02/05/10
Text: Scott Indrisek
Photographers: kimberlybaker.ca
When we visited Vancouver last year, we were impressed by a city of rugged beauty: a mostly pristine downtown surrounded by snow-capped mountains, and a population that seemed to treat aerobic exercise like a religion. But there was another side to Vancouver -- an entrenched homeless population, an abnormally high H.I.V. infection rate, and rampant heroin addiction.
The Guardian now reports on local legislation, cheekily nicknamed the Olympic Kidnapping Act, that gives cops the right to "force rough sleepers into shelters in extreme weather, a move which homeless groups appear to view as an Orwellian effort at civic image control."
Read the full article here -- and keep an eye open for anti-Olympics activists who may be providing excitement beyond the slopes this February.
"Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless"
