I'm getting more than a little tired of being told by the likes of his Highness Larry Campbell (or is it Sir Larry?) and, today, columnist Milo Cernetig in the Vancouver Sun's lead post-election story, just how awful the recent leaking of secret loan documents was and how the leakers should be hunted down and "hung out to dry." I'm not debating the legality of stealing government documents. What I do question is that they had to be stolen and leaked to the media just for the public to be aware of an important civic detail, like the fact I'm on the hook for $100 million loan to prop up private development that will have a very brief use as the Olympic Athletes' Village.

By Ian Austen, New York Times published: November 14, 2008

OTTAWA — When Montreal announced that it would be the host of the 1976 Summer Olympics, Mayor Jean Drapeau promised that the Games could “no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby.” Ultimately the Games left behind about $1.5 billion in unexpected debt that was paid off only two years ago.Now, Vancouver residents prepare to vote in a municipal election on Saturday, the freeze in credit markets and a collapse of the city’s real estate market have made the financing of the 2010 Winter Games a critical issue.

*********Open Letter:**********************

November 10, 2008

Academic Community Calls for Resignation of Dick Pound, Chancellor of McGill University

Recently, members of Indigenous communities in Canada have expressed outrage at racist comments made by Richard Pound, currently serving as Chancellor of McGill University, Canadian representative on the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and member of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) for the 2010 Olympic Games. During an August 2008 interview with La Presse, Pound responded to criticism regarding this summer's Olympic presence in China by drawing the following comparison: "We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization."

Olympic loan scandal deepens
Vancouver mayoral candidate Peter Ladner prepared to lose election over secret $100M loan

By Christina Montgomery, The Province
Published: Saturday, November 08, 2008 (www.theprovince.com)

The Impact on Communities Coalition, the Carnegie Community Action Project and the Pivot Legal Society will launch a formal human rights complaint against the Canadian government over ongoing Single Residency Occupation housing conversions in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in the lead up to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari

Indigenous representatives attending an intercontinental Indigenous gathering in Vicam , Sonora Mexico have called for a boycott of the 2010 Olympics Games.

The 2010 Winter Olympics, to be held in Vancouver-Whistler from February 12-27, 2010, is today a very real threat to Native peoples, the urban poor (many of whom are also Native), and the environment.