Sportsweekend: A peek at ViaSport, a scion of 2010 Legacies Now

A weekend special for those of any age who play, coach, referee, support, sponsor or watch amateur sports in British Columbia. 

A look at how ViaSport, the B.C. Sport Agency Society, is funded by taxpayers. 

What is today ViaSport was hived-off from 2010 Legacies Now, the mysterious quasi-non-governmental organization born during the bid phase for Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics but continued through the Games as a funnel for community grants. 

2010 Legacies Now burned through a quarter-billion of your dollars over a decade without publishing a detailed list of who got how much. Its chair emeritus, Judy Rogers, is in no hurry to explain. (She hasn’t responded to my queries, but I would be glad to hear from her.) 2010 Legacies Now's central operations morphed into what is called Lift Philanthropy Partners, a nebulous "venture philanthropy" outfit.  

After the Games, Legacies Now spun-off its sport division to the newly created B.C. Sport Agency Society which was branded ViaSport and absorbed many of the functions of Sport BC, the umbrella for the province’s amateur sport system. 

VANOC executive vice-president of sport Cathy Priestner Allinger organized ViaSport, whose first full-time chair was Moray Keith and CEO Scott Ackles. Keith resigned in late 2012 and Priestner Allinger became interim chair. With a change of government anticipated, Ackles’s job was terminated in March 2013. Priestner Allinger said she was not interested in the CEO job, but that was before she was passed over for the athletic director position at the University of B.C. (Scottish Swimming boss Ashley Howard got the gig in May.) Lo and behold, Priestner Allinger was appointed CEO by the ViaSport board that she helped choose; Caley Denton, the VANOC ticketing executive, was installed as the chair. 

Below is a May 31, 2012-dated Transfer Under Agreement between the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and ViaSport to provide financial assistance for ViaSport to implement the Province's Five-Year Sport Strategy. Included is a financial report. You will not find any information like this on the ViaSport website. 

Schedule A, running from May 28, 2012 to March 31, 2013, states the government’s priorities for the funding are to foster participatory programs, high performance programs for "training to train" through "training to win" stages; and event hosting that supports sport, economic and community development.

Goals include increasing overall sport participation by 20% by 2015-2016 (above the 2008-2009 baseline data), increase active coaches and officials within each funded sport, enhance services through the Integrated Performance System and lead the sport sector by aligning with the spirit of health and education initiatives. 

ViaSport received four payments under the TUA: $885,000 (June 7, 2012); $7,905,360 (Sept. 19, 2012); $100,000 (Jan. 24, 2013); and $820,000 (March 6, 2013).

For 2012-2013, its net budget was $21,239,000 plus $1,292,000 spent by the Ministry’s Sport Branch. 

The biggest chunk of funding, $4,891,168, was earmarked to Provincial Sport Organizations, as part of the $10,090,050 participation envelope. High performance was budgeted $7,867,950.  

ViaSport funding documents

Greek Coke: moved to a new beat

How's this for irony? 

Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company -- recession-battered Greece's biggest company -- is moving its headquarters to Switzerland, according to an Oct. 11 announcement. 

The sponsor of the Olympic movement since 1928 is moving from the country where the Olympics began to the country where the International Olympic Committee is headquartered. 

The move was eerily foreshadowed during the London Olympics. Inside the Games broke an Aug. 17 story about how Greece wasn't even on the map displayed at the Coca-Cola-sponsored pin-trading centres at Olympic Park and Hyde Park. 

There were no Coke logos at Ancient Olympia on Oct. 21, 2009 when I attended the dress rehearsal for the next day's launch of the Vancouver 2010 torch relay. 

Boessenkool, Burns Lake & Booze: 3 Bombshells

What a week.

Alberta import Ken Boessenkool got pushed/jumped from his job as chief of staff to Premier Christy Clark. Boessenkool submitted his resignation on Sept. 23, the morning after the B.C. Conservatives were licking their wounds after 71% of one-third of the party voted against reviewing John Cummins's lacklustre leadership.

It turns out this was one of those "uh-oh, they noticed, now we've gotta do something" matters. 

Global TV's Jas Johal was tipped-off about Boessenkool getting in trouble at a Victoria pub on Sept. 7 after Liberal caucus members and Press Gallery members had a round of golf in Metchosin. Clark started the week with a press conference where she released Boessenkool's resignation letter, but hid behind privacy laws and would only call it an "incident of concern."

Boessenkool lost his nearly $200,000-a-year gig and, under B.C. government employment rules, he must not lobby the B.C. government for the next year. That could hurt him in the wallet, since Boessenkool was a former Hill and Knowlton executive whose client list included Enbridge, Taser and Merck. 

Boessenkool allegedly got drunk and groped a junior female staffer in the Bard and Banker pub. Clark claimed the Public Service Agency investigated Boessenkool. But in a startling lack of leadership, it was revealed that Clark did not suspend her chief of staff, but instead let him carry on as the ultimate supervisor of the woman who was the alleged victim. 

Instead of giving Boessenkool the heave-ho on Sept. 20, BC Christy heralded the poaching of star third-place Chilliwack 

by-election candidate John Martin from the Conservatives. Politics before people, that's the Clark way. 

The million-dollar question: Why didn't the police become involved in the Boessenkool incident?

Boessenkool was replaced by Dan Doyle, the BC Hydro chairman who was the executive vice-president of construction for VANOC. Doyle was CC'd on the famous March 24, 2009 John Furlong email, revealed by CBC in February 2011, that indicated there were major safety concerns at the Whistler Sliding Centre. 

On Feb. 12, 2010, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili flew off his sled near the end of his last training run, struck an unpadded pole and died. The track's construction was partly to blame. Almost $2 million more is being pumped in to correct the flaws. 

Furlong under fire for Burns Lake secrets

Vancouver 2010 Olympics chief executive John Furlong wasn't in London for the opening of the 2012 Olympics on July 27. His absence was odd, to say the least. Furlong and London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe both told me in 2010 how they struck a friendship, as Furlong advised Coe on the ups and downs of running an Olympic organizing committee. Furlong served as VANOC chief executive at the pleasure of Premier Gordon Campbell, now Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Campbell told CKNW's Philip Till in July that he hadn't spoken to Furlong for "months." 

On Sept. 27, Furlong was slammed with allegations in the Georgia Straight that he abused students at a Burns Lake, B.C. Catholic elementary school after he came to Canada as a teenager. The RCMP confirmed it is investigating. 

Furlong vehemently denied their claims, which are contained in eight affidavits obtained by Georgia Straight contributor Laura Robinson. He suggested he was the victim of a blackmail attempt. Furlong and his lawyer Marvin Storrow said they would sue for defamation. They refused to answer questions from reporters. 

Furlong, however, conceded that he had actually lived in Burns Lake. He said it was a "brief" and "uneventful" time. That was news to anyone who bought his book, Patriot Hearts, or paid to hear one of his speaking engagements. It was also news to his co-writer, Gary Mason. Furlong's memoir only indicates he arrived in Canada with his wife and two children 

in 1974 at Edmonton and settled in Prince George. 

Odd that an immigrant to Canada would omit any mention of his first impressions of his new country. Also odd that he would use the word "uneventful" to describe a period of his life in which he married his first wife who bore his first two children.

Read more from The Tyee here. 

BCGEU beats Booze Barn bid

And then the third bombshell of the week. The Liquor Distribution Branch privatization was cancelled 220 days since it was announced and 18 days before the successful bidder was scheduled to be announced. 

This one came wrapped by the government inside the new deal for the B.C. Government and Services Employees' Union. BCGEU president Darryl Walker said the prospect of thwarting the government's planned sale of warehousing and distribution came as a surprise to him earlier in the week. Read more in Business in Vancouver here.

The government appears to have made the right choice by putting a cork in the plan. It published no business plan to justify the privatization and conducted no formal industry consultation. The privatization push was driven by the persistence of BC Liberal-allied lobbyists in an environment of a cash-strapped government seeking solutions to balance the budget before the May 14, 2013 election. 

Every step of the way, I discovered more questions than answers. Freedom of Information delays, denials and censorship. And, of course, the minister responsible for liquor, who avoided all my interview requests. 

I have heard from only one bidder so far. ContainerWorld president Dennis Chrismas hired the Liberal-friendly Pace Group public relations company to send out a prepared statement. ContainerWorld opposed privatization at first, but then submitted a bid out of self-preservation. The province's largest pre-distribution warehouse in Richmond would have had an uncertain future if it didn't win the contract because the pre-distribution program was to be phased out. 

I will have more to say in the coming days and weeks. I'm confident there is a story behind this story. 

This had the appearance of another BC Rail-style scandal in the making. 

