This shot was taken in Vancouver during a caper by the Downtown Eastside activist organization Carnegie Community Action Project. Its purpose was for residents of Canada's poorest neighbourhood concerned with the "condo tsunami" crashing through it to pay a visit in the welcome wagon tradition to Terry Hui, CEO of Canada's largest real estate developer, Concord Pacific.

They had sent e-mails requesting a meeting and made phone calls, but none were returned. Unsuccessful in their effort to open a dialogue, they arrived unannounced with a box of gifts for the executive, one of which is shown in the photo. Inside the jar are several bed bugs plucked from a Downtown Eastside single-room occupancy hotel, decrepit accommodation the protesters say need replacing with safe, secure, affordable units. The CEO refused to greet his visitors, but enough media were on hand to witness the story. The power in clever actions like this lies in their ability to force the other stakeholders' hands by introducing a humanitarian aspect to the planning process around new development.

Carnegie Community Action Project is one of several activist organizations in Vancouver that have protested public policy harmful to poor and marginalized people in the lead up to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Their greatest leverage lies in darkly humorous, media-savvy actions aimed at holding all three levels of government and the Games organizing committee to account for promises made in the host city competition bid book that had won the event for the city in 2003. With homeless numbers tripling since then, demonstrations expected to escalate and media attention heightening as 2010 nears, the potential for international embarrassment looms in what is often cited as the world's most livable city.