory meeting for the 2008 session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues acknowledged Canada’s unprecedented involvement of indigenous peoples in the 2010 Winter Olympics but also said this did not absolve Canada from responsibility for its violations of the human rights of indigenous peoples.

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