Vancouver View - Paralympic Torch Relay Set; Olympic Store Construction Underway

The 2010 Winter Paralympics' torch relay logo, "Spark Becomes Flame." (ATR/B. Mackin)Vancouver Paralympics

Dates are set for the 2010 Winter Paralympic torch relay, - along with the starting point for the nationwide journey. VANOC announced this week that the relay will begin in Ottawa March 3 and ends at the March 12 opening ceremony in Vancouver.

The route won’t be revealed until fall. Some 600 torchbearers will wear a steel-blue jacket, pants and toque combo with red mittens from Hudson’s Bay Co. and carry a steel-blue version of the Bombardier-designed Olympic torch.

“It was really important to us that these Games are set-off with their own identity,” VANOC torch relays director Jim Richards said.

The Paralympic torch relay logo, Spark Becomes Flame, is a variation of the Path of Northern Lights emblem developed in-house for the Olympic torch relay. Coca-Cola and Royal Bank of Canada are co-sponsors of the Olympic relay, but only the Government of Canada has stepped forward for the Paralympic relay.

IPC president Sir Philip Craven is in Whistler through Sunday for a governing board meeting.

Earlier in the week, the CTV Rogers Olympic broadcast alliance announced it would carry 25 hours of English and 25 hours of French programming in Canada during the Paralympics. The program consists of a nightly 90-minute highlight package, broadcasts of all sledge hockey games involving Team Canada and live coverage of the gold medal sledge hockey game on the nationwide CTV network.

Olympic Superstore Construction Starts

Work began June 24 on the first bricks and mortar Olympic Superstore in Games history. VANOC will use one-third of the main floor of the downtown Vancouver Hudson’s Bay Company store. The existing 5,000 square foot Olympic Store in the southeast corner will expand to 20,000 square feet by Oct. 1 and expand its hours for Games-time. The store is the tentative site for unveiling of Canada’s 2010 Olympic team uniforms.

Olympic Superstores since Sydney 2000 were housed in giant, temporary tents. “When we became a partner we said we’ve got some great real Construction is underway on the Olympic Superstore (ATR/B. Mackin) estate in downtown Vancouver,” said general manager Bill Stanbury. The Superstore will have a dedicated entrance and a bank of 16 checkout desks. Cosmetics and jewelry will remain on the other two-thirds of the main floor.

Stanbury said a customer concierge could include a Purolator Courier delivery desk so customers can send their purchases to their hotel or their home, wherever they live.

“It’s part of a longer term plan, the Olympics are a great catalyst for us to start to refresh our store and to move into the next 10 to 20 years of what the Bay’s going to be all about,” Stanbury said.

Olympic Superstore fixtures and decorations will be recycled and reused in other departments after the Games, he said.

Games Foes Hire Lawyer

A lawyer for Olympic Resistance Network members wants the RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit to stop what he calls the “abusive and unlawful” treatment of his clients.

Lawyer Jason Gratl, former president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, wrote June 11 to ISU Assistant Commander to complain about “thinly veiled threats” by Joint Intelligence Group officers to interfere with his clients’ employment and personal lives during the week of June 1-5.

Plainclothes officers are said to have spied on Olympics foes that week and approached them near workplaces and transit stations or at their homes to question them about their opposition to the Games.

“The ISU’s conduct is an infringement of my clients’ rights to free expression, free association and privacy,” Gratl wrote.

He asked the ISU to “cease and desist” contacting his clients, but offered to receive correspondence for his clients. ORN members distributed the letter at a June 24 news conference beside the Olympic countdown clock.

ORN members say they do not advocate violence or damage, but say Games-time protests could include civil disobedience acts like blocking traffic.

With reporting from Bob Mackin in Vancouver.

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