Housing protest surrounds Vancouver Olympic celebration site with message for Stephen Harper
The 142 tarps, erected by dozens of supporters of the Red Tent campaign, sent messages such as "Homes for All" and "We can do better than tents" to the Stephen Harper government.
[Georgia Straight, Feb 27, 2010]
Red tent campaigners seek Guinness World Record
John Richardson, the Executive Director of the Pivot Legal Society, told ctvbc.ca that the group hoped to set a Guinness World Record for the longest banner wrap.
[CTV, Feb 27, 2010]
Feature: Protesters wrap up Vancouverites and Olympic visitors in plight of the city's homeless
Megan McKinney, an organizer with the Red Tent Campaign which has distributed 500 red tents to homeless people around Vancouver prior to the Olympics, said for such a rich country as Canada, the numbers were shocking.
[Xinhua, Feb 27, 2010]
Rally this Saturday: When Red Tents, Legal Systems, and Olympics Combine
The Red Tent campaign was initiated by Pivot Legal Society in the hopes of drawing attention to Canada's homelessness crisis by using peaceful (and useful) method of literally giving temporary housing out to the populace.
[Beyond Robson, Feb 26, 2010]
Red Tent housing activists to bring protest to Canada Pavilion at Olympics
Initiated by Pivot Legal Society, the Red Tent campaign held a “solidarity sleepover” on the night of February 19 at Creekside Park to draw attention to homelessness.
[Georgia Straight, Feb 26, 2010]
Money doesn’t talk
But a critic said it begs the question of whether this was an attempt to muzzle Pivot Legal Society during lead-up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games – speculation rejected by the foundation.
[The Chief, Feb 26, 2010]
The people's podium
GOLD to protesters pressing for a national housing program on Saturday in Vancouver, including Pivot Legal Society's Red Tent campaign, for keeping the message focused, the goal concrete, the tactics inclusive.
[The Tyee, Feb 21, 2010]
Sending out an SOS: Vancouver Rally for a National Housing Program
John Richardson, from PIVOT, spoke of this being a time of great change, a turning point in human history, and a call to action for the human species. He said that what is driving this barrelling to destruction is the fear of a fundamental lack, of not enough.
[Vancouver Observer, Feb 20, 2010]
“We can end homelessness, and we can end it now:” Two Vancouver actions call for a national housing strategy
The rally came hours after Pivot Legal Society held a "Homes for All solidarity sleepover" outside of Science World.
[rabble.ca, Feb 20, 2010]
'Good vibes' at homelessness rally
Pivot Legal Society continued its tightly-focused red tent campaign with a noon-time homelessness rally that felt almost like a celebration.
[The Tyee, Feb 20, 2010]
Your chance to get red
Pivot Legal Society has been distributing red tents city-wide throughout the Olympics, also to raise awareness about housing and homelessness.
[rabble.ca, Feb 19, 2010]
Art and activism meet, with the help of a red tent
Emilio Rojas, a performance multimedia artist and participant with the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay, is using one of Pivot Legal Society's red tents as part of his action.
[rabble.ca, Feb 19, 2010]
Red Tent campaign to hold sleepover for housing near Science World
The national campaign, initiated by Pivot Legal Society, aims to draw attention to Canada’s homelessness crisis.
[Georgia Straight, Feb 18, 2010]
Judge raps Vancouver police tactics
A spokesman for the Pivot Legal Society said lawyers defending area residents have often argued that police treat their clients unfairly.
[CBC, Feb 18, 2010]
Life after the Olympics for BCCLA legal observers
However, going ahead with these plans would require partnership with Pivot Legal and volunteers who are willing to devote their time, said Eby.
[The Tyee, Feb 17, 2010]
Housing activists drop banner, pitch tents during Games
Pivot Legal Society organized the banner drop as part of a national "red tent" campaign to draw attention to homelessness.
[Vancouver Courier, Feb 17, 2010]
Will the Olympics Be Good for Vancouver’s Less Fortunate?
A 2007 report by the Pivot Legal Society, a local nonprofit advocacy group, said the 2010 games increased homelessness while decreasing the number of affordable housing units through gentrification and evictions.
[In These Times, Feb 17, 2010]
Homes, not Games! Pro-social housing actions sweep Vancouver's streets
Pivot Legal Society began its Red Tent campaign in early Feburary, with 500 red tents being displayed around Vancouver during the Games.
[rabble.ca, Feb 17, 2010]
Red Tent protest continues in Downtown Eastside
Pivot Legal Society is supplying the brilliant red tents, which bear the message “Housing is a Right.”
[Globe and Mail, Feb 16, 2010]
What's Driving Olympics Homeless Protesters
Many of the shelters were bright red, the result of a Pivot Legal Society campaign to house Vancouver's homeless and draw attention to the issue.
[The Tyee, Feb 16, 2010]
Vancouver activists split on violent tactics
"The banner says 'Homes for All,' said John Richardson, executive director of the Pivot Legal Society. "Really, who's going to disagree with that? I think even police officers understand the importance of dealing with homelessness."
