BC Premier questioned about 2010 protests in China

Questions about homelessness, rock slide from government newspaper reporters stir response

Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Premier Gordon Campbell stopped by Beijing's Main Press Centre Tuesday to sell his message about the state-of-the-art media centre the province is building in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games.

Instead, he found himself in a political discussion with reporters from some of China's government-run media who wanted to use his press conference to focus on problems affecting the Vancouver Olympics.

But the questions seemed to have more to do with political positioning than with eliciting information.

When one reporter from the China Daily, considered by Westerners to be a government mouthpiece, zeroed in how Campbell will handle "anti-Olympic groups such as the Anti-Poverty Coalition," Campbell gave a political lesson of his own.

"In Canada we will be open to opportunities for people to express whatever views they have," he said. "There will not be opportunities to break the law, [but] we will make sure there will be full and equal expression throughout the 2010 Olympics."

It was a diplomatic message not lost on any of the foreign reporters covering his conference.

"I would have read it that way," said Tomas Bengtsson, a reporter with Sweden's Tidningarnas Telegrambyra. "I think [the Chinese media] get so tired of people coming here and criticizing China about its human rights that they wanted to point out Canada has problems, too."

Campbell was also asked about the recent rock slide on the Sea to Sky Highway. He described the slide as "a 200-year event" and said there will be adequate contingencies in place for any problems the government foresees.

"Clearly the rock slide that took place on the Sea to Sky Highway was something that wasn't expected," he said.

Other reporters asked about whether Canada's lack of approved tourism destination status from the Chinese government will affect the Games.

"I can tell you I am always hopeful that we will receive approved destination status," he said. "But I can tell you that even without that we've seen significant increases in Chinese tourists who come to British Columbia."

Campbell also faced tough questions from several Vancouver reporters who asked about poverty and homelessness issues. He found himself talking about drug addiction, Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside, and the homeless and mentally ill on the streets.

It clearly wasn't what he was expecting when he announced that the new media centre, which will be built at a cost of $2.5 million, will serve upwards of 3,000 reporters and editors who can't get International Olympic Committee accreditation to the 2010 Winter Games.

In fact, none of the questions he received dealt with the 2,600 square-metre facility, which will be built at Robson Square.

He gave a terse "no" when asked if he was surprised that government-run media would zero in on the issues of poverty and free speech in Canada.

But the premier also didn't shirk from answering the questions, even though he knew that these issues would overtake his good-news message.

And he lavished praise on the Beijing Organizing Committee, saying it had put on a "stupendous" event. He said Beijing's transportation plan and its volunteer program were exceptional and he hoped the Vancouver organizing committee will take lessons from them...

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Poverty, addiction won't be what world sees at 2010 Games, B.C. premier says

By Stephanie Levitz, THE CANADIAN PRESS

24 Hours, Vancouver, August 12, 2008

BEIJING - B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell vows the Vancouver the world sees during the 2010 Games won't be plagued by homelessness, addiction and poverty.

He says investments in housing and health are helping address the root cause of the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada's biggest ghettos, and it will look different by 2010.

"I don't see this always as an area of problems," Campbell told a press conference on Tuesday. "I see this as an area of possibilities, where we think about historic neighbourhoods and what they provided to the city, what they provided to the province.

"And if we look at those things, and work on them as an integrated way, I think you will see significant improvements by 2010."

A new mental health and addictions centre is being built, a major mixed-use development project is expected to inject fresh life into the area and more than a dozen single occupancy hotels have been purchased, Campbell said.

He added that none of those projects were underway because of the Games but because they needed to be done.

But an estimate from one Vancouver advocacy group suggests over 1,300 beds in single-room occupancy hotels have vanished since the city won the Olympic bid in 2003.

The world's media are already on top of some of the other problems facing the Games.

The first question at the conference was from a reporter who identified himself as being with China's state-run English newspaper. He asked Campbell about the recent closure of the Sea-to-Sky highway and whether he's afraid the protesters from the notorious Anti-Poverty Committee will attempt to block it during the Games.

Campbell reiterated earlier statements about contingency plans being in place for the highway, which was shuttered for five days after a rock slide earlier this month.

He also said people would be free to protest, legally, during the Games.

An international media centre is also being built in the heart of Vancouver's downtown, and Campbell promised a carbon-neutral facility that will be the first such space in Olympic history to be "green-certified."

More than 3,000 reporters are expected to be in both Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., to cover just the area itself and not the Olympics, Campbell said.

"There's no better way to promote all our province has to offer than through the eyes of journalists drawn here by the Games," he said.

But the premier said their eyes won't be drawn to the same scene local media see every day, the drug addicts, destitute and homeless haunting the corners of the Downtown Eastside.

"I think we're going to be able to better than that," he said.

Rumours abound in the Downtown Eastside that come Games time, the poor will be jailed or bused out of town.

Campbell said in part, the key to revitalizing the neighbourhood also lies in increasing its confidence as a community.

"I think the initiatives we've taken with the city of Vancouver to help people in Chinatown and Gastown, Japantown start to celebrate those neighbourhoods, the history of those neighbourhoods . . . helps to change the attitudes of the neighbourhoods as well."