The VPD has flagging hopes

Vancouver Police made a surprise visit to the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) on Thursday, showing up at 11 pm with a search warrant.

Although a group calling itself the Native Warriors Society has claimed responsibility for the theft of the Olympic flag from in front of City Hall three weeks ago, the VPD, responding to an "anonymous tip", thought they might find the flag in DERA's basement.

This was the first time DERA has been searched in its 34 year history.

Police spokesman Constable Tim Fanning has said the search was carried out at night to avoid the attention of protesters. Eight police officers apparently spent an hour searching the premises, took a few photos and left, sans flag.

Some activists have raised questions about why the raid took place under cover of darkness. Kim Kerr, the director of DERA, has called the raid a "political attack" against those campaigning for social housing in the lead-up to the 2010 Games.

The police claim they weren't targeting housing advocates. In a Vancouver Sun story, Constable Fanning is quoted as saying, "If we had been told that the flag was in a home in Shaughnessy we'd have gone there too."

The picture above is of a house in Shaughnessy, one of Vancouver's wealthier neighbourhoods. Do you really think police would show up there at 11 pm with the intention of searching their basement?

I met Kim Kerr in the fall and he told me, among other things, that DERA's basement contains a veritable archive of all legal actions that have taken place in the Downtown Eastside over the years.

The search indeed raises some eyebrows. Why did the VPD, already complaining of personnel shortages, send eight people to rifle through a basement for something they likely knew they wouldn't find there? What else might they have been looking for?

Perhaps someone should suggest to the VPD that the Olympic flag may have been gnome-napped. Any day now it might turn up in another photograph, held by different masked men in a far-flung place.

Photo courtesy of Squeaky Marmot.

Watch your language!

There's a small family-owned pizza place in downtown Vancouver called Olympic Pizza. The restaurant has operated under this name for 15 years. Last year, the restaurant came under fire from the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) for infringing on the Olympic trademark. After public outcry and repeated statements from the family that they would fight VANOC tooth and nail for use of the name, VANOC backed down. The committee is now distinguishing between established companies and recent startups who make use of the Olympic name or other names that might confuse people into thinking a business is associated with the 'official' Olympics. Their intent is to put a stop to ambush marketing by companies who want to sell items with Olympic slogans on them without becoming official Games sponsors.

I've blogged about this before, but what's particularly interesting to me now is the kind of resistance to VANOC's use of the Canadian Trademarks Act that we're seeing from trademark lawyers themselves.

In a March 29th Vancouver Sun story, Jeff Lee writes that some trademark specialists and members of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada feel Olympic organizers are perverting the original intent of the official marks section of the Trademark Act.

Dan Bereskin, a trademark lawyer in Toronto, is quoted as saying, "The legislation that was enacted was supposed to benefit real public authorities that might have symbols or marks that were unique to them, and the imitation of which would normally be considered to be improper. I don't think they had in mind that so-called public authorities would get involved in merchandising activities."

Apparently, in the lead up to the Calgary Winter Games, the Olympic organizing committee clamped down on the use of "Calgary '88" on unofficial merchandise. I can understand the reasoning behind this. VANOC has gone one step further, outlawing use of the word "winter" in conjunction with other Olympic "trademarks" or symbols. But winter is a season! Or it was the last time I checked.

According to the folks at TDH Strategies, Stéphane Dion could well find himself in trouble for using some key Olympic rallying cries. All in jest, really.

Check out the Appropriation Art website for more info on fair use and artistic freedom.

The image of the Olympic crossword puzzle comes courtesy of Paul Conneally. Thanks Paul!

Virtual Dissent

The folks at Only Magazine, formerly Terminal City, have designed a downloadable riot clock widget in honour of Vancouver's new Olympic countdown clock. Instead of watching the days, hours and minutes count down to the opening of the 2010 Games you can watch a pint-sized version of the original count down to some sort of riot from the comfort of your Mac (sorry PC-users, the widget is only available on Macs). But Only Magazine wants you to know they don't advocate real riots, just virtual ones.

Apparently, the magazine was investigated by the Vancouver police for inciting a riot that took place following the Vancouver Canucks' loss of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1994.