Starting with the title of the Oct. 6, 2009, internal Exel memo that flipped open the lid on this procurement plonk. 

It was called "Project Last Spike." 

Face and voice of VANOC switches off Hydro

Very quietly, BC Hydro's senior vice-president of communications quit her post in mid-March.

Renee Smith-Valade went to the most-powerful (in more ways than one) Crown corporation in British Columbia after the May 2010 hiring of Dave Cobb as chief executive. Cobb was deputy CEO to John Furlong at the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee. Cobb was also vice-president Smith-Valade's boss at VANOC, where she ran the 2010 Winter Games' communications and media relations department. She brought staffers Chris Brumwell, Greg Alexis and Jennifer Young with her.

Last fall, Cobb quit his $550,000-a-year job at BC Hydro to join the Jim Pattison Group where he works as managing director of corporate development, with president and ex-Premier Glen Clark and billionaire chairman Pattison.

Brumwell, a former Canucks and VANOC communications manager, preceded Smith-Valade out the BC Hydro door to work for Vancouver yoga wear juggernaut Lululemon.

When I broke the news of Smith-Valade's departure via Twitter on May 2, Bill Tieleman was quick to re-Tweet and then add his speculation:

@BillTieleman
Twitter math: Premier Christy Clark's office - Rebecca Scott + BC Hydro spokesperson Renee Smith-Valade quits = new Clark staffer? #bcpoli

Scott's move out of Premier Christy Clark's office and into Government Communications and Public Engagement (read: propaganda office) became public earlier in the day. Scott's position became newsworthy in recent months because her husband is the CBC's talented Legislature reporter Stephen Smart. One of their wedding guests was Premier Christy Clark. The Smart/Scott relationship was the subject of an investigation by CBC's ombudsman Kirk LaPointe. LaPointe "found a violation of CBC Journalistic Standards and Practices."

Clark has had a revolving door of press secretaries. Chris Olsen, the consumer reporter who was "On Our Side," quit CTV to be on "her side." Now he's on the outside. In January, Clark figuratively kicked Olsen on the backside, with a $67,000 severance.

She filled the job with Sara MacIntyre, who was an effective spokesperson for the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation but went on to work in the Prime Minister's Office under Stephen Harper. MacIntyre is part of Clark's bid to be a Liberal in Conservative clothing. It hasn't worked so far and MacIntyre was notorious for the poorly handled photo and interview opportunity with Clark at the Globe 2012 trade show.

At Hydro, Smith-Valade's job included leading the marketing communications, website management, media and public affairs, community relations and customer care and conservation teams. On her LinkedIn page, Smith-Valade describes herself as a "creative consultant" with her own RSV Strategic Communications firm. Her list of qualifications ends with "government/public affairs support."

Here is the email to BC Hydro staff announcing her departure:

From: News, BCH Corporate 

Sent: 2012, March 14 12:21 PM

Subject: A Message from Charles Reid: The Departure of Renee Smith-Valade, Senior Vice-President, Customer Care, Conservation and Communications

Good Afternoon:

After a year and a half leading our Communications team and, more recently, also the Customer Care and Conservation teams, Renee Smith-Valade has resigned from her position as Senior Vice-President on the Executive Team to take some time off and then pursue other opportunities in communications.

Renee joined BC Hydro shortly after finishing up five years with VANOC and jumped in with both feet into leading the Communications team. Over the last 20 months, Renee has confidently led the Communications team through many challenges including supporting the rollout of the Safety Taskforce recommendations and the Smart Metering Program, the Fraser River Towers incident, rate increases, the communication of the Government Review and its outcomes, and the rollout of seasonal Power Smart marketing communications programs, to name just a few highlights. Through all of this, she maintained dedication and passion for her team and BC Hydro. Most recently, she relished the chance to start working with the Power Smart and Customer Care teams in August to help them to continue to deliver strong conservation programs and our highly regarded customer service.

Renee has often commented on how fortunate she is to work with such a strong team and how enjoyable it has been to work with the dedicated people at BC Hydro. I am taking some time to assess how we can best ensure the continued strong performance of the Communications, Customer Care and Conservation teams, and particularly how to maximize the strong leadership of these areas that Renee has told me she values enormously. I will let you know when those decisions are made. In the meantime, I am confident that Lisa Coltart (Power Smart and Customer Care), Steve Vanagas (Corporate Communications), Cynthia Dyson (Marketing Communications and Brand Strategy) and Thoren Hudyma (Community Engagement and Capital Projects Communications) will continue to do a great job as we meet the opportunities and challenges ahead.

On behalf of the Executive Team, I would like to thank Renee for her hard work and dedication through a very challenging year. I know all of you will join me in wishing Renee the very best as she takes some well-earned time off with family and explores other opportunities.

Thank you,
Charles

Will she end up in government, helping Clark rescue her political career? Will she be reunited with Cobb at the Jim Pattison Group or Furlong with the Vancouver Whitecaps? Or somewhere else? For now, she's not talking.

Asked for an interview about leaving BC Hydro, her emailed response to me was:

"I appreciate the request and your interest however I'm going to decline for now. Can we revisit this again In a few weeks time?"

I'll wait to find out what she says and does.

Furlong: white toques to Whitecaps

It seems Vancouver Whitecaps chief executive Paul Barber's chair was barely cold when the ownership group began thinking of re-filling it.

The media had been told that president Bob Lenarduzzi and chief operating officer Rachel Lewis would run the Major League Soccer franchise as a duo since the former Tottenham Hotspur executive announced his shock resignation on Dec. 9, 2011. Barber worked his last day on Feb. 29. (Sources told me Barber was frustrated that his decision-making authority fell victim to principal owner Greg Kerfoot's micromanaging.)

On April 12, part-owner Jeff Mallett surprised the gathered media at the Hyatt Regency Hotel by introducing John Furlong, the chief executive of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee, as the club's new executive chairman. Lenarduzzi and Lewis will report to Furlong. Furlong, who served VANOC at the pleasure of Premier Gordon Campbell, will report weekly to Kerfoot, the mysterious, media-shy West Vancouver tech tycoon.

Furlong told the media the idea was hatched at a dinner with Kerfoot about six weeks earlier. The job is a full-time gig, without an equity stake in the company, that includes a desk on the same floor in Gastown's Landing where he led the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation and its successor, VANOC, after the International Olympic Committee chose Vancouver in 2003 to host the 21st Olympic Winter Games.

Irish-born, 61-year-old Furlong chairs the Own the Podium advisory board, is a director of Whistler Blackcomb Holdings and was recently promoted to chairman of the Rocky Mountaineer Railtours' board (more about that below). The Whitecaps' gig gets precedence for Furlong, who did not receive

any IOC or Canadian Olympic Committee appointment after the 2010 Games.

Furlong, who grew up playing centreback, professes a lifelong love for the beautiful game. He recounted how he thrilled he was to watch England's 1966 World Cup win live on TV. He may owe a small debt of gratitude to the world's most powerful soccer executive for helping Vancouver get the Games.

In the following excerpt from his 2011-published memoir, Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics that Changed a Country (Douglas & McIntyre), Furlong revealed details about the 2002 night he spent with FIFA president Sepp Blatter at VANOC founding chairman Jack Poole's ranch. (Many have called for Blatter to resign amid longstanding allegations of bribery and FIFA's reluctance to immediately implement recommendations from well-respected transparency expert Mark Pieth's Independent Governance Committee.)

The bid process could hardly be described as logical. Sometimes we sought out Hail Mary opportunities on the off-chance something might work out. Delegates were scattered all over the world, so face time with them as often hard to arrange. When we had an opportunity, we pounced it immediately. One such occasion occurred that August. Canada was hosting the women's U19 World Cup of soccer. Sepp Blatter, the iconic head of the International Federation of Association Football, or FIFA as it is commonly known, was in the country and, we were told, was going to be passing through Vancouver on his way to Edmonton, where the tournament was being held. Working with our friends at the Canadian Soccer Association, we arranged to squirrel him away for an evening to talk Olympics. Sepp was an IOC member and an influential one at that. We wanted to make an indelible impression on him. We decided this would be a night for Jack Poole and his wife, Darlene, to put on the ritz at their sprawling estate in Mission, a rural community 90 minutes east of Vancouver. The plan was to send a helicopter for Sepp and fly him to Jack's place, while showing off a little of the local geography at the same time.

We met Sepp when he touched down on the estate's landing pad. Yes, Jack had his own landing pad. The Pooles poured on the charm. The steak was brilliant and so was the apple pie. We had a great evening talking to one of the most influential sports kings in the world, who waxed eloquently about sport politics, including those that surrounded the IOC.

