2010 Olympic Games

Tenants of a rat-infested hotel in Downtown Eastside Vancouver are being encouraged by the city to stay, despite an eviction notice from their landlord, reports Doug Ward in the Vancouver Sun. The landlord told tenants they would have to leave by the end of September so pest control could take care of the rats, cockroaches and bedbugs in the hotel. The city says it's illegal and unnecessary for the hotel's low-income residents to leave, because the pests could be taken care of while tenants are there. The city fears the landlord plans to kick all the tenants out so he could renovate the hotel and rent its rooms to clients with higher incomes, potentially visitors to the 2010 Olympic Games. The current tenants could end up homeless if the eviction was successful.

– Emily Linroth

The latest costs of the recession and the 2010 Olympic Games are hitting the medical field, reports Darah Hansen of the Vancouver Sun. A leaked document from Vancouver Coastal Health Authority proposes delaying more than 6,000 medically necessary surgeries from September through March to make up for massive budget cuts. The health authority plans on reducing the number of surgeries further by closing nearly one third of its operating rooms during the Olympic Games to prepare for potential disease outbreaks, especially H1N1. This move comes a month after authorities decided to cut elective surgeries by 35 percent during a one-month period in February and March – the peak time of the Games, reported Jeff Lee in an earlier Vancouver Sun article. Opponents worry many procedures defined as “elective” are time-sensitive, a fact that may force patients to seek treatment outside the region.

– Emily Linroth

Women ski jumpers will file an appeal today requesting the right to compete in the 2010 Olympic Games. Ski jumping is the only event in the winter games that does not allow women to compete, a fact the women say is based on gender inequality and not skill level. Fifteen female ski jumpers representing 160 more from around the world lost their case in the B.C. Supreme Court last week, but are still hopeful a ruling in the near future would allow the Olympic planning committee enough time to set up a ski jumping event for the games next February.

– Emily Linroth