Olympic activist Helen Lenskyj, author of Inside the Olympic Industry: Power Politics and Activism, told Whistler residents that the Olympics are paid out of taxpayers’ money.
Lenskyj, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and a member of Bread Not Circuses, an anti-Olympic activist group that rallied against Toronto’s failed 1996 and 2008 Summer Olympic Bids, has studied the social impact of Olympic Games on communities for the last few years.
Pique News Magazine reports that Lenskyj takes issue with the use of the word “legacy”, which she believes implies it is free. Instead she says it’s a code for infrastructure paid for by the taxpayer which organizations pushing for an Olympics need to host the Games.
Lenskyj also warned Whistler residents that the cost to the taxpayer does not stop there. She described the boosters of Olympics as placing a “firewall” between the cost of mounting the event and the building of the facilities and the infrastructure.
During Toronto’s 2008 Olympic bid, Lenskyj said it was impossible for anyone from Bread Not Circuses to get any media coverage of their points of view or even letters to the editor published while Toronto was bidding for the Games.
However, GamesBids.com profiled Lenskyj on it’s former Web site TorontoSummerGames.com and publicized events being held by Bread Not Circuses.
Lenskyj said that one of the most worrying aspects of hosting a Games is the impact on the poor and vulnerable.
Sam Corea, spokesman for the 2010 Bid Corporation, said social issues are taken very seriously by the organization.
Vancouver 2010 has contracted two companies to provide a preliminary social impact assessment study on many of the issues raised by Lenskyj and others. The companies will be doing literature reviews, profiling communities, investigating the experience of previous Games and holding focus groups on key social issues.
The Bid Corporation has also met with a 2010 watchdog group, the Impact of the Olympics on the Community Coalition.
