Sam Sullivan was on campus Monday to lecture about ‘arts degrees in the business world.’ But instead the Vancouver mayor spent most of his time defending the City of Vancouver’s social policies and his staunch support of the upcoming 2010 Olympic games.

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a campus political action group, showed up at the event to paper the room with anti-Sullivan, anti-Olympic leaflets and express distaste for the mayor and the 2010 Olympics, accusing the games of being responsible for widespread “social cleansing.”

Sullivan recently came under fire for political infighting, and has been consistently criticized throughout his term of office. He entered the room to catcalls of “shame” and “lies” from the SDS, who interjected multiple times during his talk.

Although he did address the intended topic briefly, he was primarily focused on the 2010 Olympics and the downtown homelessness epidemic—issues that the SDS was protesting.

“All cities across the country are limited by funding. 50 per cent of every tax dollar goes to the federal government,” said Sullivan. “I consider myself the chief fundraiser for Vancouver.”

He continued to establish his commitment to using 2010 as a catalyst for social change and betterment. “I don’t believe that we would have the 1200 units of social housing that we have around this city if it wasn’t for 2010.”

Sullivan expressed concern for “making sure that the means justify the ends and the ends justify the means”—a claim which the SDS clearly found faulty.

SDS member Jeremy Wood, a third year history major and a vocal protestor at the talk, pointed out that despite his 1200 open shelters, “800 shelters have closed” during Sullivan’s term so far. Although he was unhappy with the direction of Sullivan’s speech, he said, “I’m very happy with our presence today, we started with only a few people and ended up with almost 20.”

Wood seemed unabashed at the disruptive tactics SDS used to make themselves heard during Sullivan’s talk. “We are against social cleansing,” he said of their goal for the day.

Closing remarks were followed by a brief list of acknowledgements by Jolie Wang, a representative from the Leaders of Tomorrow program and the Faculty of Arts, the two groups who jointly hosted the event.

“I feel the event went well,” said Wang, “I feel that the question and answer [period] was most beneficial to the attendees, although I feel that [the SDS] tended to stray away from the ‘arts and business’ focus of the event.”

Questions included topics of homeless on campus, homeless relocation, condominium and housing developments on campus, and accusations surrounding the 2010 games. Only about 20 general Arts students attended, and nearly all of them scattered as soon as it ended, as did many members of the SDS, despite the opportunity to speak with Sullivan one on one.

With Sullivan were councillor Elizabeth Ball, a 30 year veteran of the Vancouver arts business and a member of the Special Council Committee on the Arts, and Henry Lee, chairman of the Vancouver Board of Trade and CFO of Tom Lee music. Although he was not a speaker at the event, Lee encouraged the members of SDS to make an appointment and meet with members of the city council. “We are all citizens of Canada and you do not have to be in government to participate,” he said.