Only Magazine calls their Olympic clock a "replacement" for the "monolithic eyesore" that sits on the lawn of the VAG. The widget doesn't require a 24/7 security guard or anti-graffiti coating and it doesn't come with a hefty price tag. Irony alert! The magazine wants us to think of all the "wondrous" things the Games will be bringing to the city while we watch our widget clocks tick away.

I like the idea of this widget although I'm not sure why...there's something appealing to me about a silent, virtual protest. There have been many effusive comments about the widget on message boards. Lovers of the hyperreal all! The spirit of Baudrillard seems to be permeating my recent posts!

Only Magazine is also responsible for the first all-Vancouver music podcast. You can read about the history of the magazine here.

New Additions

Despite RCMP Chief Superintendent Bob Harriman's recent statements in the Globe and Mail that there will be "no new technologies...employed during the Olympics" and that the Games won't be "a showcase for new stuff," it looks like the Vancouver Police department has invested in at least one "armoured rescue vehicle" (read: tank) in an attempt to curb security threats during the Games.

The tank will be bullet and small explosive proof, says Chief Constable Jamie Graham in the Georgia Straight.

Apparently, the tank will only be used by the VPD's Emergency Response or SWAT team. It's doubtful you'll see regular members of the VPD taking this mean machine out on the town. They'll have to make do with their horses.

Also in the Straight, Sgt. Norm Webster charmingly spins the "unassuming" tank as a "rescue vehicle" intended to "protect our citizens." Who gets rescued in a tank? Furthermore, how will the knowledge that the VPD has one tank in its fleet make the common citizen feel any safer? I think that if we need to consider buying tanks to create an aura of safety in this city during the Games, perhaps the Games shouldn't be happening here....

I can't help but feel that all this talk of terrorist threats during the Games is a subtle mask for the types of threats VANOC etc know they can anticipate. And the use of a tank, even as a symbol, to quell dissent is very disturbing.

The Straight makes the links I'm talking about here. The article ends with, "Graham and Webster didn’t tell the board what kind of situations before and during the Olympics will require the use of this vehicle. Anti-poverty, environmental, and aboriginal groups have vowed to step up protests against the games."

You can read more about the new addition to the Vancouver Police force on Bear604's blog from March 16th.

The photo of the tank comes from Superciliousness.

Neighbourhood Energy Utility

The city of Vancouver is currently trying to figure out how to supply heat and hot water to 15,000 people in the Southwest False Creek area, which includes the new Olympic Village. To stick with the new green theme for the Village construction, they're looking at alternative energy sources.

The frontrunner? Wood pellet biomass energy. Creating biomass energy involves burning wood pellets in an incinerator to generate heat. The process has some environmental advantages but also some striking downsides. The process is considered to be carbon neutral but some locals in the area are raising concerns about the process. It will produce effluent that will likely blow towards the east end of False Creek. The process will also require 6,000 tonnes of wood pellets to be trucked in to the neighbourhood. Another concern is particulate production, but local engineers are downgrading this concern by saying that most particulates will be removed in the process by a precipitator.

Engineer Chris Baber is in charge of the project, named the neighbourhood energy utility or NEU. Baber says biomass is the greenest option for providing heat and hot water to residents.

The city has also considered capturing heat from the neighbourhood's sewer lines. This idea of recycling heat is a popular one, yet technically challenging.

Roger Bayley, the architect who is coordinating the project, is in favor of recycling heat from sewer lines. He has been raising concerns about the biomass option among various business groups and city council.

In a Vancouver Sun article from March 9th, Bayley says the proposed biomass project could lead to an "unwarranted increase in emissions," adding that "the use of a purchased and trucked product [is] not in keeping with the standards of sustainability for the community that sought to use 'local' and cheap sources of energy available at the site."

The city will be seeking public input on 'green' energy options until March 31st. Have a say: the NEU model of locally generated alternative energy may be replicated in other neighbourhoods if it is successful.

The photo above was taken by Steve Roe.

