We've gone off-topic elsewhere...soooo creation of new topic.

I'm actually on the fence about these Olympics; as I support the games themselves (athleticism etc) but am not impressed about the HBC contract, the issues the city of Vancouver will face, and of course the land seizure.

Most of us are too young to remember/not born during the Calgary 1988 Olympics, but there were similar protests then too.

HBC
So...I find it funny that HBC has a contract with the Olympics in general because of their role in promoting settling in the west and the Red River Rebellion in the 1880's.

Their clothes are for the most part made outside of Canada. Way to go, HBC. Unfortunately you can only find this by reading the tags in-store; they are not opting to publish this on their website.

They have also received flack in the media for having the Olympians' sweater's being based on the design of Cowichan. Cowichan people have been making sweaters of this pattern for centuries, and had originally made a bid in 2006, which was overturned. The Cowichan say the $350 hand-knit versions being sold by HBC look like theirs, which HBC denies. HBC then displays their $100 sweater which is knit by machine with pride (lol, that's what it say in the description) as proof they are not using Cowichan designs.

Also, why on earth would you buy bear bells from HBC?

Vancouver
Vancouver's homeless population is the worst in Canada, and considering the size of that population they have few resources to help the people. This is in glaring opposition to the message of the games seems to be glossed over by most people. Many Vacouverites are upset that more money is being funnelled into the games than social assistance projects.

The construction for the games has also caused more environmental degredation in the area.

Land
Royal Proclamation of 1763 states that all land not currently inhabited by the European population belongs to Indigenous people. If non-Natives wish to settle on that land they must do so by purchasing the land from the nation or band of that area. Alternatively, rights to the land can be determined in a treaty agreement.

Most of BC with the exception of Vancouver is not under a treaty, therefore non-Native people are more or less squatting on the land: they never lawfully gained the land. Thus, the Olympics are being held on stolen land.

Truth be told a lot of Canadian territory is unceded; for example the City of Ottawa, Algonquin Park, the Alberta Tarsands etc. This is why there are so many comprehensive land claims being filed in the present.

I've actually seen a few articles talking about how the olympics tend to hurt the areas they come to, rather than boosting the economy like most people think they will. I also remember it was in the news a couple of years ago when Montreal finally paid off all their Olympic debt for the new stadium they got, 3 decades later.

There is always a better use for money than sporting events. -.-

EDIT: Here was one of them:
http://www.travelbite.co.uk/news/asia/china/olympics-have-negative-effect-on-tourism-$1231097.htm

I also have some beef with the torch relay:

"Across the country, the torch relay will be celebrated in 91 Conservative-held ridings, 20 Liberal ridings, 17 NDP ridings and 17 Bloc Québécois ridings."

Seems like more favoritism from the conservative government to me...

http://www.thestar.com/olympics/arti...lue-trail?bn=1

I agree. Although I'm happy that Canada gets the honour of holding the Olympics and I support our athletes 100%, I can definitely understand some of the issues that people have with it.

Anything that is supposed to represent our country should be made in Canada, like the controversy with the Ontario Government and the Canadian flag, there's something wrong with outsourcing a symbol of our country to China. The quality is likely to be worst than a Canadian-made product and we're contributing to the exploitation of Chinese people (including children).

With respect to the Indigenous land, I'm glad that the human rights violations in Canada are finally surfacing. We always claim that we're the leader in human rights, but we're so blind to the injustices that are happening in our country. Amnesty has been pushing the Stolen Sisters campaign on campus - because native women are 5x more likely to die of violence than non-native women, issues with the Lubicon Cree who are losing their land for oil/gas, and the fact that the Canadian government hasn't pushed hard enough to give Canadian citizens held overseas a fair trial (e.g. Huseyin Celil in China and Omar Khadr).

That is weird but you do have to look at the map to understand why the percentages may be out of wack. First you have to remember that the Conservatives hold the most ridings double what the Liberals hold. And second that 22 of the 35 seats in BC are held by Conservatives. Also the torch is passing through Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba where you would be hard pressed to pass through a riding other than Conservative. Also many of the Liberal and NDP seats are held in cities. Most of the route that is traveled just goes through places quickly until it hits BC where it really starts to travel around. So a lot of the ridings held by the Liberals and NDP are going to be skipped because they are not going to run the torch through all 22 ridings in Toronto and 14 in Montreal.

The Calgary Olympics were profitable (one of the few that have been). They put all the extra money in to a fund (CODA) to continue the operation of the various venues used to ensure that Canada can still be competitive at the winter Olympics.

I think the estimates for the Beijing games were pegged at around $44 billion dollars so Vancouver is doing it on the cheap.