VANCOUVER – Stephen Colbert, who has been critical of Canada and the access U.S. athletes are being given to the Olympic speedskating oval, is coming to the Vancouver Winter Games.
Colbert is coming to the Vancouver Winter Games and has accepted the City of Richmond’s offer to be the Olympic Oval Ombudsman. He made the announcement on his satirical comedy show The Colbert Report Thursday night.
He said he has no idea what it means to “ombud,” but “as long as it requires no effort from me, I proudly accept.”
What the comedian didn’t do, however, was don the ombudsman’s official uniform – the baby-pink toque that Richmond had sent to him.
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It will change the landscape of 16 municipalities from Niagara Falls to Minden to Oshawa. The Games will have a cultural as much as a sporting impact and it’s an economic booster shot.
A population ravaged by unemployment will see more than 14,000 construction jobs at almost 50 venues. The Games mean that Toronto will finally get its rail link to the airport and the West Don Lands will be transformed from wasteland to an athletes’ village and eventually into a mix of market value and low-income housing that has been so dear to the heart of Toronto Mayor David Miller.
“It’s terrific. A whole community will be built there. That’s good news for families who are hard-working and need a reasonably-priced place to live,” Miller said after Toronto beat rival bidders Bogota and Lima here Friday.
“Toronto is an incredible city but to be able to host an event like this puts our name into the world in a way that would be impossible otherwise.”
This was one of those rare moments that showed what politicians can accomplish when they put partisanship aside as Conservative Minister of State for Sport Gary Lunn, Liberal Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Mayor Miller from the far left stood on a victory stage in Mexico, joined hands and together raised their arms and the dreams of a generation.
“We have not seen in this country a project of this sort with this kind of support across the board. It’s a good thing. With any luck this could be a mood changer around Toronto with people saying, ‘look, we’ve got something. Now, we can turn this into something really big,’ ” David Peterson, chairman of the bid committee said of the Games, the second-largest international multi-sport event next to the Olympics.
“This is only worth what you do with it. If you think big, this can be a mood changer for Hamilton, it can be a mood changer for Toronto, it can be a mood changer for Ontario.”
It was a victory that ended decades of disappointment in a province that hasn’t had a multi-sport international Games in more than 80 years. The Games could finally help Toronto — which had failed in three previous attempts to win international events — to shed its loser mentality, although some critics look at the current recession and question the wisdom of governments investing $1.4 billion in bringing together 42 countries and 7,000 athletes for two weeks.
“It’s never the wrong time to give ourselves a boost psychologically,” McGuinty. said. “Also, we’re talking about Games that will be held six years from now. I don’t believe the after-effects of this recession will linger that far out.
“What it does do is give us an end point to get that darn train built between the airport and downtown. It gives us a deadline to get some of that sport infrastructure — the pools, the tracks — built.”
Toronto will get a new aquatics centre with two 50-metre pools and a separate diving tank, plus the long-discussed and longer-delayed high-performance sports training facility at the U of T’s Scarborough campus. It matches one built in Calgary for the Olympics and will allow more elite amateur athletes to remain in Ontario.
When people look at the cost of the Games, they should also look at what they bring in, Lunn says.
“I look at this as an investment opportunity. Literally, we’re going to welcome people from across the Americas.
“Look at the Vancouver Olympics … an independent report last week said it had already brought $1 billion into Canada’s GDP (gross domestic profit). These are good investments. It’s money well spent.”
IVOR WYNNE
Hamilton will get a new stadium to replace the aged Ivor Wynne. Everything from equestrian facilities to mountain bike trails in Caledon and soccer fields in Burlington will be upgraded.
“This is going to have a great impact on generations in our province,” said former Olympian Charmaine Crooks and a long-time worker with the Canadian Olympic Committee. There’ll be a ripple effect throughout so many different communities … really we’re helping to build a great sports culture for all Canadian kids.”
Ontario, instead of being a wasteland, will become a magnet for amateur sport.
“This is bigger,” Lunn said, “than just the city of Toronto. Right now, Canada is shining.”
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While Beyonce is leading the pack, a number of Canadians are up for Grammys this year — with big names like Neil Young and Michael Buble in the mix.
Young is nominated in two categories: best solo rock vocal performance for the title track from Fork in the Road, and best boxed or special limited edition package for The Neil Young Archives. He will also receive the MusiCares Person of the Year honour at a gala dinner.
Michael Buble garnered a nod in the traditional pop vocal album category for Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden, and Nickelback will compete for the best hard rock performance hardware for Burn It To The Ground.
Canadian rapper Drake is up for both best rap song and best rap solo performance for his hit track Best I Ever Had, while Edmonton-born actor Michael J. Fox was nominated for his spoken word album Always Looking Up.
The Grammy nominations were announced Wednesday night in L.A. and Beyonce is leading the race. The pop star is up for 10 awards including Song of the Year (Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)), Album of the Year (I Am . . . Sasha Fierce) and Record of the Year (Halo).
Among the other mega-nominees, country princess Taylor Swift is up against Beyonce in the Big 3 categories, and has bagged eight total nominations. The Black Eyed Peas — who’ve been popping up everywhere from the Victoria Secret Fashion Show to the AMAs lately — follow with six nods. Kanye West and R&B star Maxwell also racked up six nominations apiece. Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and David Guetta garnered five nods.
The nominations for the 52nd Grammy Awards were announced during a CBS special Wednesday night. The awards themselves will be doled out Jan. 31.
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The Canadian Security Intelligence Service will “augment” its B.C. resources substantially during the 2010 Olympics, B.C. office operations manager Alan Budde said this week.
CSIS employs about 2,600 people across Canada and in foreign offices and, while Budde wouldn’t say how many of those employees would have a presence in Vancouver or Whistler during the Olympics, he said the Winter Games are one of six CSIS priorities as determined by the federal cabinet.
Speaking at a session of the Emergency Preparedness Conference in Vancouver, Budde said the domestic intelligence agency gathers information with six major priorities in mind: terrorism and extremism; the Afghan mission; foreign espionage interference; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; international security and prosperity of Canada; and the Vancouver 2010 Games.
Budde said CSIS does not have a mandate to gather evidence for criminal convictions and noted disclosure of the information it does gather has been ongoing.
“If there are ever instances where public safety is an issue, that information does get through to the necessary recipients,” he said.”We also deal with a number of corporate entities.
“So if RBC, a corporate sponsor of the Olympic Games, was to be a target of attack, we would ensure the information not only went to the responsible law-enforcement agency, but that it got through to their corporate security officers as well.”
The intelligence agency’s basic Olympic duties will include processing accreditations, producing threat assessments and giving advice to the federal government.
But Budde said ordinary Canadians need to do their part, too, and be vigilant about reporting suspicious behaviour.
“There’s often a reluctance in Canada to (report when) you see a neighbour doing something suspicious. … In the U.S., because of the nature of some of the incidents that have affected them, they are much more prone to volunteer that information without being prompted.”
Budde assured the audience CSIS cannot investigate lawful protest or dissent, unless those activities are carried out with specific threats to national security.”So if you don’t want the Olympics to be here and you intend to carry a placard, we won’t be bothering you.”
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