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As the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi approaches, it is natural to compare the coming Olympics Games to those that were held just four years ago in Vancouver. The typical questions to be asked concern costs, environmental and social issues and security. These, along with Vancouver's post Games "legacy," are what the mainstream media tends to focus on, so the same will serve as a proper starting point for a somewhat deeper, perhaps jaundiced, comparison between the two Olympic circuses.

What are the financial aspects of the Games?

As the Occupy Vancouver protest enters its second month, the dynamics of the occupation and the city's response are on the verge of a major change. First, by the time this blog is posted, the B.C. Supreme Court may have ruled on the city's hoped for injunction against the camp. Depending on the outcome, the city may choose to launch a clearance of the site. The riot police have been training for this scenario for at least a week and a hard response is hardly unlikely given the recent events in other cities, including against the original occupy site at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan.

On Saturday Oct. 8, OccupyVancouver's first general meeting was held in the Woodward building's atrium. Organizers had originally planned to hold the meeting in the basement conference room, but as more and more people filled the room and staircase, it became clear that a larger space would be needed. I don't know how many people came and went during the meeting, but it was certainly in the hundreds.

You've got to give the folks at City Hall credit: they run true to form. FOI releases occur on Fridays, usually late enough to make sure they won't get into the news until Monday.

The latest FOI release on the Stanley Cup riot, the "Third Proactive Record Release," came out on Friday, September 23, at 10:59 a.m.

These releases are in response to various queries about how the City of Vancouver did, or didn't, prepare for a potential riot.

The questions asked by various reporters, including me, are actually quite simple. In order: