2010 Olympics

Germans built our tentCanada's showcase home pavilion at the 2010 Winter Olympics is a fine example of German engineering. The Canada Pavilion tent was not made in Canada, but rather manufactured in Germany by the Losberger Group and hastily assembled for the Games. NDP MP Libby Davies said it is disappointing that "something as symbolic" as the country's Olympic pavilion couldn't be Canadianmade. "What strikes me is people everywhere are so proud wearing Canadian jackets. It feels embarrassing that the Canadian government couldn't take the time to buy Canadian," said the Vancouver East MP.

Activists pitch tent city on Downtown Eastside lotHundreds of homeless and poverty protesters -- using the Olympic spotlight to their advantage -- flooded into a vacant lot in the 100-block of West Hastings Street on Monday and erected a tent city. Libby Davies, NDP MP for Vancouver East, said she supported the tent city as a way to raise awareness for greater government support, especially by a federal government in need of a national housing strategy to help the poor and homeless.... "This is a prime site for social housing," she said. "I'm so happy so many people are here today to draw attention to this issue. It's a vacant lot and it's very visible, a symbol of what's going on in this neighbourhood."

Federal politicians turn down Games freebiesA sports arena is not the place to do the people's business, federal cabinet minister James Moore declared yesterday, as he strongly distanced his government from British Columbia's contentious policy of buying up nearly $1-million worth of Olympic tickets, including many in private suites, for the use of provincial politicians and prospective investors. "They are free to take that approach," Mr. Moore said, "but I certainly don't plan on doing any government business in the stands of a hockey game. In my judgment, I don't think that's realistic." Opposition MPs have spurned even that, arguing that it is not right for MPs to have special access to Olympic tickets, regardless of whether they pay for them...Added Libby Davies of the NDP: "We decided we did not want any preferential treatment, where the public could not get tickets. So we declined them."

It's not all fun and GamesJames Moore watched Canada's women's hockey team snag gold at the Turin Olympics on TV while sitting in an Ottawa delicatessen, at midnight, munching a smoked meat sandwich. People in the room were transfixed. "I remember there was this Mom and this little girl, a young girl who played hockey. She was just going bananas. It was a great, very cool moment." The gold-medal scene stuck in Moore's memory -- and it's a safe bet the Conservative MP from B.C. will have even more memorable Olympic moments watching the 2010 Winter Games -- moments more likely to be accompanied with canapes and high-end Canadian wine than deli food.

Davies joins hunger strikeIt will never get the attention of the official Olympic torch relay, but Sunday a generic wooden spoon changed hands near the Olympic Countdown Clock in downtown Vancouver. On the receiving end was New Democratic Party MP Libby Davies, who becomes the 55th participant in the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay, a low-key handoff that will see Davies stick to a liquid-only diet for a week in order to raise awareness of homelessness as the 2010 Winter Olympics loom large.

Group's hunger strike presses on in push for national housing planA group pushing Ottawa to establish a national housing plan to help the homeless yesterday gathered to mark a year of weekly rotating hunger strikes by dozens of supporters. Davies, a Vancouver MP, and Vancouver city councillor Ellen Woodsworth are both expected to be among those who will go without food for a week leading up to the end of the protest in June. A small group gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery to share a cake and continue their push for more affordable housing, said organizer Am Johal. “Within weeks, Parliament will be debating a private member’s bill for a national housing plan put forward by MP Libby Davies,” he said.