Posted by admin on Nov 5th, 2009
Nov 5 2009, rabble.ca, Pina Belperio
Nov. 4 marked the 100-day countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics. A host of events were organized in Whistler to mark the historic occasion. The day began with the Spirit Program Breakfast with Doug Lipp, the former head of corporate training at Walt Disney (how appropriate), a citizenship ceremony for new Canadians, and the 100-Days to Go Celebration, complete with countdown cake and the Olympic mascots. Whistler’s mayor has cut 20 countdown cakes since the bid was announced in 2003. Despite the high number of students absent from Whistler schools due to the flu, the Whistler Conference Centre was packed with revelers. The perfect incubator for spreading the Olympic Spirit and the H1N1 virus. With less than 99 days to go before the Five Ring Circus begins, here’s a list I compiled of 99 positive and negative things that residents of Vancouver and Whistler can look forward to (in no particular order).
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Posted by admin on Nov 3rd, 2009
By Andrew MacLeod, 3 November 2009, TheTyee.ca
Earlier this year, the provincial government quietly downgraded the expectation for economic activity to be generated by the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler by $6.7 billion. The government was using the number $10.7 billion as the estimated economic activity hosting the Olympics would produce. Now it prefers to say it will be $4 billion. But even that amount is based on a best case scenario mapped seven years ago by a consulting company, and real tourism revenues in recent years fall well short of that projection.
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Posted by admin on Oct 29th, 2009
Oct 29th, 2009 , Thunderbird.
Preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics have had an unexpected effect on a vulnerable group in Vancouver.
The Welcome House will remain empty until April 2010. Government-assisted refugees from volatile countries such as Somalia, Sudan and the Congo have not escaped the influence the Olympics have had on the city, even though they are not familiar with the Games. Officials rushed refugees through the system so they would arrive well before the Games begin. The sponsored refugees had to be dealt with quickly because the Welcome House that shelters them is close to an Olympics security zone. The house is run by the Immigrant Services Society of BC.
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Posted by admin on Oct 25th, 2009
Top Cop Helped Blow up Truck at Gustafsen Stand-off. Read here.
Olympic Security Chief Likes to ‘Be out Front’. Read here.
Mercer Blasted APEC Protesters with Pepper Spray. Read here.
Mercer Led Raid on ‘War in Woods’ Tree-Sitters. Read here.
Posted by admin on Oct 23rd, 2009
John Allemang, The Globe and Mail Posted Friday, October 23, 2009
For the ancient Greeks, fire was a potent symbol of purity. In the modern world, where antique pagan symbols generally don’t have much staying power, the flame still has the ability to purify: Witness the Olympic torch relay, now making its patient, painstaking way from the ruined temples of ancient Greece to the stunning Winter Games facilities of Vancouver 2010. The torch relay represents the Olympics’ human side, the part that retains faith in the uncorrupted virtues global sport is meant to bring together every two years.
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