Sepp was in his element -- at the centre of attention with no pressure. I asked him at one point what his vision was for the game of soccer. "I will not be satisfied until every child on the planet owns a soccer ball," he said. And he meant it. Sepp was a formidable man, short and stocky and with an imposing face, who seemed to dominate his surroundings the way someone much bigger might. By the end of the night we were friends. As always, we didn't ask for Sepp's vote but we were all smiles when he told us we could count on him.

(Media scrum video courtesy SendtoNews/Whitecaps).

John Furlong named executive chair of Whitecaps FC
John Furlong interview

For the record: Vancouver hosted the North American Soccer League's last single-game Soccer Bowl in 1983 at B.C. Place Stadium between the Tulsa Roughnecks and Toronto Blizzard. The NASL championship was contested one more time in 1984 in a best-of-three format between the Chicago Sting and Toronto. The Sting swept the Blizzard in two games, winning the trophy in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Furlong opted not to comment on the ongoing labour dispute between Rocky Mountaineer and its unionized on-board attendants from Teamsters local 31. This, despite being the chairman of the upscale tourist train company's board.

"You need to talk to Randy (Powell, president) about that, that's how we've chosen to do it," Furlong said. "I think this is an ongoing dispute and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to talk."

Workers were locked out last June and the company intends to continue using replacements. The company also chopped limbs off trees on adjacent public land, but claims it was a mistake.

Spreading the word

Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics by Bob Mackin has scored wider distribution.

The e-book about how the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics came and went is now available from the Sony Reader Store, Kobo, Diesel and Barnes & Noble.

Or you can go direct to Smashwords via the official website, RedMittensAndRedInk.com.

Wherever you buy it, the price is still just $8.99.

Flashback: Feb. 21, 2010

Del Bosco crashes
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

WEST VANCOUVER: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Another Canadian crashed on the way to the podium at the 2010 Winter Olympics. This time it was Chris Del Bosco, the Sudbury, Ont., resident who is ranked third on the skicross world cup tour.

Del Bosco was racing fourth in the final of the first skicross event in Olympic history Sunday at Cypress Mountain.

He improved to third and then tumbled before the climactic jump to the finish. Del Bosco landed on his side and hit his head and shoulder. He received medical attention before leaving the course. Del Bosco finally spoke to the media more than two hours after the race, sporting a blackened right eye from the crash.

“It just didn't work out for me,” Del Bosco said, pausing to wipe tears from his eyes. “Third, I guess it's all right for some people, but I wanted to give 100% for my sport, my country.”

Del Bosco, 27, was the 2010 Winter X-Games gold medallist in January. The Vail, Colo., native with dual citizenship previously competed as a national-level alpine skier and mountain biker for the United States until drug and alcohol violations derailed his career.

“I left it all out there, that’s what I came to do,” Del Bosco said. “It could’ve happened in any round. I made it to the final.”

World cup leader Michael Schmid of Frutigen, Switzerland became the sport’s first gold medallist. He edged silver medallist Andreas Matt of Flirsch, Austria and bronze medallist Audun Groenvold of Oslo, Norway.

"I was in fourth behind Chris and I was thinking, 'It isn't over until you cross the finish line',” said Groenvold. “I hung on his tail. When you see someone crash like that, it's a mixed feeling."

Davey Barr, a 32-year-old from Brackendale, B.C., finished second in the consolation final and sixth overall. He was called upon as an 11th hour replacement for teammates David Duncan and Brady Leman, who were both injured training at Cypress.

“Everybody else had the two days of training before today,” Barr said. “I managed to get three runs in this morning before the race.”

Skicross was the only sport added to the Olympics for Vancouver 2010.

“We showed the world today what a cool sport this is,” Barr said.

Reigning world champion Ashleigh McIvor of Pemberton, B.C., leads Canada’s women into their first Olympic skicross race on Tuesday at Cypress.

Flashback: Feb. 17, 2010

White’s golden night
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

WEST VANCOUVER: Red skies at night, Shaun White's delight.

As the clear Wednesday afternoon sky above Cypress Mountain gave way to the most brilliant sunset since the 2010 Winter Olympics Games opened, the Turin 2006 halfpipe snowboarding champion known as “The Flying Tomato” continued to reinforce his reputation as the best in the sport with each run on the icy slope.

San Diego’s White satisfied his rock star-like following when he became the first in halfpipe to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals. White scored a 48.4 in the final run on which he executed his signature Double McTwist 1260 move to the delight of the full grandstand, which included his parents.

“I can’t even tell you or begin to describe how many times I’ve gone over this run in my mind, gone over this competition in my head, imagined what it would be like. I can finally go to sleep now,” said 23-year-old White, who won a world cup test event on the same course last year.

“On this world stage why not deliver something spectacular? I felt like I came all the way to Canada, talked about this trick so much, blood sweat and tears, to land it and there it was.”

The win was even sweeter because White described this as the most challenging season of his career. He said he has crashed more than ever and felt more frustrated than before and “pushed myself as far as I can go.”

Despite being the superior entrant, White said he had to battle the course in soggy and foggy conditions at Cypress earlier in the week.

“It’s not easy to make a halfpipe with no snow in a tough season, and they delivered,” White said.” The halfpipe the first day was one of the worst halfpipes I’ve ridden in my life and it went from there to one of the best.”

Peetu Piiroinen of Finland won silver and American Scott Lago claimed bronze. Justin Lamoureux of Squamish, B.C., was the lone Canadian among the 12 finalists. He finished seventh.

(Postscript: This was perhaps the most memorable outdoor sporting event I covered during the Games. White did numerous broadcast interviews, including one with NBC's Jenna "Daughter of Dubya" Bush, before finally reaching us print reporters. His handler warned us he'd have time for only four questions because White needed to get to doping control for the post-competition urine sampling. White stayed more than 10 minutes and answered every question. Rarely have I seen an athlete speak so passionately about his sport. Hockey players should learn from White. Sad to report that the halfpipe on which White thrilled the world was demolished.)

Flashback: Feb. 16, 2010

Ricker rides to historic gold
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

WEST VANCOUVER: The fog lifted at Cypress Mountain Tuesday and Maelle Ricker became the first Canadian woman and first British Columbian to win Olympic gold at home.

Ricker, a 31-year-old from Squamish, B.C., beat Deborah Anthonioz of France and Olivia Nobs of Switzerland in the women’s snowboardcross final. World champion Helen Olafsen of Norway crashed midway.

"I tried to explode out of the gate, I really wanted to get out of that gate as fast as I can,” said Ricker. "It was really, really hard today to get a clean run all the way down the course, but I just held on and did my best."

The North Vancouver native who grew up near Cypress was the undisputed favourite after winning three of five world cup races this season and placing third in another.

Ricker’s win was the biggest snowboarding victory for Canada since Ross Rebagliati took the Olympic gold medal in giant slalom at Nagano 1998. Ricker also made her Olympic debut at Nagano, finishing fifth in halfpipe. Tuesday’s win was redemption for Turin 2006 where Ricker finished fourth in snowboardcross despite crashing before the finish line.

“Turin was such a motivator for me, it just made me work that much harder and just go for it for today,” Ricker said.

Ricker’s American rival Lindsey Jacobellis, the Turin silver medallist, was eliminated from contention in the semifinal. The two appeared to make contact early in the race. Jacobellis was the consolation final winner.

“I don’t think we clipped, we were definitely really close right out of the start, and I don’t know what happened to her,” Ricker said. “I don’t know where she went down, I just tried to stay on my line and focus on what I was doing.”

Turin bronze medallist Dominique Maltais of Petite-Riviere-St-Francois, Que., was eliminated after she crashed in both qualifying runs.

Cypress is Canada’s most lucrative venue of the 2010 Games. Montreal moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau captured Canada’s historic first home-won gold medal on Sunday at Cypress. On Monday, Mike Robertson of Edmonton got silver in the men’s snowboardcross.

The West Vancouver resort has also provided the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, with its biggest weather challenges. Warm and wet El Nino-influenced weather wiped snow off the slopes in January. More than 350 truckloads of snow were brought 160 kilometres from Allison Pass in Manning Provincial Park to salvage competitions.

Allison Pass, coincidentally, is named for John Fall Allison, a B.C. gold rush pioneer in the 19th century.

Flashback: Feb. 15, 2010

French flap
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

VANCOUVER: Monday was Quebec Day at the 2010 Winter Olympics and the day after Montreal moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada’s historic first home Olympic gold medal.

But VANOC remained on the defensive after Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore’s weekend comments criticizing the lack of French language and culture in the Games’ opening ceremony.

“VANOC has worked tirelessly to represent bilingual Canada every level, every venue, every facility,” CEO John Furlong said. “We have assembled here in Vancouver thousands of volunteers from French Canada.”

Frank King, who presided over the Calgary 1988 organizing committee, said VANOC is making a good effort to recognize both official languages of Canada and the Olympics.

“You can never do it perfectly,” King said. “There is always somebody that would say it’s not quite enough. It’s the effort that counts.”

Last September, Moore made a surprise $7.2 million grant to VANOC for more French documents and signage, the same day official languages commissioner Graham Fraser slammed VANOC and the federal government. Fraser said they were running out of time to add more French signage and services to airports and Olympic venues.

VANOC spent some of the money on a bilingual sign for the Richmond Olympic Oval, which opened with an English sign. The federal government also paid $20 million for the opening ceremony, which included substantial aboriginal themes.

The chef de mission for the Canadian Olympic team told QMI that the amount of French content in the opening ceremony was adequate.

“I thought the opening ceremony was amazing and truly everything was translated also in the stadium for the people that are sitting that are sitting there that maybe didn’t understand what was happening in English,” Nathalie Lambert said. “This was a global show and we truly made an effort to make it bilingual.”

Lambert said the athletes’ and officials’ oaths are normally delivered in English “the language of choice for the Olympics.” But on Friday, short-track speedskating referee Michel Verrault of Lac-Beauport, Que., made his oath in French.
Lambert said services in both languages are available at all venues and both villages for athletes, even though not all volunteers are bilingual.

Meanwhile, Charest used the spotlight to promote a study into a potential Quebec City bid for the 2022. He called the capital “one of the best cities in the world, a city made to measure to host a Winter Games.”

Flashback: Feb. 14, 2010

Problems plague Cypress, transportation systems
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

VANCOUVER: Millions of dollars were spent to truck and airlift snow to cover the rainsoaked slopes of Cypress Mountain, but that’s not VANOC’s only problem at the snowboarding and freestyle skiing venue.

Food service was disrupted by a power outage during Saturday night women’s moguls competition. Lineups were long and crowd control described as chaotic by fans trying to get out of the wind and rain and onto buses. At least one bus load of spectators from Burnaby Mountain missed the start of competition because they were picked-up almost 90 minutes late.

“Cypress is like your special child, your special child that’s bright and talented and good-looking and causes you all kinds of worries, but they’re still your special child,” said VANOC communications vice-president Renee Smith-Valade.

Smith-Valade downplayed troubles with the Olympic bus network. Media, spectators and athletes have reported a variety of problems, mainly with 300 public transit buses imported from California by subcontractor Edison Transportation. Buses have broken down or gotten lost because of drivers unfamiliar with the region. She said another 100 buses are being added to the fleet of 1,100 vehicles.

“We’ve spent years planning the transportation system and the geographic nature of our Games region presents some unique challenges with all of the transportation up to the mountain venues being by bus,” Smith-Valade said.

“Mechanical failures happen and sometimes it’s human failure, you can have people that don’t show up for a shift -- and that happens in any organization -- bus drivers who get sick and the odd bus driver who gets lost.”

Four Host First Nations members missed the start of the Friday opening ceremony, but Smith-Valade said they were in vehicles rerouted because of an anti-Olympic protest.

VANOC budgeted $52.3 million for bus systems in its May 2007 operations budget and hired Orlando, Fla.-based Gameday Management Group, which was involved in the much-criticized 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The Vancouver 2010 transportation plan was originally supposed to be completed by the end of 2007.

“There’s thousands of buses, there are hundreds of drivers, there are nine transportation hubs, so it’s a big beast to manage,” Smith-Valade said. “We want to get it right, we’re having some teething issues, no question.”

Flashback: Feb. 13, 2010

Olympic city streets strangled by protests
Bob Mackin, QMI Agency

VANCOUVER: Rain postponed downhill skiing on Saturday, but not freestyle protesting.

A march on the eve of Valentine’s Day dubbed 2010 Heart Attack drew 200 people who, according to a poster, wanted to “block the arteries of capitalism.” Windows were broken at the Bay store which is the site of the Olympic Superstore and Canada Olympic House. More skirmishes happened a block away from the heavily secured Westin Bayshore where International Olympic Committee members are staying.

Traffic, including public transit buses and VANOC vehicles, was blocked and then rerouted. Protesters splintered into smaller groups. More than 50 people chanting “no Olympics on stolen native land” were surrounded by an estimated 100
Vancouver Police officers in riot gear on Robson Street near hotels hosting the Slovakian and Japanese Olympic committees. Local cops were joined by at least 80 RCMP members. Together they prevented the throng from advancing eastward toward Thurlow where the infamous June 14, 1994 Stanley Cup riot started after the Vancouver Canucks lost to the New York Rangers.

Robson Street traffic returned to normal near noon. Vancouver Police later reported seven arrests.

“We are totally in support of people having peaceful demonstrations,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “Violence we will not accept."

Alissa Westergard-Thorpe of the Olympic Resistance Network claimed police agitated protesters and didn’t pay attention to the vandalism.

“The people that were arrested weren’t involved in the minor amounts of property damage,” Westergard-Thorpe said. “It serves their interest to imply that they’re powerless and to allow people to commit property damage.”

Among the protesters were Thomas Malenfant and David Cunningham of the radical Anti-Poverty Committee. Cunningham was arrested for jumping onstage at the unveiling of the Olympic countdown clock at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Feb. 12, 2007.

The protest came the morning after 2,000 people marched through downtown Vancouver and blocked a street outside the opening ceremony at B.C. Place Stadium. Two Vancouver Police officers were injured by flying objects. One man was arrested for assault.

Civil libertarian and University of B.C. Prof. Michael Byers said Vancouver Police “exercised commendable restraint” on Friday. “It was a good day for democracy,” he said.

A coalition of citizens’ groups opposes the Games because they say it has caused homelessness, poverty, environmental degradation and public debt. The annual march in memory of murdered and missing women is scheduled for Sunday afternoon in the Downtown Eastside.

VANOC exec to post-G20 Toronto

Slowly but surely, Vancouver 2010 alumni are finding new gigs.

Dan Doyle, the VANOC construction executive vice-president, became the BC Hydro chairman last year. Deputy CEO Dave Cobb followed in May and became the provincial power utility's CEO.

On June 29, vice-president of workforce operations and integration Allen Vansen was named senior-vice president of operations for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games organizing committee.

Vansen was among five senior executives introduced at BMO Field by CEO Ian Troop.

Vansen was not available for a phone interview, but I’m betting the Newfoundlander’s red hair will turn grey rather quickly over the next five years. His responsibilities include security, transportation and the athletes’ village.

After the G20 summit mayhem, anybody planning anything in Toronto with security or transportation implications will naturally have a bigger challenge and more headaches than ever before. Troop is putting the best face on what lies ahead.

“We don’t have any political meaning,” he said. “We’re a great athletic event that we’ll make into a great community event.”

VANOC CEO John Furlong wished that was true. From Feb. 12, 2007 onward, VANOC looked over its shoulder as it was constantly dogged by protests. Some opponents had a direct beef with the Games, how much they were costing and how they were impacting the city and environment. Others hoped to use the Games to lever their political cause (or increase donations to their charity). It meant VANOC held few public events until the torch relay.

Furlong admitted in May that transportation was the biggest IOC worry from the bid days to the day after the Olympic flame was was extinguished.

The Olympic village in Vancouver’s Southeast False Creek became a casualty of the Great Recession. Vancouver city hall became the lender and battled to get it back on schedule.

Vancouver had effective watchdogs, like No Games 2010's Chris Shaw, Impact on Community Coalition's Am Johal and B.C. Civil Liberties Association's David Eby. They continuously reminded VANOC, governments and security authorities to be responsible and avoid a repeat of the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Their wasn't an organized opposition to G20 in Toronto, because it was organized so quickly by politicians and bureaucrats who maybe never heard of APEC.

That’s just a long way of saying that Troop (centre) and Vansen (second from left) are in for some long days and long nights to organize what will be the biggest summer sports event in Canadian history.

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Who else is on the Toronto 2015 executive team?

Chief financial officer Barbara Anderson has a bachelor of science degree from the University of B.C. and is the former CFO of MaRS Discovery District and MaRS Innovation.

Senior vice-president of marketing and revenue Kathy Henderson is a former Whirlpool Corporation and Colgate-Palmolive Canada marketing executive. Senior vice-president of human resources Elaine Roper is formerly of Think Company, Promis Systems Corporation and Royal Trust Corp.

Senior vice-president of infrastructure Bill Senn helped build Air Canada Centre in Toronto and American Airlines Arena in Miami and was senior vice-president of design and construction for the New York Jets, who are moving into the New Meadowlands Stadium.