Watch out! The Games are coming!

I learned of a disturbing plan in the works for theVancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. While the snow covered Whistler resort area was an ideal venue for the Olympics, rain soaked Vancouver co-opted the games and many of the events will be held indoor re-creations of winter climes. Vancouver has a massive problem: the homeless. After a couple decades of government cutbacks, closures of mental facilities and general disregard for the homeless, parts of the downtown core are made of predominantly displaced people. When film crews have ventured into the notorious Downtown East Side, they have to take care as residents of the nearby hotels there have been known to pelt them with hypodermics hurled from above into the alleyway below.

With the world coming to Vancouver and Vancouver unprepared to address its homeless population, what's it going to do? It's going to give them a free ride! Social workers are planning to hand out ferry passes to hide these people in nearby Victoria or Nanaimo. Some are being offered bus tickets to one of BC's other large city, Kelowna.

While the cameras focus on downhill skiers and indoor skating during this billion dollar event, these three cities will have to cope with a funded influx of hardcore drug addicts, un-medicated schizophrenics, and people who habitually steal and rob people to eke out a living.

As an unfortunate resident of one of these smaller cities, I was planning on staying home instead of participating in the traffic and security frenzy that will be Vancouver. Instead I will be holed up at my house staying vigilant in the face of this special Olympic gift from the Province of BC.