Vancouver View: Board Meets, Torch Cauldron, Protest Zones

Board Meets Friday, Next to Last for 2009

After postponing a Sep. 16 meeting, the VANOC Board of Directors will now meet by teleconference Sept. 18.

Chairman Jack Poole is expected to be involved. Poole underwent another round of cancer surgery on July 1, but missed the July 15 board meeting and the August visit of the IOC Coordination Commission.

Bilingual Bleus

Heritage Canada minister James Moore made a surprise grant this week of $7.2 million to help translate documents and signs for the Olympics.

Moore’s move came the same day official languages commissioner Graham Fraser said VANOC and government departments were running out of time to add more French to venues and airports.

Protest Zones, Protecting Protestors

VANOC released its policies this week covering protests and other forms of self-expression during the Games.

In its statement VANOC pledged to “ensure peaceful, lawful and safe public demonstrations outside of the venues in plain sight of the media and the public.”

Optional protest zones are planned outside several venues, including the Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver Olympic Centre and Thunderbird Arena. IOC policy dictates all Olympic events happen “free of commercial, political, religious and ethnic influence.”

Not entirely sure about these policies, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Pivot Legal Society are launching a civil liberties watchdog team with a Sept. 20 training seminar.

The advocacy groups are hoping to train 100 volunteers to document protests and public events with video or still cameras during the Games. Raw footage of incidents will be released to local and international media and preserved for use in court.

“We feel that if the government had put adequate safeguards in the contract they signed with the International Olympic Committee to guarantee free speech, we wouldn’t have to do this,” said BCCLA executive director David Eby.

Vancouver House Shrinks, Moves

Vancouver House is on the move. The $1.45 million host city pavilion at Library Square has been downsized and shifted to one of the two downtown live sites.

"There was an opportunity for a modest saving and it would be easier operationally," said Councilor Geoff Meggs.

"There's going to be an airport-style security level for the House and by putting it inside the (live) site that's already there, that eliminates that level of difficulty for the library."

The city joins Coca-Cola and Samsung at the sponsor village in David Lam Park. In March, city council chopped $4.67 million from the $21.5 million dual live site plan. Earlier this year, Richmond moved its O-Zone celebration site from the banks of the Fraser River to city hall and Minoru Park. A lack of sponsors axed an Olympic memorabilia exhibition.

Torch Relay Cauldron

VANOC unveiled the design of the torch relay tour cauldron on Sept. 16 on its website.

The cauldron has a similar white, curved-edge look to the Bombardier-designed torch which was unveiled in a public ceremony at Whistler on Feb. 12.

The cauldron will be at center stage of the twice-daily torch relay celebration events across Canada.

Licensees to Thrill

Vancouver 2010 mascots Miga, Quatchi, Sumi and Mukmuk will soon be available at The caldron for the torch relay. (VANOC)U.S. Olympic Spirit Stores, according to the company that manufactures the dolls.

Northern Gifts president Bob McKerricher said U.S. airport retailers HMS Host and Hudson News are also interested.

“The biggest hurdle we had to get over was the royalties here go to the Canadian Olympic Committee, in the U.S. they would like the royalties go to the USOC,” McKerricher said.

VANOC is forecasting sales of 3 million units of the dolls, from $9.35 keychains to $327 extra-large models. McKerricher said 800,000 were shipped so far.

VANOC has relied solely on its Elastic Path Software-operated Vancouver2010.com/store for foreign sales. Elastic Path general manager John Catliff said e-commerce sales will be promoted on TV during the Games.

“People at home will have the opportunity to buy through direct response, both online and phone orders, you will see some of that,” Catliff said.

VANOC licensees grossed $139.27 million through June. The target is $467.3 million Forty-one-percent of sales were in apparel. Pins (18%) and plush mascot dolls (13%) round out the top three.

Olympics A security helicopter over the Nordic venues for Vancouver 2010. (Getty Images)

Defenders Take to Land and Sky

Fighter jets from the bi-national North American Aerospace Defence Command flew low-altitude test missions above Vancouver on Sept. 15-16.

Massive no-fly zones and restricted airspace corridors are planned for Jan. 29 to March 24, 2010 from Pemberton, B.C. to Ferndale, Wash. Parts of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast are included.

An Air Canada hangar at Vancouver International Airport is serving as a temporary air force base. The Department of National Defence advertised Sept. 3 for a supplier of 2.2 million liters of jet fuel for temporary bases in Squamish and Whistler.

The RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit is gearing up for a Nov. 2-7 full-scale Olympic dress-rehearsal, Exercise Gold.

RCMP and Canadian Forces are also planning their Pegasus Guardian exercise, which coincides with the Oct. 30 beginning of the Olympic torch relay in Victoria.

Reno, Nev., Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Wash. have been designated gateway portals for private planes destined for Vancouver.

Canadian authorities expect 500 to 600 non-scheduled takeoffs and landings daily. First-come, first-served reservations for Vancouver, Abbotsford and Boundary Bay airports began Sept. 15.

Gold Nuggets

Volunteers aged six and up are welcome to apply for spots in the 2010 Winter Paralympics’ opening and closing ceremonies. Deadline is Oct. 9. Patrick Roberge Productions is overseeing recruitment of 5,000 people....

Whistler Blackcomb is offering season passes at $1,027 until Oct. 12. The fee is $401 cheaper than last year. The first 2,000 buyers each get a pair of tickets to one of the 12 nightly medals ceremonies in Whistler Village. Whistler Creekside is host of alpine events. Ski and snowboard season is scheduled to begin Nov. 26....

Sept. 30 is the deadline for aboriginal artists to apply for booths at the 2010 Aboriginal Pavilion. Natives from any tribe in Canada are welcome to seek space at $280 for up to three days or $467 for six....

Phase two of the transportation plan is coming in late-September. Road closure dates, bus pass rates, Olympic bus booking, checkpoints on the Sea-to-Sky highway and vehicle permits are expected. Phase one was launched in March. A third phase will be unveiled later in the fall.

Note: costs reported in U.S. currency based on 1.069 CAD=1 USD exchange rate.

With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver