Fighting for Their Right to Compete

Reigning women’s world champion Lindsey Van of the United States is one of 15 plaintiffs vying for a chance to get into the 2010 Olympics. (Getty Images) What's good for the men is good for the women, attorney Ross Clark argues on Monday, day one of the five-day hearing in a British Columbia courtroom. Clark represents15 female ski jumpers seeking to have women's ski jump added to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The failure of VANOC to include their event in the Games is “a direct assault on the human dignity of these plaintiffs and elite women ski jumpers across the world,” Clark said.

“They can take the men’s event and hold an Olympic event for men somewhere else that is more amenable to discrimination than ours or they can have no men’s event at all, if that’s their choice,” Clark told the court.

Speaking before Supreme Court Justice Laurie Ann Fenlon, Clark conceded that the International Olympic Committee is beyond the court’s jurisdiction and may not respect a verdict in favor of his clients.

In Clark's original statement of claim on May 21, 2008, he sought a court order mandating VANOC either hold a women's event or cancel the men's competitions. The case before Fenlon only seeks her declaration that VANOC is in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by scheduling three men's events and none for women.

Clark said he must prove that VANOC is controlled by government in order for the Charter's gender equality guarantee to apply. Ten of the committee's 19 directors are appointed by governments.

Before Vancouver's bid won, the Canadian government guaranteed to the IOC that Canadian laws and sovereignty would apply. Clark also told the court that VANOC told the federal trademarks commissioner on 170 occasions that VANOC was a "government-controlled, not-for-profit corporation created solely to plan, organize and stage the 2010 Games."

Former VANOC Director Marion Lay said outside the court that VANOC is "closely held" by governments.

“Public money is there, they have that memorandum of agreement, multiparty agreement. The government has said these are Canada’s, B.C.’s, Vancouver’s Games,” said Lay, a 1968 swimming bronze medalist who chaired the Vancouver bid and represented the City of Vancouver on VANOC’s board from 2003 to 2006.

VANOC lawyer George Macintosh is expected to deliver the defense statement beginning Wednesday. No witnesses are being called to testify. Instead, both sides are submitting affidavits.

Four of the 15 plaintiffs, including reigning women’s world champion Lindsey Van of the United States, were in the standing-room only gallery on Monday.

With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.

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