[CBC, Feb 16, 2010]
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Giant banner dropped from Cambie Bridge
But the head of Pivot Legal Society hoped today’s action changes the way people think about protest.
[The Tyee, Feb 15, 2010]
Social media seizes the Olympic moment
It will host the Legal Observer program led by PIVOT Legal Society and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, with mini camera-carrying volunteers monitoring Olympic security for any human rights violations.
[Metro, Feb 15, 2010]
Three charged after march turns violent
At the same time the Pivot Legal Society, in a separate action and with the permission of the police, is hanging a large banner off the Cambie street bridge that will face the Olympic village and read "HOMES FOR ALL."
[Vancouver Sun, Feb 15, 2010]
Tent village to draw attention to plight of homeless
The Pivot Legal Society also plans to drape a 15-metre-long banner off the Cambie Bridge this morning, reading "Homes For All."
[The Province, Feb 15, 2010]
So-called Black Bloc anarchists' vandalism exposes cracks in anti-Olympic fight
The Pivot Legal Society, as an advocate for residents of the poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside, has had bitter disputes with Vancouver police in the past but reached a deal with them to unfurl a huge banner on a bridge adjacent to the athletes village Monday as part of a tent-city protest against homelessness.
[AM770, Feb 15, 2010]
Protest part of the Olympics
The City Wide Housing Coalition and the Pivot Legal Society will also be joining the anti-games forces as will the Native Youth Warrior Movement.
[News 1130, Feb 12, 2010]
Guest editorial: Olympic-sized distortions from B.C.'s merchants of misery
The Pivot Legal Society, which gets over $700,000 of your tax dollars each year [this is incorrect. Province readers: before spending your hard-earned money on a newspaper, please question the quality of a newspaper that makes grossly inacurate statements in their editorial! - Pivot website editor. NB It was only corrected later], plans to embarrass Vancouver by handing out red tents for the "homeless" to pitch in public places.
[The Province, Feb 11, 2020]
Downtown Eastside police sweeps absent
And John Richardson, executive director for Pivot Legal Society, echoed both men’s words.
[Georgia Straight, Feb 11, 2010]
The Olympics Are an Opportunity to Put Affordable Housing Back on the National Agenda
Red tents will be sprouting up around the city in an action led by the Pivot Legal Society.
[Vancouver Observer, Feb 10, 2010]
Vancouver wrestles with homelessness
The Pivot Legal Society also is distributing 500 red pop-up tents to be erected as living quarters for the homeless in prominent places during the Olympics, which get underway Friday.
[LA Times, Feb 9, 2010]
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games: Predicting The First Major Controversy -- New Media Activism
For example, they will host the Legal Observers programme, headed up by the Pivot Legal Society and BC Civil Liberties Association, which will monitor the operations of Olympic security during Games time.
[Huffington Post, Feb 8, 2010]
International media set sights on homeless
Pivot Legal Society founder John Richardson, whose organization does legal advocacy work for Downtown Eastside residents, said homelessness in Vancouver cannot be solved until there is a national housing strategy.
[Vancouver Sun, Feb 6, 2010]
Street newspaper courts Olympic interest
The special edition was prepared with the help of an advisory board that included David Eby, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Laura Track, formerly of Pivot Legal Society, and Dalannah Gail Bowen, executive director of the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts, and with the help of a Host a City Happening grant from the city.
[Vancouver Courier, Feb 5, 2010]
Council to amend homeless plan
The latter point is important to the Pivot Legal Society, because the Supreme Court of B.C. ruled last year that homeless people could erect temporary shelters on city property if shelters were full at night.
[Metro, Feb 5, 2010]
Advocates for press council
The Pivot Legal Society, an anti-poverty group, plans to give about 500 bright red tents to homeless people.
[Vancouver Sun, Feb 5, 2010]
BCCLA drops lawsuit
Meanwhile, 24 hours regrets a cutline error on yesterday’s front page noting Pivot Legal Society would sue if the city refuses permission for Pivot to distribute 500 tents. Pivot actually said there would be a “legal reaction”.
[24 hours, Feb 5, 2010]
Red tents for the homeless during the Games
Venables says he doesn't really understand a plan by the Pivot Legal Society to pitch 500 red tents around the city during the Olympics.
[CKNW, Feb 4, 2010]
Hating on the homeless: Is a new type of crime emerging in Kelowna?
John Richardson, executive director of the Vancouver-based PIVOT Legal Society... Richardson says that’s enough, in his view, to raise a simple assault to something more sinister. “If I see a homeless person, and I don’t know who they are, and I attack them because of something I project on them, in that sense it meets the definition of a hate crime.”
[Kelowna.com, Feb 3, 2010]
The Olympics: An opportunity for media innovation?
Community organizations like PIVOT and the BC Civil Liberties Association are also committed to working with the media in order to protect citizen-based free speech throughout the games.
[Rabble.com, Feb 2, 2010]
Olympic homeless pavilion feels contrived and dumbed down
It's well-intentioned, I guess. It's certainly preferable to putting the homeless into red tents during the Games, an exploitative stunt to get press dreamt up by the Pivot Legal Society.
[Vancouver Sun, Feb 1, 2010] |
