Hundreds 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.”

OTTAWA — Opposition parties say Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has gone too far with hyper-partisan attacks, and it’s time to apologize and play fair. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff demanded Thursday that Harper say sorry for a Conservative party email circulated by the Prime Minister’s Office that depicted one of the country’s top bankers as a shill for the Liberal party. And the NDP called on Harper to rein in his main spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, whom it accused of making “reckless and conspiratorial partisan smears.” The NDP complaint came on the heels of Soudas accusing New Democrat MP Libby Davies of encouraging a Vancouver protest Wednesday which he said endangered the lives of children, war vets and other Chinese Canadians who were awaiting a visit from the prime minister…. Soudas fired off emails to all reporters in the national press gallery accusing Davies, who had tweeted about the “impressive“ turnout,“ of encouraging protesters to block the exits… “It’s turned into a day of almost terror for local seniors, children, veterans,” he wrote….Davies participated in the protest but said she didn’t organize it and had no knowledge that exits had been blocked. Vancouver police said they removed the chains and tape, made no arrests and allowed the protest to continue without further incident.