Housing activists will use the final weekend of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver to send a message to the Stephen Harper government that it must bring in a national strategy to end homelessness.

On Saturday (February 27), the Red Tent campaign will protest outside Canada’s Olympic Pavilion at the LiveCity Downtown celebration site.

According to the Facebook page for the “Olympic Wrap-up”, activists will bring “142 red tarps and 1700 feet of messaging calling for an end to homelessness in this country”.

“We’ll demonstrate that housing is still a major issue to Vancouverites, despite the Olympic distraction, and inspire other cities to join us,” the event page states.

“We will be peaceful, we will be loud, we will be creative, and we will be relentless. We will wrap the entire pavilion...” the page adds.

Activists will meet up at noon by the T & T Supermarket on Keefer Place, near the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain station, and then head to the pavilion at Dunsmuir and Beatty streets.

Organizers are asking protesters to bring a “paint brush, and sleeping gear if you want to stay overnight”.

Initiated by Pivot Legal Society, the Red Tent campaign held a “solidarity sleepover” on the night of February 19 at Creekside Park to draw attention to homelessness.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.

See also: Calendar: Protests during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver