Vancouver View - Gambling CEO Carries Torch; VANOC Inks Sponsor

(ATR) The Olympic torch traveled to the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve on Tuesday despite the absence of police escorts and with a torchbearer who operates a gambling Web site recognized for flouting U.S. and Canadian laws.

Several Mohawks carried banners opposing the Vancouver Games and the torch relay while Alwyn Morris carried the torch on reserve near Montreal. Morris won canoeing gold at Los Angeles 1984 with Hugh Fisher.

Morris is CEO of Morris Mohawk Gaming and operates the North American division of Bodog, an online poker and sports gambling company.

The Canadian Criminal Code permits only provincial government monopolies such as VANOC sponsor B.C. Lottery Corporation to license gambling while the U.S. government restricted online gambling in 2006.

However, the Mohawks consider their land sovereign. The Canadian government is reluctant to shut down the enterprise for fear of another violent uprising like the 1990 Oka standoff near Montreal.

The U.S. government seized $24 million from Bodog accounts in June 2008 during a money-laundering investigation.

VANOC CEO John Furlong defended Morris carrying the torch.

"Alwyn Morris is a great Olympic champion, one of the best. He's a role model for First Nations children across the country," Furlong told Around the Rings. "The children on that reserve love him, he was their choice and our choice, it has nothing to do with his business."

BCLC revealed in October that its VANOC contract bans it from taking bets on the Olympic hockey tournament in February. BCLC vice-president Kevin Gass conceded the move would force gamblers to use alternative websites including Bodog.

Mayors appointed

Rick Hansen and Tricia Smith are splitting duties in February as honorary mayors of the Vancouver Olympic Village.

Richmond ex-wheelchair athlete Hansen – the "Man in Motion" – raised $26 million for spinal cord research on a worldwide journey from 1985-1987. He competed in wheelchair racing at Los Angeles 1984 Paralympics. Smith won silver in rowing in 1984 and was chief de mission for Canada at the 2007 Rio de Janeiro Pan American Games.

Former freestyle skier Anna Fraser Sproule, a Calgary 1988 competitor, and Alan Kristmanson, a Seoul 1988 basketball player, will serve as mayors at the Whistler Olympic Village. Kristmanson is golf director at the Whistler Golf Club.

During the Paralympics, husband and wife Dr. Doug and Diane Clement will serve in Vancouver. Diane Clement was a sprinter for Canada at the Melbourne 1956 Olympics and won bronze at the 1958 Commonwealth Games. The Clements were village mayors at the Victoria 1994 Commonwealth Games. Four-time Paralympic basketball player Marni Abbott-Peter and three-time Paralympic basketball player Patrick Anderson will also serve as Whistler Paralympic Village mayors.

VANOC lands land sponsor

More than a year after negotiations began, VANOC named Concord Pacific its real estate products and services supplier on Dec. 8.

The $3 million to $15 million deal is primarily for Concord Pacific land surrounding B.C. Place Stadium, General Motors Place and on the shores of False Creek. Most of the space was fenced-off in recent weeks as VANOC prepares overlay for the ceremonies and hockey venues.

"This is a very complicated area of the city," said VANOC CEO John Furlong. "It's very unlike what's happened at many Games you've seen in the past where the Olympic stadium has been built in a very open area with a lot of room around it."

VANOC is creating a horseshoe-shaped zone around the east end of False Creek that includes the Vancouver Olympic Village.

Furlong said there could be "one or two" more sponsors before the Games.

Concert Lineup Revealed

VANOC announced its Vancouver medals ceremonies concert lineup on Tuesday.

Nelly Furtado will kick-off the series on Feb. 14 after medals are awarded at B.C. Place Stadium for speedskating and freestyle skiing. The concerts begin at 6:25 p.m. local time and will be telecast on tape-delay in Canada on MuchMusic.

Other acts include: Barenaked Ladies (Feb. 16), Paul Brandt (Feb. 17), Hedley (Feb. 18), Theory of a Deadman (Feb. 19), Stereophonics (Feb. 20), Trooper and Loverboy (Feb. 21), Billy Tallent (Feb. 23), INXS (Feb. 24), Burton Cummings (Feb. 25) and Great Big Sea (Feb. 26). The headliner on Feb. 15 has not been announced.

Each night is sponsored by a Canadian province or territory.

Tickets ($22 and $50) are on-sale online and at VANOC outlets in Vancouver's Robson Square and next to Whistler Celebration Square.

Meanwhile, VANOC hired Supervision France to erect two giant Panasonic video screens at B.C. Place. The company worked at five previous Games, including Torino 2006.

A Berry Big Design

City of Richmond is dumping 13 million cranberries into the Fraser River by the Richmond Olympic Oval to showcase local produce. The red berries will be arranged in a 34,000 square foot logo of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

After the Games, they will be composted. Richmond is one of North America's top producers of cranberries.

Richmond also plans to showcase a seven-storey inukshuk made of shipping containers. Meanwhile, Speedskating Canada will unveil an inukshuk outside the John Lecky UBC Boathouse on Dec. 10. The boathouse is near the Oval, on the shores of the Fraser's middle arm.

Briefs…

… Squamish Nation Chief Gibby Jacob, the aboriginal director on VANOC's board, was re-elected at council elections on Sunday. Jacob will serve a four-year term on the 16-member council…

…Vancouver city hall sold only 95 permits to offer temporary Games-time accommodation as of Dec. 7. When city council enacted the $106 licenses in April, it budgeted to sell at least 1,000...

With reporting from Bob Mackin.