Illuminating Stuff

From the sounds of it, the crowd that showed up to the Olympic and Paralympic flag illuminating ceremony on Monday wasn’t quite the demographic that VANOC was anticipating. Of the 200 + people on the scene, a majority were Games protestors. The Vancouver Police Emergency Response Team was on hand, a handful of its members armed with video cameras to catch the actions of any rabblerousers. In recent years, video cameras have become standard issue at protests. Protestors carry them not only to document an action but also as a way of communicating to the police and the powers that be that they can be held accountable for their actions. Oh, how I wish I’d been on hand to take a photo of a protestor filming a police officer filming a protestor. Somehow, I think French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, who died this week, would have enjoyed such a scene. R.I.P. Baudrillard!

Ever since the Olympic clock unveiling of February 12th, the police have been upping the ante on security. On Monday, everyone even remotely close to the illumination ceremony was searched, including the media! VANOC has also insisted that crowd-control fencing be set up at all events held in the open to separate the public from dignitaries.

In a Macleans article about the flag illuminating ceremony, it says that two arrests were made for breach of peace.

This from a Canoe story on the ceremony:

“Vancouver police Constable Tim Fanning says the intensified police presence at the event wasn’t coming out of the Olympic security budget.”

So all these extra security measures the police are taking aren’t part of the security budget for the Olympics? I assume this means the money is coming from the public. I for one would rather not be fleeced for security measures I find insulting and dehumanizing.

In related news, the Olympic countdown clock in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery was spraypainted with the words “Free Betty” (in reference to Betty Krawczyk, the environmental protestor recently sentenced to ten months in prison for breaching a court order) eight times on Monday, despite the fact that 24-hour security was supposedly hired last month to protect the clock. Can you imagine having that job for the next three years?

Apprently, VANOC and the clockmakers had amazing foresight on this one. The clock was coated with a special anti-graffiti coating.

The photo of the woman with the makeshift megaphone was taken by Jakeinvan.

Are promise and commitment synonyms?

In a March 7th Vancouver Sun story, Frances Bula writes about the 24 recommendations tabled by the Vancouver Olympics' housing roundtable, a group comprised of representatives of social agencies, developers and government officials. So far, I haven't come across a copy of all of the recommendations online, but to boil it down to its main points, I'll be quoting from Bula's article:

"The city requires in its three inner city neighbourhoods of the Downtown Eastside, downtown south and Mount Pleasant:

*3,000 housing units, 80 per cent of them to be new construction, for low-income residents.
*250 housing units for temporary Games workers, to be converted to social housing afterwards.
*300 shelter beds for young people likely to flock to the city during the Games.
*An increase in the subsidy for the 250 social-housing units at the Olympic Village so more low-income people can live in them.

I think the recommendations sound great on paper, but what of implementing them? The suggested cost to meet the above goals has been estimated at $1 billion. And, as Bula writes, "VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) has no financial ability to pay for that kind of goal and no legal power to force governments to meet it."

Adding insult to injury, the folks at Relentlessly Progressive Economics have pointed out that the recent recommendations are strikingly similar to those proposed in the BC Solutions Budget for 2004 after Vancouver won its Olympics bid, and we all know how readily these weren't implemented.

Vancouver is the first city to put an "inner-city inclusivity" promise in its Bid and the language used in the promise makes it sound like a commitment.

The Vancouver Olympics' housing roundtable suggested that a large chunk of the money for social-housing will have to come from private partnerships.

Ken Dobell, special advisor to Gordon Campbell, just issued a report that analyzes what these partnerships might look like. Vancouver city council will be addressing the report on Tuesday.

According to another Vancouver Sun story, Dobell was paid $300,000 to compile the report. The Sun seems to think this could be money well spent.

About the partnerships, the Sun writes, " The Vancouver Homelessness Limited Partnership, which would raise $60 million in equity and subordinated debt to help develop supportive housing; and the Vancouver Homelessness Foundation, a charitable organization that would acquire properties donated by the city to lease back to the partnership.

If it all goes according to plan, Vancouver will have a stock of 3,000 units of supportive housing in a decade, which might not make homelessness disappear entirely, but would be a vast improvement over the existing situation."

The photo above was taken by MJ Milloy.