The 2024 Summer Olympics are set to begin in a little over two months from now, and athletes from around the world are gearing up for the competition that takes place in Paris this year. However, while the Games are often billed as a beacon of global unity, they often marginalize the most vulnerable communities in host cities.

Today in The Conversation Canada, scholars from Western, Solent and Wilkes universities discuss how the Paris Olympic Games are marginalizing unhoused people, migrants and Muslim women. They argue that while western media and commentators are quick to highlight the human rights abuses of other host nations, similar criticism is rarely directed closer to home.

In Paris, authorities have raided camps and abandoned buildings where hundreds of unhoused people and irregular migrants have been taking shelter, evicting people who often have nowhere else to go.

Meanwhile, the French government’s prohibition on its athletes wearing religious symbols has faced criticism, especially when it comes to Muslim women who want to wear hijabs while competing.

Given all these issues, today’s feature article asks if it’s time to consign the Olympic Games to history. “We must speak bluntly and honestly about these mega sporting events, identify their limitations and voice meaningful opposition regardless of which nation is hosting,” the authors write. “If that means a world without the Olympics, so be it.”

Also today:

• Loblaws boycott: What consumer psychology can tell us about the success of consumer activism
• Debunking myths about community housing: What governments and the public should know
• The health-care crisis won’t be solved without addressing the elephant in the room: Staff workload
• Revitalizing Toronto’s downtown core after COVID-19 greatly benefits the city and the region

All the best.