No more empty talk and no more empty lots.

The 2010 Winter Olympics has escalated the homelessness crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Greater Vancouver area. Since the Olympic bid, homelessness has nearly tripled in the GVRD, while real estate and condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. Meanwhile, a heightened police presence has further criminalized those living in extreme material poverty in the poorest postal code in Canada.

With the eyes of the world on Vancouver, residents of the Downtown Eastside and our supporters will be taking the streets to affirm our call for justice and dignity. We want:
1. Real action to end homelessness now.
2. End condo development and displacement in the Downtown Eastside.
3. End discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.

More information available at http://olympictentvillage.wordpress.com.

From subMedia:

As I type this, leaders from the biggest industrialized nations are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss a possible treaty to diminish worldwide carbon emissions. As reported last month, it is already known that no deal will be reached during these talks. Many scientists say time is running out and others say it’s too late. Meanwhile in Canada, the forces of capitalism and industry are moving full force to extract the last bits of oil from the Alberta tar sands. The insanity of this project perfectly exemplifies Premise 10 from Derrick Jensen’s “Endgame”.

From Facebook:

Here’s some details on what happened.. this was outside of The Distillery during a hip-hop show in downtown Calgary. Cody the Catch was one of the hip-hop artists at the show, and after his set he was outside smoking and recording a video. That’s when the Calgary Transit Peace Officers showed up and used VERY excessive force on these young men. A simple ticket for smoking on the C-Train platform would have done, but these officers chose to manhandle Cody, then mace and baton him. THEN, the other coward officer chased Cody’s brother down and proceeded to knee TJ in the back while pinning him to the ground after macing him, and narrowly missing him with his baton. The fact that Cody is facing serious charges reflects the fact that there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with our police service, and as citizens of Calgary, this march is only asking the politicians who’s checks we sign, for help.

Pigeon Pilfer is Michael Stevenson’s stop-motion animated student film from San Francisco State University. It was completed in four months with sixty pounds of clay, a digital SLR camera, and one tiny hot room.

Keep it locked for an exclusive interview with Michael Stevenson, coming soon from Coast Media Collective.

For more, be sure to checkout Tim Brown and Christopher Hewitt.

For more episodes checkout subMedia.tv.