Dear editor,
Re: An Anglican presence at the Vancouver Winter Olympics (October Journal)
I am encouraged by the questions posed by Keith Knight’s editorial. However, there is one question, paramount to what I believe to be our Christian calling, that is conspicuously not asked: How will we care for and speak up on behalf of those people who have been shoved aside to make room for the Olympics: the homeless, the evicted poor, those caught in a cycle of prostitution? I could go on and on.
It seems gratuitous to claim Vancouver as a “city of peace and sustainability” when the lower East Side continues to be a death trap, and the city administration is reported to be doing everything in its power to erase anything and anyone that doesn’t present a good photo op, just like any other city hosting the Olympics.
This is a golden opportunity to continue our dialogue of healing and partnership-building with indigenous people – many of whom are foremost among those affected by the Olympic presence. How can we make their presence – and their absence – felt? How can we be involved in transforming the Olympic movement and organizations from ones of human and ecological waste to ones of peace and sustainability?
Loren Robert Carle
Montreal